breaking the ice

Worte über Mama

2009-11-07T09:45:00.000+01:00

Stärke wächst nicht aus körperlicher oder finanzieller Kraft – sondern vielmehr aus unbeugsamen Willen und Liebe.

Unsere Mama hat uns vieles mit auf den Weg gegeben.

Unsere Mama hat es geschafft den schmalen Mittelweg zu finden zwischen uns Freiheit geben und uns Beschützen. Sie hat uns die Freiheit gegeben viele Erfahrungen zu sammeln, Entscheidungen zu treffen und Dinge auszuprobieren. Dabei hat sie uns immer Sicherheit und Halt gegeben, uns unterstützt und gefördert. Diese Freiheit hat unsere Selbständigkeit ermöglicht. Halt bei ihr zu finden hat uns Stark gemacht für die Welt. Durch die Freiheiten die sie uns gab war eine unglaublich liebevolle Nähe möglich. Durch die Freiheiten war sie nicht nur unsere Mutter, sondern eine Freundin. Als allein erziehende Mutter hatte sie es vor 30 Jahren nicht einfach, aber wie eine Löwin war sie immer bereit alles für ihre Kinder zu tun. Sie wäre eine großartige Oma geworden. Ihr Lebenswille, ihr Glaube an uns, ihre Zukunftshoffnungen und ihre Liebe haben uns inspiriert, haben uns Halt gegeben. Sie hat es verstanden uns zu beschützen und uns wachsen zu lassen.

Unsere Mama war immer sozial. Das hat bedeutet, dass sie immer redselig war, Lust hatte an Gesprächen und Austausch. Ganz egal ob mit Kunden und Kundinnen, ob mit Nachbarn und Nachbarinnen, mit ihren zahlreichen Freunden und Freundinnen oder mit der Familie. Zuletzt, als ihre Mobilität immer weniger wurde, hat sie viel Telefoniert mit vielen Menschen noch ausführliche Gespräche geführt. Sie hat Michi und mir ihre soziale Ader mitgegeben und uns spüren lassen wie wichtig es ist als Familie zusammen zu halten.

Natürlich war auch unsere Mama nicht immer gut gelaunt und auch mal grantig und stur, aber ihre Türen standen immer für uns offen, sie hat geholfen wo sie konnte, nicht nur ihren Kindern. Sie hatte ein offenes Ohr für die Mattseer und Mattseerinnen, in ihrer Zeit als Gemeindevertreterin, auch wenn ihre Position nicht immer Mehrheitsfähig war. Sie hatte Zeit für ihre Kuden und Kundinnen auch an betriebsamen Tagen. Als Betriebrätin hat sie sich immer um die Belegschaft gekümmert und ist hartnäckig geblieben. Unsere Mama hat uns gelernt eine Meinung zu haben und dafür Einzustehen. Niemals aufgeben, Menschen mit Achtung und Respekt begegnen und Versprechen halten, das hat sie uns vorgelebt. Sie war immer, egal ob in der Familie, im Beruf oder in politischer Funktion um Gerechtigkeit bemüht.

Wir haben bei ihr gesehen, dass die größte Freude oft in den kleinen Dingen steckt. Sie hat sich ungemein gefreut, als sie trotz Chemotherapie wieder Haare in der Nase bekam. Sie hat ihre Tomaten und Paprika am Balkon gehegt und gepflegt und sich über jedes Blatt und jede Frucht gefreut und bereits Samen für den nächsten Frühling vorbereitet. Ein einziges Sms konnte ihr den ganzen Tag versüßen.

Unsere Mama hat uns gezeigt wie viel Kraft in Ruhe und Humor steckt. Ihre Ruhe und Besonnenheit war es, die uns die letzten zweieinhalb Jahre überstehen hat lassen. Ihr Humor hat uns allen geholfen das Schicksal leichter zu ertragen. Selbst als sie schon sehr krank war, keine Haare mehr hatte und Gelbsucht bekam konnte sie über den Vorschlag lachen, sich doch als Homers Cousine bei den Simpsons zu bewerben. Die Schwestern und Pfleger in der Onkologie Ambulanz haben sich schon immer gefreut, wenn sie wieder kam. Sie waren gespannt welche Blödeleien und Späßchen sie wieder auf Lager haben wird. Und in der Radiologie als die Bestrahlungsstellen auf ihrem Bauch angezeichnet wurden, hat sie sich nach und nach eine ganze Landschaft dazu zeichnen lassen, mit Blumen und Sonne. Sie war für uns und viele andere Aufheiterung und Sonnenschein.

Wir hatten noch so viele gemeinsame Pläne. Zur ihrem 50. Geburtstag wollten wir erstmals zu Dritt auf Urlaub fahren. Mama, Michi und ich. Mit unserem ersten gemeinsamen Urlaub haben wir zu lange gewartet.

Sie war auf ihren Tod vorbereitet und hat in den letzten Monaten noch alles geregelt, ausgemistet und geordnet, sodass wir keine Schwierigkeiten wegen ihr haben.

Wir sind erleichtert, dass wir ihr, Dank Karl, ihren letzen Wunsch erfüllen konnten. Nach Hause kommen. Sie hatte nahezu unbeugsamen Lebenswillen und sich geplagt und gekämpft bis zum Schluss.

Wir wissen unsere Mama war stolz auf uns, und wir sind stolz auf sie.
Möge uns die Erinnerung an sie begleiten wie ein wärmender Sonnenstrahl. Danke Mama, wir werden dich immer lieben.

„Ins Wasser fällt ein Stein und ganz heimlich still und leise.
Und ist er noch so klein, er zieht doch weite Kreise.“

In den letzten zweieinhalb Jahren haben wir uns oft hilflos und klein gefühlt. Der Krebs kam und wir konnten nichts tun. Diese Hilflosigkeit ist zermürbend. Wir hätten darüber verzweifeln können. Aber in all der Zeit hat unsere Mama und haben wir viele kleine Gesten, Gespräche und Begegnungen erlebt, die uns Trost und Hilfe waren.
Manchmal waren es Besuche oder Erledigungen, die uns geholfen haben. Oft waren es Anrufe, Mails oder SMS die uns zeigten, dass wir nicht alleine sind.
Immer gab es Familie, Freunde, Nachbarn an die wir uns wenden konnten.
Ohne die fürsorgliche Betreuung, weit über die Dienstpflicht hinaus in der Onkologie Ambulanz wäre unserer Mama vermutlich schon früher die Kraft ausgegangen.
Ohne ihre FreundInnen wäre sie verzweifelt gewesen, ohne unsere Freunde hätten wir verzagt.
Ohne ihre Familie wäre sie oft gelangweit gewesen.

Unser aufrichtiger Dank gilt allen die sie und uns unterstützt haben. Besonders erwähnt sei auch die rasche und unkomplizierte Hilfe die wir in den letzten Tagen erfahren haben.

Danke für eure Begleitung bis zuletzt.

Danke Lieblingsmama, wir vermissen dich.

leaving the forum

2008-11-17T17:57:00.001+01:00

My biography never suggested me to be here today. I don’t think it would be an understatement to say that it’s been the most challenging four years of my life. A pretty indescribable experience, that’s helped me grow up and deal with situations that most of the general population wouldn’t ever have to deal with. You’ve got to be pretty thick-skinned to be in this business and being in the leadership, I can’t really put being YFJ leadership into words and whilst I don’t think anything I’ll say will truly reflect my feelings at any point, I want to give you a little insight into my motivation and what kept me going over the years....
if you want to receive my whole leaving speech, let me know...
but no worries, i will still be around till the end of the year till i really get to sleep!

mental health

2008-07-14T19:45:00.000+02:00

Knowing I would be the fourth speaker I tried to come up with a joke on mental health, but I could not think of any non-offensive one. This says a lot about stereotypes and stigma on mental health.

Anxiety and phobia, post traumatic stress, bipolar disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, Schizophrenia, learning disorders, Suicide, depression, attention deficit disorder, eating disorders, addictions – all on the rise and shocking high figures for youth in Europe.

The European Youth forum is an umbrella organisation of almost 100 National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations. Together with our members we are trying to be advocates for the well being of young people.

People with mental disorders are or can be particularly vulnerable to abuse and violations of their rights. Legislation should protect vulnerable citizens and should reflect that society cares for its people. Ironically in some countries, especially those where legislation has not been updated for many years, mental health legislation has resulted in violations rather then in promotion of human rights. They are often directed to protect members of the public from dangerous patients and causing more isolation and stigmatisation. Youth participation is vital for inclusion of youth and for integration into society.

Mental health problems can often arise in response to stress. Several elements of a young persons life - such as living away from home for the first time, exams, assessments, and financial worries - can cause high levels of stress, which can trigger mental health problems. With the debt burden set to rocket as a result of student loans, internships and precarious work contracts, this issue will become an increasingly important one for young people. Policy makers must make sure that the national implementation of Flexicurity does not lead to more stress factors for workers.

Additionally unfair denial of employment opportunities, discrimination in access to services, health insurance and housing policies, early school leaving or under achieving are both risk factors for and consequences of mental health problems.

Patient’s rights must include also for minors equality and non-discrimination, the right to privacy and individual autonomy, freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, the principle of the least restrictive environment, the right to information and participation. Discrimination is often also linked to excluding persons with mental disorders from many aspects of citizenship such as voting, driving, owning and using property, having rights to sexual reproduction and marriage, gaining access to the courts. Such restrictions must carefully be assessed as often they are based on improper or unnecessary barriers or burdens. Youth organisations working with young people, involving them and letting them gain competences and confidence are key actors for boosting active citizenship.

There is also a significant amount of indirect discrimination or lack of protection, let me give you an example: a countries labour laws may protect a person against indiscriminate dismissal, but there is no compulsion to temporarily move a person to a less stressful position, should they require some respite to recover from a relapse of their mental condition. The result may be that the person makes mistakes or fails to complete the work and is therefore dismissed on the basis of incompetence an inability to carry out allocated functions. This can happen even easier to young people who are more likely to work under precarious work conditions anyways.

A good and sustainable health and care system must understand people needs. This is paramount for young people – as wrong or bad treatment will cause vicious circles making an autonomous life impossible. The young person might not be able to finish school, get a job, and get his or her independent living. The European Unions education and training strategy is talking about key competences such as learning to learn – such key competences can only be achieved for all Europeans if there is enough support also to civic initiatives and youth organisations. Organisations that are based on peer learning and that focus on the learner.

Mental health disorders interfere with the way they think, feel, and act. Mental health influences the ways individuals look at themselves, their lives, and others in their lives. Therefore support to the whole family is integral. Systems of care must be developed on the premise that the mental health needs of children, adolescents, and their families can be met within their home, school, and community environments.

People who are discriminated against are more prone to substance abuse, eating disorders, homelessness, depression and suicide. Members of minorities groups such as for example LGBT students are subject to chronic and acute stress such as bullying in school, related to their stigmatised social position. Isolation and invisibility of their obstacles can easily lead to depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts. All schools must have anti-bullying and harassment policies, with explicitly defined steps and measures to take in case of bullying, not only for LGBT students.

The family is the place where children should learn to be happy and healthy so it's scandalous that at the moment most systems are completely failing families where a parent has a serious mental illness. Traumatic hospital visits for children, lack of support schemes and stigmatisation cause also mental health problems also for children.

The right to mental health is something that we all have and something that should be looked after. People who have mental health issues should not feel that they are unable to disclose these facts about their life because of fear of being labelled. It must be about respect and dignity and about receiving the services we deserve, desire and choose

A role of civil society is to provide the necessary info, resources and skills to enable youth to reach out, to get help for themselves and to know how they can support and give help to their friends who may be struggling with stress, mental health issues, self-harming behaviours or suicidal thoughts. We must eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness by reframing perceptions, disregarding stereotypes and equipping youth with the knowledge and information they need to affect change. Youth will only be empowered and confident to challenge such preconceptions if they are taken serious.

Recommendations:

¸ Multi stakeholder approach for policy development, Multidisciplinary approach for the implementation
¸ Cross sector work to address different challenges in different policy fields
¸ Empowerment of young people though life long and life wide learning opportunities
¸ Raise the awareness that the EU can not reach its growth and jobs objectives without adequately addressing mental health
¸ The role of youth organisations: speak the same language, hang out at the same places and work with peer support schemes
¸ Actively encourage and resource peer support systems
¸ Increase public awareness about the importance of protecting and nurturing the mental health of young people
¸ Foster recognition that many children have mental health problems that are real, painful, and sometimes severe
¸ Encourage caregivers to seek early, appropriate treatment and services
Invest more in research on mental health of young people

how democratic are our democracies?

2008-07-10T16:12:00.001+02:00

Increasing participation through inclusiveness
Youth organisations play a key role in reducing the gap between where decisions about society are made and where they are implemented. We do this by being there both when decisions are made and when they are carried out. We are engaged in opening up political processes at all levels, and making them accessible to young people. Efforts to ensure equal participation are central to the work of many NGOs, who remain conscious of the internal atmosphere at meetings and in their structures, given that exclusion happens easily and is sometimes hard to notice unless specific attention is drawn to it.

This can, however, unfortunately not counter balance the inadequate representation of youth in parliaments or in governments. The marginalisation of many young people and the discrimination of many women, migrants, people with disabilities or those living in poverty, leads to exclusion. Racism, sexism, homophobia, islamophobia are still, like other forms of discrimination, not abstract but a sad and daily reality and hinder the full participation of many people living in Europe today.

Increasing the awareness of teachers, police officers, health and care workers, public administration, and Human Resource Units, to name but a few, is indispensable to increasing opportunities for all. Such action implies the genuine extension of opportunities to the most marginalised in society, to enable them to exercise the power that the rest of society takes for granted; for youth organisations and NGOs, this means reaching out to oppressed youth and making sure that they are provided the space to speak for themselves, are listened to, and are heard.

The struggle for proportional representation seems to be the same – from the bible to the present day. Matthew's Parable of the Talents starts with each servant receiving money according to his ability. Matthew 25:29 concludes "For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." The servant receiving the least money is in addition condemned for his lack of action.

Looking into participation projects, we can sometimes see the same effect, some projects often tend to give more opportunities to those who already have many opportunities, to those who are well integrated and articulate, especially when it comes to one-off events without prior support schemes. If we want to advocate towards a culture of participation – we must ensure disparities are counterbalanced – being proactive and 'hands-on' is not equally feasible for every citizen.

Increasing participation through law
In 1950, 40% of the EU25 population was under 25; that figure fell to 30% by 2000 and is expected to be less than a quarter by 2025, according to the Bureau of European Policy Advisers’ consultation paper on Europe’s social reality. The proportion of the EU25 population over 65 is forecast to rise from almost 16% in 2000 to 22% in 2025 and 30% in 2050, contrasting with 9% a century earlier in 1950. Due to this rapid demographic change, young people are facing growing challenges to finding their place in a society where older generations, who are traditionally more conservative and reluctant to change, become a majority. As young people are becoming a minority in Europe, the decisions taken by the majority are becoming less reflective of young people's views and expectations. The YFJ, therefore, brings to the European debate the lowering of the voting age to 16 across Europe.

The decisions taken by the majority are becoming less reflective of young people's views and expectations. Lowering the voting age to 16 could ensure a broader representation of young people in collective decisions affecting them. Whereas young people between 16 and 18 often have responsibilities as employees, taxpayers or parents, lowering the voting age to 16 would restore the balance between their rights and responsibilities. A minimum representation of young people in elected positions should also exist in order to lower this demographic gap. Any political strategy for youth cannot succeed without the engagement of young people themselves. An investment and empowerment strategy for young people is what we need to overcome all these current social challenges. After all, youth prosperity is everybody's responsibility.

Increasing participation through empowerment
EU communications commissioner Margot Wallström recently highlighted her dismay regarding the "reign of old men" in Brussels corridors: "An inner circle of male decision-makers agree behind closed doors on whom to nominate to EU top jobs," she told the Swedish daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet, in February 2008. Observations such as these indicate that the same old story is being repeated - those who are in power reproduce the power structures to preserve their own positions.

NGOs as well as public authorities must be conscious of the risk of reproducing structures of exclusion, and serving as the hothouse for elites. In seeking to demonstrate that we are responsible leaders, youth leaders must embody the diversity of our constituencies, recognising their heterogeneous needs, and duly articulating them. For youth organisations, reaching out goes beyond quota systems, political correctness, or ill-thought out idealism; reaching out means providing excluded youth with opportunities for participation, and access to those opportunities. This signifies a true acceptance of the agency of young people to make decisions and act on their own behalf no matter where they stand in life right now. We must also actively encourage young people to constantly voice their views, needs, and concerns - towards youth organisations and, through us, towards other stakeholders.

WASP is a term used in the United States - an acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, referring to a group that were ruling the country for centuries. In Europe WHAM (white heterosexual able-bodied man) is used to describe the leading elite. It is time for more diversity in Europe’s leadership, no matter if they be Majors in the military or business CEOs – decision-making must be more reflective of constituents in order to be sustainable.
Let's leave WHAM in the 80's.

Work and family life balance

2008-07-08T11:58:00.000+02:00

Today’s young people are the most educated generation ever. However, youth are not only finding it difficult to find jobs, but are finding it even harder to find decent jobs: young people in Europe are more likely to be working long hours, on short-term and informal contracts, with low pay, with little or no social protection, and with no voice in the workplace. In other words, we are amongst the most flexible with the least protection on the labour market. This is definitely not benefiting the reconciliation between private and professional life.

Young people are not afraid of work, we wish to contribute to the society and be part of development. We also strive to establish stable families in a safe environment. In these aspirations we are no different from other people, regardless of age. However, being at the beginning of our professional lives, young people face severe obstacles in entering the work sphere, facing difficulties in our transitions from education to employment; as they often struggle with precarious jobs where salaries are low and social protection conditions are scarce or inexistent.

Work life balance is therefore not really very balanced, and this mismatch needs to be altered.

The European Youth Forum, independently established by youth organisations and made up of 95 National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations - themselves, federations of youth organisations - brings together tens of millions of young people from all over Europe, organised in order to represent their common interests. Our working priorities are Education, Employment and Social Affairs, Human Rights, Youth Work Development, Youth Participation and Youth Mainstreaming.

I am not a scientist or a policy maker, as a youth work practitioner I can mainly point out problems and suggest approaches for solutions. One part of the solutions is definitely the involvement of youth organisations. Youth Organisations can breach the gap between the definition of policies and their implementation. Generally it is paramount to have a transversal and multi stakeholder approach to address complex challenges of private and professional life balance.

In order to achieve full work and life balance work I am looking at three levels, the legal, on the cultural and on the individual level. Let me explain what that would mean in practise.

1. We have to work on a legal level – guaranteeing rights, prohibiting and sanctioning discrimination and assuring access to, for example, infrastructure, goods and services.

Health and safety at work – occupations accidents happen much more often to young people and people new in a job;
Social protection – which would mean for young people that Flexicurity must boost our security
Social services such as health, childcare, long term care of other dependants
Ensuring decent and quality work conditions
Employment, Education, Goods and Service provisions must be free of discrimination when it comes to marital of family status

Let me share one example with yout – internships:
There is a rapid numerical increase of internships in Europe, this is linked to the need to combine education and work. The Youth Forum acknowledges that, especially when they are part of education curricula, internships are a positive tool to facilitate young people’s access to employment. But the learning dimension of internships has been reducing significantly with a majority of interns working on issues that will not allow them to progress in their professional development. Additionally, in the degraded economic context that Europe has experienced in the last decades, the reality has been that employers are more and more recruiting graduates as interns unfortunately without offering them any labour law protection and often without any or very limited financial compensation. Their motivation is in fact lacking any educational dimension and it is regrettably often limited to the willingness to reduce their staff costs. Thus we are welcoming commission initiative on a code of conduct for interns, which should be an enhancement of the lives of many young people in Europe. But it is also clear that internships are not really making a work and life balance possible, as this is giving insecurity.

The complexity and diversity of employment contracts offered in the European segmented labour markets call for the development of guidance and legal counselling systems, which are accessible for everyone. Young people and people with lower qualifications have otherwise no chance for enforcing their rights. This has to be combined with easily accessible, optimised and standardised contract forms with text modules to facilitate contractual work arrangements for the employer and employee.

Flexicurity – flexibility for the employee, right to part time work without infringements of social protection, contractual arrangement that allow better for life long learning and for example working and studying parallel. All of these issues would need to be addressed on a legal level.

2. We have to work on a cultural level – raising awareness of problems, changing attitudes and being agents of this change.

Rigid role models make the lives of many people who do not fulfil a given legal norm and make many lives miserable; a prototype of how a good mother has to be that only exists in fairy tale but is still all too present in peoples minds.

Working long hours is not a sign of ambition but is unhealthy and is not reflecting the different responsibilities the people have in life.

Many people depend financially on paid over time which is not allowing any balance between private and professional life.

This is clearly very complex, as attitudes change very slow. Unfortunately it is still women who do the main share of the unpaid work, which has effects on their pay check and on their careers in the paid world of work.

Life long learning is often more of a luxury then anything else, especially when having dependants to take care of. Not to talk about quality leisure time – art, culture and sports or civic engagement – which all has long term consequences for example on health.

3. We have to work on the level of individual support – enabling and empowering the marginalised and discriminated to make choice possible.

Some people face more struggles like others, they need specific and tailored support. It is unfortunately the case that many people seem to be stuck in a lifetime of disadvantage; the problems they face are multiple, entrenched and often passed down across generations. To break such enduring cycles of adversity, urgent action is needed, allowing every person to realise his or her aspirations and potential. Such action implies the genuine extension of opportunities to the most marginalised in society.
How could one be expected to get children in such a situation? Or to invest in a business start-up?

The importance of professional guidance and systematic advices in career planning becomes evident. Especially when thinking about multiple discrimination.

A work - life balance is relevant for everyone:
Not only a problem of women even though an urgent change of culture is needed here.
Not only a problem of parents and potential parents – childlessness must not be punished.
Quality of life in such a rich society must be there for everyone; is basis for healthy aging, it must be guaranteed for people with or without children, for people with other dependant people; issues such as long term care for people with disabilities or older people is integral to achieve this aim.

When the Green Paper “Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century” states that “the original purpose of labour law was to offset the inherent economic and social inequality within the employment relationship” it seems to suggest that this is not any longer a valid role for labour law. The European Youth Forum on the contrary believes that this still needs to be considered as an important role for labour law, which is especially relevant for young people and even more for the low skilled work force to guarantee a private and professional life balance.

Given the risk that young people get trapped in a succession of short-term, low quality jobs with inadequate social protection leaving them in a vulnerable position. There is indeed a very small number of people who do indeed benefit from the flexibility of a precarious work situation, but it is mainly the highly educated ones. The majority of young people entering the labour market on the margin just prolong their transition from childhood and dependence on the family to adulthood. This continuous lack of autonomy prevents us from making plans or investments in our own life such as family planning.

When my mum had me more then 25 years ago- the kindergarden was only opened from 8am -12 noon every day and was closed during over 12 weeks of school holidays during the year this has fortunately changed by now, but is still far from mirroring working hours; further progress is definitely needed.

Today we have all over Europe smaller families with nuclear family living, lower parental control, higher youth autonomy, more responsibilities, older age at marriage and childbearing, high levels of fertility control including childlessness, or higher women's status and independence.
At the same time we have less fixed contract jobs, increasing rent and property prices, little or no care facilities for smaller babies and not enough long term care support.

Autonomy signifies that young people have the necessary support, resources and opportunities to choose to live independently; enjoy the possibility of full social and political participation in all sectors of everyday life; and be able to take independent decisions. Employment and education are important prerequisites for young people in achieving autonomy. In addition, a wider range of services and policies need to considered in order to support the independence and well-being of young people that is needed in transition towards adulthood.

In order to be inclusive, fair and reliable, a European Social Model must encompass and ensure autonomy of young people through access to quality basic services (such as healthcare and transport), housing, social protection as well as safe and healthy living environment. In the challenging context of demographic change, migration and changes in economies, it must be ensured that these social systems that play key role in supporting young people’s autonomy are reformed and exist in favour of intergenerational solidarity.

If a good reconciliation between private and work life is not possible in one of the richest regions of the world, then we do some things wrong.

Refugee Rights

2008-07-07T10:48:00.001+02:00

A rights-based approach to migration is needed if full integration in society is to be achieved. While I appreciate the European Commission proposal that both refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection should be able to gain long-term residency status in the EU, I strongly regret the resistance by some EU countries, such as Spain, Italy, Austria or the Czech Republic, to this approach.

EU countries should not apply double standards to human rights; they should allow migrants to benefit from civil rights as close as possible to those enjoyed by their citizens. In other words, migration policy should focus on integration based on mutual respect rather than on control.

Refugees tend to represent a diminishing part of the migrants. However, wars and new threats, such as climate change, may increase the number of displaced people who wish to migrate to Europe. In the fight against irregular immigration, some European countries do not always respect their international commitments towards refugees.

Migrant children are entitled to have the same rights as their national or resident counterparts, so they should be treated as children first and foremost, regardless of their migrant status. Unacceptable to keep them in detention.

Furthermore, rights should be granted while migrants await a decision on their status; quicker decision-making mechanisms regarding asylum are needed.

Minors are among the world’s most vulnerable populations and are at particular risk of abuse when they are separated from their parents and other care-givers.
As for the provisional agreement in the European Parliament that member states should be allowed to keep immigrants in detention for up to 18 months if there is a delay obtaining the necessary documentation from third countries, it should be noted that a few thousand minors are detained every year in Europe due to their irregular migration status, even though UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child states that detention shall only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest period of time. European countries must ensure that the international and regional instruments protecting separated children and youth are fully implemented.

Migration in Europe affects a large number of aspects of the lives of young people, those who migrate and those who cohabitate with migrants.

Integration and participation of youth in local and regional life

2008-07-02T15:29:00.000+02:00

“Participation and active citizenship is about having the right, the means, the space, the opportunity and, where necessary, the support to participate in and influence decisions and engage in actions and activities so as to contribute to building a better society,” states the preamble to the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life; This Charter is for us, the European Youth Forum the most important and comprehensive document on youth participation. It is an honour for me to speak here today and share with you the Youth Forums ideas of participation.

The European Youth forum is an umbrella organisation of almost 100 National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations. Together with our members we are trying to be advocates for Human Rights and Participation in our daily work and this is why we see the work of the Congress in this field as so fundamental.

Democracy is, for us, much more than a specific institutional structure with decisions based on majority - democratisation is a process that empowers people and includes them in society. This being said, one cannot fail to recognise that much still remains to be done to truly realise these ambitions in the democracies we see in Europe may they be national, local or regional. Indeed, it is reassuring to see that the Committee chose to discuss this matter that is so often marginalised by being taken for granted whilst we should always strive to improve the quality and extent of the democratic structures. We surely welcome that you aim to challenge the view that public institutions are inaccessible. I am delighted that the explanatory memorandum refers to the importance of lowering the voting age – an important demand of the YFJ.

Public authorities must be conscious of the risk of producing structures of exclusion, and serving as the hothouse for elites only. For development and prosperity it is integral to embody the diversity of our constituencies, recognising their heterogeneous needs, and duly articulating them. This must go beyond quota systems, political correctness, or ill-thought out idealism; reaching out means providing excluded youth with opportunities for participation, and access to those opportunities. This signifies a true acceptance of the agency of young people to make decisions and act on their own behalf no matter where they stand in life right now. Therefore participation must be seen as a culture rather then a one off activity.

The Charter Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life is so important because local and regional structures are closest to young people and we are directly influenced and affected by any decision taken. It is an excellent tool to facilitate participation of young people as the revised charter embraces a whole range of policies that concern young people when calling for the meaningful involvement of young people in decisions and actions on issues such as employment, housing, education, transport, health, mobility, access to culture, environment, violence and anti-discrimination. The charter also refers to tools such as training, information, media, volunteering and the role of youth organisations. This charter must be brought to live and must be used in ever more cities, municipalities and regions. As the explanatory memorandum states – a mechanism to guide, observe, stimulate, promote, support and report on the implementation of the charter is needed. We fully agree that a continuous basis would certainly help in maximising the potential of such a crucial instrument.

Youth organisations play a key role in reducing the gap between where decisions about society are made and where they are implemented. We do this by being there both when decisions are made and when they are carried out. We are engaged in opening up political processes at all levels, and making them accessible to young people. Our wish and ability is to contribute with a spirit of enquiry, new thinking and competence.

It is unfortunately the case that many people seem to be stuck in a lifetime of disadvantage; the problems they face are multiple, entrenched and often passed down across generations. To break such enduring cycles of adversity, urgent action is needed, allowing every person to realise his or her aspirations and potential. Well thought-out participation structures can serve as stepping-stones out of this sets of bad experiences, they may be the first time that young people are taken serious and their ideas are heard. Such rewarding practice is good for the confidence and can open up entirely new perspectives for young people.

“You are turning into a penguin, stop it”
This is a quote from the “Hitchhikers guide to galaxy” where Arthur Dent says this to Ford. To understand the quote you need to know more about penguins.
Penguins like to stay in groups to remain warm and what they want most of all is FISH. Penguins are no daring animals and they do not feel the urge to explore.
But we want young people to dare and to explore, we want them to stick up their heads and be active citizens. And we need you to support this active engagement and provide the means and the spaces for it because we definitely want more then fish.

for diogo

2008-07-02T14:17:00.001+02:00

this one is for Diogo!

work makes work

2008-01-11T12:05:00.000+01:00

Work creates more work. I am convinced of it.
For the last 2 days I have been working 16 hours a day and now I have more things on my to do list then before. By opening all those evil mails and being reminded of all the things that should be done and realising all the deadlines…
I even tried to group my to do list and personal/private and in YFJ – but both groups grew; especially the high priority/urgent group did, which is the most dreadful.
But then again, I had a really wonderful seasonal break with lots of loved ones. So just the mere thought of all the joy and food makes me open my trouser button and smile!

its presents time

2007-12-20T15:45:00.000+01:00

Presents- a dear friend of mine said last Sunday, that she realises when she is in love with someone, how many presents she can think of for that person. I know the feeling very well – walking around and thinking: “my crush would loooove this”, “that is exactly what my flirt would laugh a lot about”, “oh, I must buy that for my dear!”, “yesterday we talked about it, I must download, print, order, make….”. And when things are settled I would have little presents and things to give all the time, when things are in a flirt stage, I already learned, that this is dangerous, as it scares people away.
But – there is a another category. There is no doubt that I love my family, though I have no clue what to give some of my dearest relatives as Christmas present. Lets take my Granny – I gave her candles, pictures of her loving granddaughter, decoration stuff, coffee-table books, fancy cooking equipment … but somehow … after table cloth and jewellery … she has everything she needs, she has no hobbies- no matter how much I love her, it is always difficult to get inspired on what to buy for her; and believe me, it is even more difficult with my Grandpa.
This year it is also very difficult with my mum. I spent more time with her this year then in the last decade, which means I had a lot of presents for her throughout the year; Audio books, fragrances, scarves, DVD’s, bath oils, travel guides, … so – after all these years of music, art supply, chinaware – I am totally uninspired this year.
Anyhow, the presents are assembled – now I just need to hope everyone likes them, despite a slight lack of muse.

nothing is certain

2007-12-19T13:15:00.001+01:00

“Tell me about snow”, Moomintroll said and seated himself in the Moominpappa’s sun-bleached garden chair. “I don’t understand it.” “I don’t either”, said Too-ticky. “You believe it’s cold, but if you build yourself a snow house it’s warm. You think it’s white, but at times it looks like pink and at other times it’s blue. It can be softer than anything and then again harder than stone. Nothing is certain.”

as time goes by

2007-12-19T00:16:00.000+01:00

I have spent the whole day in trying to muck out my room. Going through old pictures, postcards, souvenirs and maps from long passed travels, note books of meetings I attended in the last millennium, all these handwritten letters form people who had an enormous influence on who I am today. Old birthday wishes and presents, feedback letters from events and seminars. It made me think about time a lot.
Our life is like a symphony; every note just makes sense because of the note that was played before and the note that will be played after. I enjoyed a lot of wonderful melodies this afternoon. Reading those old letters, or even just looking at the addressor of the letters was enough to think of old stories, long gone laughter and tears, made me feels the heaviness of some moments and the lightness of others. Seeing which dreams I had when I moved to Vienna almost 10 years ago, seeing what concerns and worries my friends had then. It was like looking at places that I do not pay much attention to at the moment, and whilst doing so I was also taking time for myself, which got rather rare lately.
It made me want to meet people that I used to love, that I trusted, that formed my character. There were pictures that made me feel old and there were lines I read that made me feel immature, I remembered games that I used to play a lot with friends who I used to live with.
Some mail, that according to the postal stamp was sent seven year ago, seemed only two minutes away. I read poems that I wrote as a teenager and it was stunning how some of them made my intestines hurt and others made me giggle!

friends weekend

2007-12-17T14:50:00.000+01:00

The only things I did during this weekend were cooking, baking, eating, drinking, talking, talking, and talking (and actually also quit a bit of sleeping). I had the wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends, to invite them to my newly cleaned home, to be a good host. It was really refreshing, it was simply - splendid.

Friends increase the joy of life and even when I feel lonely a thought of them makes me feel safe. Friends are important to reduce my stress and therefore improve my health. When I am with good friends I feel good about myself, and I am glad to be with them, I watch myself and smile. Liking, trusting and respecting each other is mutual, even if we do not always understand each other, we always accept one another, be fond of one another, even as we all grow and change (well, no worries, we will always remain childish, we might not be as cool as we would like to see each other, but … well… who cares about coolness, and sure S., you are still by far the coolest, no doubt)

Friends give the space and support to change, grow, make decisions, and even make mistakes, friends listens to you and share with you, both the good times and the bad times, friends are not judgemental even if they like to tease (at this point it is important to note that I never ever stole any towels).

Friends have often helped me to go beyond me self-defined limitations and showed me the way to be and do more than I ever thought I could and they allowed me to do the same for them.

My End-of-the-year-melancholy is getting stronger and stronger but it makes me embrace and cherish all the exiting things I am allowed to go through, makes me feel how much love and care is around me and makes me look forward to spend more time with the people I love! Some of them are only now coming home from their work and education places abroad and I am all exited to see them soon again!

its a miracle...

2007-12-13T22:32:00.001+01:00

...the miracle of the flying pig
Everywhere I go – I see pigs with wings. On cards, in toy stores, at Christmas markets. Does anyone of you know a myth, fairytale, a legend, or a romance with a flying pig? I would be really interested to figure out why so many pigs have wings!

almost over now

2007-12-12T21:45:00.001+01:00

The year is almost over and I have seen the most amazing things, I have experienced the most rewarding moments, have had fun and laughter, I was afraid and scared, I felt so much love and often the pleasures of success. It was indeed a great year that made me see many people and places I have not seen before, I have the luck to go to Asia – both Korea and China, I was able to be the first time in my life in Macedonia, I took part in a conference in Sharm el sheikh and did some snorkelling, I have seen wonderful nostalgia in the Ukraine. I learned ever more who are my true friends, I found new friends. One full year as the president of the European Youth Forum, humble but proud. Now I am tired. I have to admit all I want at the moment is that the rain in Vienna stops, that it starts to snow and that my own personal Christmas peace is starting. Yes, see this as an outing, I am a declared Christmas fan. I love spending the time with my family, I love snow at the Austrian country side (it does not make much sense in Vienna though), I love finally spending some time with friends, cooking, baking, writing letters to loved ones, reading books, hearing the ever same Christmas songs (and indeed, last Christmas I got my heart broken, lets see if this year I will give it to someone special). One of my new years resolutions is already clear now, I will try to be much more frequent and up to date with the blog again! Thank you for the wonderful and intense year.

message to ther heads of states

2007-12-11T16:22:00.001+01:00

It is impossible to describe a process that lasted over a year and that was based on 5 regional consultations in Africa and Europe including the African Diaspora. Henceforth I will share the 3 key elements of our work that are the basis for all our recommendations, the 3 elements are:
What can we, as youth organisations offer?
What are the basic requirements we have?
What are we asking from you?

Youth organisations offer an outreach and multiplying effect and therefore play a key role in reducing the gap between where decisions are made and where they are implemented. We are engaged in opening up political processes at all levels, and making them accessible to young people. Our wish and ability is to contribute with a spirit of enquiry, new thinking and competence. While the list of problems that need to be tackled continues to grow, the willingness and enthusiasm of young people to contribute to the global partnership for development remains unbroken.

The basic requirement for this work is more support. True cooperation between African and European youth needs a reliable framework, needs programmes to support both – people to people exchange and political coordination. If we want to make sure the concerns and challenges of young people are addressed it needs to be possible that youth organisations can meet and work with each other. It is indispensable that young people are heard and listened to in policy development. Youth organisations need to be partners when policies are defined, implemented, monitored and evaluated.

Therefore it is essential that you life up to the targets you have already set for your countries. The slow and delayed progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals is, frankly speaking, a major disappointment for all, and particularly, for the youth of the world: this failure in acting to solve humanity’s most agonising problems is unsatisfactory and dangerous. In addition it is high time that the European Youth Pact is implemented at all levels and the African Youth Charter is ratified by ever more states. We hope the Africa – EU strategy will be a tool to support the attainment of existing commitments.

Dear Excellencies - let me conclude:
It is imperative to cooperate with youth organisations.
It is fundamental to have more and better youth exchanges.
It is indispensable that you fulfil your own promises.

Closing Africa-Europe Youth Summit

2007-12-11T16:21:00.000+01:00

I am not satisfied with the world as it is today. This is my main motivation for political activism and I am sure I share this with many of you. Wealth is distributed very unevenly; hunger, poverty, disease and conflict lay their shadow over many regions and millions of young people like you and me.

The problems faced by many countries are multiple, entrenched and passed down across decades and generations. To break such enduring cycles of adversity, urgent and long-term action is needed, allowing people and countries to realise their potential.

Many public authorities and institutions still fail to provide adequate answers to severe human rights violations and hardship. We believe that we must hold decision makers accountable for their actions and their lack of action.

Global problems must be solved by pooling sovereignty and setting up a framework of mutually accepted tools and programmes- I hope the Africa – EU strategy will serve as such a tool.

Respect for the rule of law, pluralist democracy, the protection of rights, fighting corruption and promoting good governance and equality – these are all essentials for sustainable development. Through the youth summit we have committed ourselves, to maintain transparent and accountable decision-making in our own organisations, to ensure our organisations act as true schools for democracy, and to guarantee our legitimacy to ask the same from governments.

The crackdown on immigrants is probably the most shameful of the European policies of recent years. It is illusionary to believe that the stream of immigrants trying to enter Europe can be halted by increasingly excessive regulations: Policies relying on violent deterrence will only raise the death toll, but won’t stop immigration.

The EU Common Agricultural Policy requires further reform - urgently. This is not only indispensable for larger investments in development cooperation, but it must also be the basis for just trade relations with Africa.

This 1st youth Summit was a good example of cooperation between Africa and Europe and it needs to continue. Let me thank and congratulate everyone who has contributed to its success (DG EAC, DG Sanco, North-South Centre of CoE, the Portuguese government and CNJ and especially all the volunteers who made our stay here so easy). Youth empowerment, exchange programmes, scholarships, job shadowing, volunteering, non formal and formal education are just some areas where Euro-African Youth cooperation needs to be strengthened. This deserves a strong Africa-Europe youth programme.

A participant said at the first day that declarations have never changed the world, but if we all work together on the basis of this declaration, then we actually can change the world. This meeting will indeed be a historic one, if our conclusions will actually be implemented, will become alive and relevant. It will not change anything if this exercise was only about nice phrases and lip service. The relevant question is - are we going to live up to what we discuss here? Will we advocate for its implementation?

Politicians are usually excellent in giving statements of intent, but often fail to deliver practical steps to achieve them. They have a bad habit of missing their own targets. This mismatch has to be altered.

Your multitude of experiences, realities and identities - African – Diaspora – European - has to be one of the main contributions to the follow up of the youth summit. But for this you have to take your experience and knowledge from here home with you and continue working – it is your responsibility to multiply the conclusions of this Summit and to operationalise them, to implement them. Otherwise this event will just remain one gathering amongst many.

We young people have to cling onto long held visions of Human Rights, Democracy, and Development. The political culture of mistrust and fear, and of protecting one’ own wealth rather then improving the collective well-being, must be overcome if we want to improve everyone’s Rights and Opportunities.

This is going to be a long way, but we will be on this way together.
So persistent – and let me quote Ghandi - be the change you want to see in the world.

Opening Africa-Europe Youth Summit

2007-12-11T16:20:00.000+01:00

Safaris, drowning migrants, starving children, or refugee camps – the images of Africa that feature in European media are not very diverse. The most common images are even hostile, violent, a little exotic and they often portray poverty. At the moment, many people are preparing for Christmas or Hanukah - it’s the season for giving, and sadly, lots of charities play on, and reinforce, such simplistic images to increase donations. So what is the difference between all the individual financial assistance that will be donated over the coming weeks and our event here?

We are here with the aim to change political structures; we are here to improve the situation not simply with a one-off act of charity but by committing to longer term cooperation, in a spirit of team work and mutual respect – and it is on these principles that the entire African-Europe Youth Summit process was founded.

We all know that things will not change if we are all just a little bit nicer to each other or like each other a little more – co-development means development as a process by which economic and societal problems are solved by implementing a systematic and well-defined change process; an approach to addressing issues and solving problems through programmes that are developed together, and not imposed on one another.

We are here as political actors with a mandate from our constituencies or our regional consultations, and we will have a say on sustainable progress. Young people had to wait for seven years for the long promised meeting between the Heads of State of the African Union and the European Union to take place and we certainly hope that these meetings will henceforth take place every third year, as promised in the Cairo Declaration.

The Council of Europe is the foremost guardian of Human Rights in Europe, and the European Union has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, remaining proud of its achievements as a project to bring peace to a troubled continent. We- the young people - are convinced that development needs peace. If the EU and the CoE are truly interested in promoting Africa’s development, European states must not profit from weapons trading and from unjust trade relations.

Many children learn that children need to ‘shut up and listen’ when adults talk; if they don't, they will be punished. Luckily, such ideas garner less and less support. Yet, when it comes to development cooperation, this approach can still sometimes be seen. When the industrialised and ‘grown-up’ nations talk, less developed countries have to listen; they then have to follow orders, and if not, they will be punished. We are convinced that co-development means that no one need be quiet, everyone needs to listen, and no one should be punished. Development will only be sustainable through cooperation, and this Summit is an important step in the right direction.

Most of us here were born in the 1970s and 1980s – so we did not experience the colonial ties of our countries, this should be a good starting point for a rebirth of a just cooperation between our continents. Africa is on the move and we must be agents of change.

While the list of problems that need to be tackled continues to grow, the willingness and enthusiasm of young people to contribute to the global partnership for development remains unbroken. Africans and Europeans must work together to find political solutions for mass migration, conflict, hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy, water shortages and environmental degradation, and as such, I wish us all a lot of success for this Summit and the plentiful action to follow.

the word of the day is

2007-10-24T13:15:00.001+02:00

defenestrate

Sisyphos work to be done...

2007-10-23T09:55:00.000+02:00

Sisyphos tells Aiginas father that he witnessed the abduction of his daughter by Zeus. This upsets Zeus and he sends Thanatos to collect Sisyphos – but Sisyphos captures Thanatos, after a while Ares frees him and Thanatos eventually gets Sisyphos. Then Merope skipped the proper funeral rites this lack of protocol offended Hades and he sends Sisyophos back to tell her off – so they lived happily ever after. Maybe he is even the father of Odysseus…
Only when he finally gets to the underworld he has to take care of the eternally rolling stone.
And still many people only recognise Sisyphos as the symbol of the man forever rolling a rock uphill, only to have it roll back down again. Sisyphos has become a symbol for futility. Despite all the tricks and smartness, despite pissing off the father of all gods, despite all the cleverness, despite outthinking the god of the underworld - all that remained about him in common knowledge is the eternally rolling stone. Obviously Sisyphos was not French – otherwise he would have invented the strike.

Київ

2007-10-18T18:18:00.001+02:00

I was in Kyiv last week. I have to admit I was surprised and did not expect such a beautiful city. It was an amazing mix between nostalgic Stalin Baroque and misty moods narrow cobblestone streets full with arts and craft – both, folkloristic and modern, of Russian and Ukraine orthodox churches and of global fast food chains. I have to admit orthodox churches fascinate me the most; they are so colourful, lots of towers with onion domes and spires. I had a lot of luck because of my good hosts and because of the melancholy of the autumn days in the wide alleys of the town. I will definitely go back there and see more of the country. I am very dedicated to see Lviv and Odessa very soon, and we all know, Odessa is just around the corner to Bucharest.

new words

2007-10-18T11:33:00.000+02:00

conflusions = confusing conclusions
fetter = restrain
alacrity = liveliness, eagerness
grapple = to grip or seize, as in a wrestling match, fighting

broken promises

2007-10-15T13:15:00.001+02:00

October 17 is the International Day to Overcome Poverty. Millions of people will stand up and demand that our Governments shall fulfill their promises and end poverty. We will not accept any more broken promises.
The European Youth Forum (YFJ) and our Member Organisations will keep monitoring what European Governments and institutions do and don’t do in the fight against poverty and hunger. That is our promise and our responsibility.
No time to wait
However – achieving the goals is not a Governmental responsibility only. The European Youth Forum is an umbrella for National Youth Councils and international Youth Organisations in Europe – and we know that we cannot sit down and wait for the Governments to take action.
Time-wise we are half-way in our fight to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. But in reality we are far from achieving the goals, and especially Africa is lacking behind. While the European Governments are not even able to fulfill their own goal of allocating 0,7% of their budget to official development assistance (ODA) we are today able and proud to support schools in Africa with school books, school meals and other tools to ensure that girls and boys can go to school, learn and feel safe.
1 % possible
Through our 1 % Solidarity Fund we will keep supporting Youth Organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin-America. This is our most important contribution to development cooperation. At the same time it demonstrates for our Governments that spending 1% of the total annual budget on development cooperation is in fact possible.
On October 17 we challenge European leaders to show their commitment and to up-scale ODA for the 2008 budgets. We will not take any more broken promises. We also encourage organizations, schools and companies in your country and all over Europe to actively engage in development cooperation and to allocate funding for concrete development projects.

long jouney

2007-10-09T11:55:00.001+02:00

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows when
But I'm strong
Strong enough to carry on

So on we go
welfare is of my concern
No burden is to bear
We'll get there
For I know

If I'm laden at all
I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another.

It's a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we're on the way to there
Why not share
And the load
Doesn't weigh me down at all

all different - all equal

2007-10-06T11:49:00.000+02:00

On Thursday 29 June 2006 at 12:30 I was standing in the Hemicycle, the room for the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe and we were opening the “all different- all equal” campaign – for diversity, human rights and participation. The room was almost empty. Today I am proud of the broad range of activities and projects that took place, and the full room of people; but I am also aware that we cannot fold our arms; we still have a lot to do.

It is widely common that politicians and media are often more concerned with demonising people that are different, whilst many decision makers are rather reflecting fears of citizens then offering solutions – it is us that have to cling on long held visions of Human Rights and Democracy. The political culture of mistrust and fears, protecting the own wealth rather then improving the collective well-being must be bypassed if we want to improve everyone’s Rights – not only legally but also culturally.

This will not be possible if we are all just a little bit nicer and if we just like each other a little bit more. Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Islamophobia are still like other form of discrimination not abstract but is a sad and daily reality. The police officer who waits a little longer before he interferes in racist bashing, the teacher who tolerates homophobic bullying, the mother that is not confident in her daughter reaching beyond the glass ceiling which stopped herself as well as the Muslima that prefers to cover herself as any other role models seem unrealistic to her.

Increasing awareness of teachers, police officers, health and care workers or public administration and youth workers to name but a few is indispensable to increasing opportunities for all. As well as we need to liaise with public bodies beyond youth such as justice and home affairs, employment, infrastructure and many more. We must address everyone living in a given Region, many governments only reach out to their own citizens which will be to the detriment of the society as a whole

It is unfortunately the case that many people seem to be stuck in a lifetime of disadvantage; the problems they face are multiple, entrenched and often passed down across generations. To break such enduring cycles of adversity, urgent action is continuously needed, allowing people to realise their aspirations and potential. Such action implies the genuine extension of opportunities to the most marginalised in society, to enable them to exercise the power that the rest of society takes for granted; for youth organisations, this means reaching out to oppressed youth and making sure they are provided the space to speak for themselves, are listened to, and are heard.

Youth organisations as well as public authorities must be conscious of the risk of reproducing structures of exclusion, and serving as the hothouse for elites. In seeking to demonstrate that we are the leaders of today, we must embody the diversity of our constituencies, recognising their heterogeneous needs, and duly articulating them. For youth organisations, reaching out goes beyond quota systems, political correctness, or ill-thought out idealism; reaching out means providing excluded youth with opportunities for participation, and access to those opportunities. This signifies a true acceptance of the agency of young people to make decisions and act on their own behalf no matter where they stand in life right now.

“Participation and active citizenship is about having the right, the means, the space, the opportunity and, where necessary, the support to participate in and influence decisions and engage in actions and activities so as to contribute to building a better society,” this is a quote of the preamble to the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life; and some simply need more support than others, as they have a different starting point for their participation in society.

Last week I was in Cyprus and a Greek Cypriot friend of mine said - “this is what is nice in politics – things are changing!” She did not say this because she is ignorant or naïve and would not recognise the current dead lock in the conflict in Cyprus, she said it because she is a smart advocate for a peaceful solution of the problem and she has seen slow but steady progress on a socio-cultural level and will continue to work for further progress – she is persistent.

The “all different – all equal” campaign is a good beginning for achieving a better Europe in a better world, but it is only the end of the beginning.
So I ask you:

Be persistent – be the change you want to see!

mollina

2007-10-04T07:15:00.001+02:00

I have just been at the opening of the University for Youth and Development in Mollina, Spain. The Youth forum is involved in 4 activities this year.The trainig track and the political track of the FEULAT, the global educationi seminar, the Pool of Trainers sub group meeting on global eduation as well as the MDG activity. In total there are 300 people from all over the world in Mollina.The Youth Forum sent 9 people there this year and 4 of our member organisations run there own activities there. I true place for exchange and intercultural learning.

limassol

2007-09-29T13:57:00.001+02:00

Currently I am at the joint commissions meeting in Limassol. It is one of the biggest youth forum meetings each year and it is really nice to be hosted by friends. Our member in Cyprus, the Cypriot youth council – do really everything to assure a pleasant stay, from choosing good facilities for the meeting, to introducing us to Cypriot culture with food, drinks and dances.
In addition it feels good to spend a weekend with so many Youth Forum activists, the laughing about Jaakkos imitation of British colonialists, AM trying to tell a story but MC never letting her finish, Sven making the best Jaakko parody I have ever seen, JB taking 33 hours of travel to get here. The best of all, is though, that all our discussions, our laughs and our plans for the future work are made under the Cypriot sun!

ode to brussels

2007-09-25T14:12:00.000+02:00

Most of the people feel pity for me when I have to go to Brussels, because everyone assumes that Brussels is not likable. I myself did not really like it for a long time. But by now Brussels is associated for me with friends and nice places and exiting work. When I am in Brussels I always have the feeling the day is much longer then else where, the amount of meetings a pack in a day, the amount of people that I meet in offices, in the streets or in Bars is huge and I never have enough time for my friends (general strand of my life, also in Austria).
And Brussels is young and has a young nightlife and is full of youth or young culture. I like the area around Place St. Géry and I like café Belga. And this weekend, Brussels was even sunny, and people living in Brussels are so grateful about the weather once it is sunny that they are all happy and nice, well, almost all – this definitely does not count for taxi drivers (but this is another story all together).

multiple discrimination

2007-09-24T18:43:00.001+02:00

I have spent the last 4 days in Brussels. Attending a series of meetings with MEPs, Institutions and Member organisation. Originally I went there though to attend the multiple discrimination seminar jointly organised by the Youth Forum alongside five other civil society platforms: the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA-Europe); the European Older Peoples’ Platform (AGE); the European Network Against Racism (ENAR); the European Disability Forum (EDF) and the European Women’s Lobby (EWL).

Around 50 participants will be attended this seminar aimed at raising awareness on multiple discrimination and addressing its main effects on youth. The event advocated for the development, at EU level, of a legal framework recognising the additional harm that multiple discrimination implies for victims. EU anti-discrimination law has evolved to include protection, in varying degrees and scope, for six grounds of discrimination (race, religion and belief, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age), but in a manner that addresses the grounds in isolation.

I enjoyed the seminar very much, not only because it was a high level and interesting debate, but also because I was attending it together with friends!

Sintra

2007-09-18T22:10:00.000+02:00

I am sure you are all familiar with Asterix and Obelix. And I would like to use those two well known characters to illustrate the importance of European Youth Policy.
They both live in a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their Druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. So there is Obelix - Obelix fell into a cauldron of magic potion as an infant, this gave him super-human strength for lifetime. He also has little interest in subjects of a formal education or intellectual pursuits, since sheer strength usually solves his problems.
Asterix on the other side is quite clever and smart, but he does not have super-human strength. Asterix would have been lost - if there was not the magic potion that he is provided with on a regular basis.
They both face many obstacles in life, mainly Romans and big stones – Menhirs, but the Magic Potion helps them to deal with those hurdles.
Youth Policy in Europe needs to assure that not only those who happen to fall into a cattle full of magic potion get opportunities, but also those who are not blessed with superhuman strength.

Many young people are trapped in cycles of marginalisation and exclusion.
To break such enduring cycles of adversity, urgent action is needed, allowing every person to realise his or her aspirations and potential and fulfil their life project. Such action implies the genuine extension of opportunities to the most marginalised in society, to enable them to exercise the power that the rest of society takes for granted – giving them access to the magic potion; for youth organisations, this means reaching out to oppressed youth and making sure they are provided the space to speak for themselves, are listened to, and are heard by decision makers. This means for policy makers - saying it in the words of the Romans - Qui habet aures audiendi audiat: He who has ears, let him understand how to listen.

The European Youth Forum believes in the right of everyone to participate in society as an active citizen and to have their Human Rights guaranteed, we must start with ourselves and continuously enhance the inclusiveness of youth organisations by involving, today, marginalised and disadvantaged young people. The commission communication “promoting young people’s full participation in education, employment and society” unfortunately fails to address the needs of rural youth and young LGBT people.

Providing opportunities, and providing access to opportunities is much more than charity and clearly also goes beyond magic potions – it implies structural support and a political process of becoming organised to work for collective interests and social change: the improvement and extension of civil rights didn’t happen by chance, but through continuous struggle.

The structured dialogue must be esemplastic and have the ability to mould diverse elements or concepts into a unified whole. The declaration, which is foreseen to be signed by the European Institutions and young people could be the first step to unify our efforts and mark the next step on our way to a genuine structured dialogue.

In this respect the Portuguese presidency youth event is a cornerstone – with a clearly defined profile of participants and a transparent selection mechanism, with a focused set of objectives and with clear roles of all partners involved. Which clearly also increases the responsibility of the youth organisations attending this event. All in all it is an awesome and kick-ass event.

A one-size-fits-all approach lets down the most vulnerable and hard to reach – therefore youth organisations have developed a variety of actions and measures to widen and deepen the participation of young people in democratic life, regardless of their socio-economic or cultural background. Young people in Europe have to be seen as equal citizens in society, promoted to not only participate, but to lead the way in issues affecting their lives and those they seek to represent. The lowering of the voting age is the foundation for improving Europe’s democracies.

1997 the European Employment strategy set the objective to make sure that every young person will get a job or further training within 6 month of seeking for a job. Today 10 years later we have 4.6 Millions of unemployed young people and the unemployment rate of young people is twice as high as the % of prime age adults. It is more then high time to change those figures. The Commission Communication is a first step to improve the situation by acknowledging the multifaceted problems concerning employment policy and by addressing it in a cross sector manner.

The numbers of early school leavers are still very high and leaving the formal education system without a degree increases the chances to live a whole life in precarious work conditions if having a job at all. Exactly because of this we need to ensure multiple entrances and re-entrance pathways for young people back to formal education that also recognise skills and competences gained in non-formal settings. It is irresponsible to fall short in supporting the most vulnerable when it comes to the acknowledgement of their learning achievements. It is sad to see that the Commission so far did not include our suggestions to guarantee that the overarching European Qualification Framework will also recognise non-formal education achievements– equally important the national Qualification Frameworks includes non-formal education achievements.

Volunteers gain many competences through their engagement in non-formal settings. This engagement should be facilitated and we need to make sure that no volunteer faces obstacles to his or her civic engagement. A charter for volunteers would be an essential sign to underline the value of the work of thousands of young European volunteers. Protecting our volunteers is an investment in community development. Volunteers must neither be a substitute for paid employment nor a synonym for alternative civic services replacing militia army.

Every volunteer must have the means to be in a safe environment and to be recognised and the European Union must lead the way to assure this in its member states. Volunteers are not paid, but that does not mean that they are worthless, they are priceless.

Volunteers often lack legal status, they are not students, they are not unemployed, they fall between the chairs and need a legal status that is supporting their work and protecting them. Investing in volunteers is a long-term investment in active citizenship and democracy, national strategies for volunteers need to make sure volunteers are recognised and legal as well as other obstacles will be removed.

We are very happy to see that the Communication encourages Member States to use national policies and EU funds, in particular the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the Rural Development Fund for supporting young people's transition from education to employment and reducing regional disparities in this respect.

A coherent approach for the implementation of the Youth Pact is only possible if the aims of the youth pact are also reflected in the revision of the Lisbon integrated Guidelines for growth and jobs and all community programmes should support its implementation.

It will be crucial to establish a High level group on youth employment as an advisory body to the commission similar to the high level group on the integration of ethnic minorities into the labour market – with experts from politics, academia and civil society.

Being called the generation internship it is indispensable for us to develop the European quality charter for internships. There is an unacceptable high number of Internships with no pay and hardly any educational value, such exploitations must be avoided and member states must ensure that internships are properly defined.

As the European youth forum we welcome the communication “promoting young people’s full participation in education, employment and society” from the European Commission. This communication is definitely a big step in the right direction to cross-sector youth policy and youth policy mainstreaming. Now we need the tools to coordinate such a strategy. The coordination of such a strategy should be at a central level of the European commission such as the Secretariat General, which is linked to the president of the commission. But evenly important is that the member states realise that sustainable changes can only be achieved if also the national youth policies are truly transversal and cross sectoral.

There are several issues that are of existential importance to young people but that are only superficially addressed in the communication such as sustainable development, global cooperation or environmental issues.

Similarly it is important to involve young people more in health policies – unfortunately not only Obelix has obesity problems. The social dimension of health must be more explicitly addressed and creating tailored actions to promote healthy lifestyles are integral. And in general the inclusion of young people in the upcoming development of the EU health strategy and in the EU mental health strategy is indispensable.

In conclusion it is needed to
-Establish an effective coordination mechanism within the European commission to mainstream young people’s needs into all relevant policy areas
-Address the situation of young people in the labour market through concrete and tangible initiatives
-Develop volunteering policy that meets the needs of civil society organisations, providing opportunities for young people to volunteer
-Foster youth participation especially in the fields of health, sustainable development and culture

Not all young people are kangaroos that can happily jump over all obstacles. There is a need to get some magic potion to get rid of all the Menhirs stones lying all around.

And to say it once more with the words of the Romans -Nunc est bibendum: Now it is time to drink – cheers.

muffin women

2007-09-18T19:44:00.000+02:00

Opening Lisbon EU-Presidency Youth Event

2007-09-16T13:57:00.000+02:00

One in six young EU Europeans still leaves school early and 4.6 million 15-24 year-olds are unemployed - twice the overall EU unemployment rate. Young people face more then ever complicated transitions from education to work, from childhood to adulthood. Through this youth event we as youth organisations will try to improve the situation for young people in Europe –through our own commitment and through recommendations to other policy makers.

We will have 6 workshops this week and one overall theme: volunteering
The Role of youth in the European construction - Very few political issues get much airtime in the lives of European teens and twentysomethings; in this first working group many issues that do appear on the radar of many teens and twentysomethings – mobility, global cooperation and intercultural learning.

Employment and Entrepreneurship – right now at the time of the revision of Lisbon employment guidelines, and when cross-sectoral approach to youth policy is taken serious thought the commission communication that will be presented to us tomorrow; this is a topic very high on the agenda.

Social inclusion and Equal Opportunities for all - It is unfortunately the case that many people seem to be stuck in a lifetime of disadvantage; the problems they face are multiple, entrenched and often passed down across generations. Urgent and multi layered action is needed to break this vicious circle.

Youth participation and structured Dialogue - Though it may seem subversive, the mobilisation of youth leading to widespread support for social change has been essential to politics. The European Youth Forum is convinced that youth organisations are key to the continuous democratisation of societies. Democracy is, for us, much more than a specific institutional structure with decisions based on majority - democratisation is a process that empowers people and includes them in society.

Non-formal education – learning is happening more and more outside of schools but so far our formal systems fail to recognise all the competences that people gain in non-formal settings this is short-sighted and harming the development opportunities of each and everyone of us and therefore of the society as a whole.

All of the mentioned working group themes have something in common - Volunteering- There are many reasons why people are volunteers; Altruism, Quality of life, giving back, sense of duty, Religious conviction or idealistic aims of social progress – but all of them are about compassion and an immediate contribution to justice. And yes, volunteers are not paid - not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless. Its volunteers who carry the “Idea Europe” – therefore a clear vision on how to genuinely promote youth volunteering is needed. For volunteering its true that one snowflake alone will melt very fast, but many together will stop the traffic. But maybe snowflakes are not something we should think of whilst being in Lisbon.

This youth event must be understood as a component of the general culture of youth participation, reflective of a system of good governance, and not, rather, as a one-off, symbolic action, it is an event embedded in the structural dialogue. But this also means that you are responsible to represent your organisation and follow up on the conclusions on this event, not only within your organisation but also by holding decision makers accountable to live up to their promises.
The themes of this Youth Event are evidently then, not simple ones; but by examining them, we hope to demonstrate a genuine belief that social exclusion is neither inevitable nor insurmountable, that together we can find political solutions for political problems - and that youth organisations play a vital role when doing so. As you will find, our common efforts to broaden opportunities, from the local level up to the international, imbue every single day of our youth event in Lisbon. Enjoy it to the fullest.

social pressure

2007-09-13T18:01:00.000+02:00

I have been in Coma-Ruga for the last couple of days. We had the annual YFJ Press and Communications officers meeting there. I missed the one and only ufficia stampa, but other then that it was a surprisingly good meeting and we all welcomed A. The downside is that we discussed mainly communication technologies and different tools like wiki, blog, pod cast- you name them – and how they can be used for youth organisations; so now I feel almost obliged to enter much more regularly updates on this blog. Lets see if the people will all actively contribute to our new Coma-Ruga facebook group and start blogging now. In my defence for the absence in the last month – I spent so much time on facebook (I hereby admit that it still is my favourite waist of time) – that I did not take the time for blogging. Today I am in Madrid and meeting friends for an evening – and that is good.

i never miss the mountains

2007-09-12T19:22:00.000+02:00

I have been on the train lately a lot: from Rome to Bressanone, from Bressanone via Innsbruck to Salzburg, from Salzburg to Ljubljana. So this is a lot of mountain for only a few days the Dolomites, Karawanken and other impressive parts of the Alps.
And last but not least Hohe Tauern National Park, covering an area of 1800 square km belongs to the most magnificent highland landscapes I have ever seen. On the 5th of September this year it was snowing down to 1000m in Austria. So when I passed the Brennero Pass by train that day it was actually snowing and I formed my first snowball. The day after, when I drove through the Tauern, I could see dark green alpine plateaus and just a few meters above the snowy rocks. It really made me appreciate the nature of the alps and put me in a quite romantic feeling. In addition the youth and social workers conference I attended in the north of Italy was quite inspiring, most people were not from youth NGOs but from other youth services or social services and it allowed an quite interesting exchange of views and experiences.

i see fish

2007-09-12T19:16:00.000+02:00

I always thought people who snorkel are a bit weird. I mean, what should be better with a tube and goggles? One would just look stupid. When I was in Sharm el Sheikh the first days of September I was persuaded to snorkel and it was mind blowing. I never thought that it would be so wonderful, cause – I have been to aquariums and I have seen colourful things before, what should be so amazing about it. But the colours, the peace, the amount of fish, the closeness, the size, and the sun that sends its rays. It was just amazingly beautiful and so surprisingly … well, simply mind blowing. So all I can say is, go and snorkel – if possible in the red sea! Ah and by the way, just for the record, I have been in Sharm for a conference of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement, I got up at 5:45 am in the morning to see the sunrise just passed 6am, I did snorkel till 8 to be able to watch the fish have breakfast and I was on time at 9 in the conference. And it was more then worth it. I am happy A. persuaded me to do it. Thanks.

summer update I

2007-09-12T14:57:00.000+02:00

We have been discussing about blogs a lot during the YFJ press and communications officers meeting. And I had to admit several times that I did not update my blog in the last month!!! This did not happen in the last 3 years. So – bea – this one ‘s for you!
I had a quite exiting summer. I have been to the General Assembly of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA). This general assembly was an assembly of superlatives. They had over 900 delegates and inhabited a whole campus in Canterbury in the lovely county Kent. I was well impressed by the amount of people, the meeting structure and the broad range of issue a Medical Students Association is covering - the topic of the meeting was access to essential medicines.
I have also been at the 100th anniversary of scouting at the Jamboree of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM). Also impressive and moving because more then 40 000 young people were at the event, despite the fact that the participation fee was not cheap all of them wanted to celebrate a centenary of scouting together. What impressed me as well was the logistics of such a huge event. May I add here – don’t mess with someone from Essex, Essex people rock.
I also participated at the 100 years anniversary celebrations of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). The celebrations were very different from the WOSM celebration, not only because of the different nature of the organisation but also because of the different age range present in Berlin. A lot of politicians who are IUSY veterans joined the meeting and it felt like a big class reunion.The topic of the meeting was peace and democracy.

International Youth Day

2007-08-12T09:24:00.000+02:00

The General Assembly on 17 December 1999 in its resolution 54/120, endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, 8-12 August 1998) that 12 August be declared International Youth Day.

The Assembly recommended that public information activities be organized to support the Day as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, adopted by the General Assembly in 1995 (resolution 50/81).

Thus, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Youth Day 2007 the European Youth Forum demands the UN and its member states to convene a 2nd World Youth Ministers Conference and a 5th World Youth Forum - the 4th World Youth Forum took place in Senegal 2001.

The theme of the International Youth Day this year “Be seen, be heard: Youth participation for development” touches the aims and the mission of the YFJ and its members organisations, in particular concerning the recognition of the role of Youth Organisations as spaces of participation and commitment to society change and development.

fairy tale hour

2007-08-02T20:38:00.000+02:00

Today was my granny’s birthday. She never wants anything, she claims to have everything. Well, she still got some nice things and was hopefully happy with them. Next challenge in almost 5 month – Christmas present.
Being with my granny the whole day, also involved being with my 3 little cousins (4, 5 and 9 years old). They were terribly bored so we made up a fairy tale quiz.
How many fairies were invited to the birth celebration of sleeping beauty?
What was Cinderella’s carriage made of?
What were the 3 methods that the queen/witch tried to kill snow-white with?
But we got stuck with some fairy tales – for example because the Gimm brothers version is different to the Disney version (which they were much more familiar with), or because we all could not remember how the story goes on (puss in boots, does anyone remember why the cat got boots? And were they seven league boots or normal boots? And what did poor Rapunzel do wrong to be locked up in that tower? And what happened to the goat at the end of The Wishing-Table, The Gold-Ass, and The Cudgel in the Sack?)
Well, I gave them homework to answer all those questions to me over the weekend, but to see if they come up with the Disney or with the Grimm version I have some reading to do. I am grateful for any useful information and clues to solve the problem!

PS: googeling for disney characters pictures i have to admit, that I am shocked, that Mulan and Pocahontas never get on the family pictures, they must have the wrong tan.

duties

2007-08-01T19:10:00.000+02:00

My aim for today was to work on my inbox and getting down from 185 unanswered e-mails to 40. I missed my aim. I did all I could; I really remained focused, i drank a litre of coffee but only made it down to 48. I could cheat and create some extra folders, but this seems ridiculous, as it does not solve the problem.
Anyhow, much more important is that I get used to forcing myself to drive the car at least once a day – just to get used to it and keep on practising, but it still feels really wrong to sit behind the steering wheel.
But as Sir Robert Baden-Powell said: “We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.”
100 years of scouting today, one world – one promise, congratulations.

feeling familiar

2007-07-30T10:30:00.001+02:00

Being at familiar places can trigger many feelings. It can make me feel at home and save, this is the best option, but during the weekend – coming to Mattsee for an entire month, I experienced many faces of familiar.
Going to the local open-air bath is familiar and I felt old and tall. Last Millennium, when I used to go there more regularly, it seemed all so huge. When I went from one side to the other with my friends it needed a deliberate decision and felt like a hike, and now, it is just so tiny.
Going to a local restaurant is familiar and I felt paranoid. I had the feeling I know every single person in the restaurant. Not only that, I also was shocked by how old the babies I used to know are. There was this baby girl that attended kindergarten with my brother and she was serving us now, but in my memory she is supposed to go to primary school now. I could have calculated better, I admit, and knowing that my brother is 19, it was kind of logic that she is older then 15 as well.
Going around the usual Sunday walkways made me feel huge, I all to well remember the torturous and tremendous long Sunday afternoon walks with my family. They used to last for hours. But now I can do it in 20 min, really amazing how the mountains did shrink.
Everything did shrink, also the ice-cream cone sizes in my favourite ice shop are now ridiculously small and if I calculate it back to Schilling, I anyway have to start crying.

2007-07-27T12:49:00.001+02:00

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls 'butterfly'
Lao-Tse

European Consultation and Consultation with the African Youth Diaspora living in Europe

2007-07-26T18:27:00.000+02:00

“About half of the world’s armed conflicts and some three quarters of the UN’s peacekeepers are in Africa. This is because millions of Africans are still at the mercy of brutal regimes; showing no respect for human rights, or even human life.” These are the words of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, spoken at the celebration of the 89th birthday of Nelson Mandela, in Johannesburg, yesterday. Mandela turned eighty-nine on 17 July, with a party held yesterday, 22 July.

Nelson Mandela was using his birthday to launch a new organisation of former world leaders that is to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems - a so called “world council of elders” to take on big issues such as AIDS and global warming.

According to a statement from the organisers, the group will contribute their wisdom, independent leadership, and integrity to address some of the world’s toughest problems: it is a big idea with powerful people behind it.

Although it’s not yet clear who will serve on the council, among those attending the launch yesterday were the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter, and the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson.

Whilst it is a noble idea, and while the fight against hunger and poverty undoubtedly needs the mobilisation of all who are prepared to participate, I think it is therefore vital, that we young people join this fight.

I am certain that we do not have to call ourselves ‘wise’, but our organisations must be independent and fight all infringements on our autonomy and we need to remain upright in our belief in peace and cooperation. Our work here over the following days needs to multiply within and across our organisations, and needs to reach out to our constituencies - and in turn, to the heads of states and government of the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU). At the end of the day it is good if retired politicians pull at the strings of power to help realise a better world, but what we do here in Marly-le-Roi needs to matter more and for longer, otherwise we have failed.

The cost of combating hunger and poverty worldwide is, according to the United Nations, approximately 195 billion USD a year. Twenty-two countries pledged to work towards each giving 0.7% of their gross national income to international aid – which the European Youth Forum (YFJ) is convinced is too low a proportion in any case, but which would raise the $195 billion. While some countries have been slow to meet their pledge, only five countries have already reached the goal of 0,7%: Sweden, Luxemburg, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark. Shamefully, some countries have not even scheduled a time frame for when they want to reach their pledge – for example, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.

While the list of problems that need to be tackled continues to grow, the willingness and enthusiasm of young people to contribute to the global partnership for development remains unbroken. As it is imperative that all possible means and tools are mobilised to achieve the MDGs – it is therefore evident that we young people must be at the forefront when it comes to being consistent, coherent and accountable in our work. We must not fall into traps of bad governance of our organisations and campaigns, we must act according to our own claims and demands, and we must do this together.

Which brings me to the work that we will be doing over the next two days, as we work in eight different workshops – all of them key to a joint strategy for Africa–Europe cooperation.

The Millenium Development Goals
The slow and delayed progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals is, frankly speaking, a major disappointment for all, and particularly, for the youth of the world: this failure in acting to solve humanity’s most agonising problems is unsatisfactory and dangerous. As youth organisations, we comprehend our responsibility and duty to hold governments accountable for their actions and their inaction in this regard.

Approximately 25,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.

Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty; they lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves, and being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for they and their families. The MDGs are a global partnership for development that are supposed to break this vicious cycle.

Good Governance & Democracy
Respect for the rule of law, pluralist democracy, the protection of rights and property, fighting corruption and promoting good governance – these are all essentials for a sustainable future. We young people have to show this ourselves, by maintaining transparent and accountable decision-making in our own organisations, ensuring our organisations act as true schools for democracy, and assuring our legitimacy to ask the same from governments.

Peace and Conflict
As armed conflicts proliferate around the world, increasing numbers of children and young people are exposed to the brutalities of war. In numerous countries, boys and girls are recruited as child soldiers by armed forces and groups.
In the current political environment, the dominant theme in political discourse is security, and immigration is seen as a growing threat to economic stability and security. Unfortunately – when European politicians talk about security, they do NOT think of development cooperation and creating the conditions for peace – which would mean decent jobs, quality education, clean water and environmental protection. They think of a policy of deterrence to make sure only highly qualified migrants enter Europe, not understanding that as long as there are unstable countries and armed conflicts there will not be security.

Globalisation, Trade and Socio Economic Development
Without developing solutions to the negative impact of a both protectionist and imperialist trade policies, Europe is not only exporting poverty, environmental problems and instability to other countries, but we are also aggravating problems.

Existing trade barriers, agricultural subsidies and restrictive rules on intellectual property rights reinforce global inequities and make a mockery of our tall claims to eliminate hunger and poverty from our world.

Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as of the local community and society at large. As such, I am looking forward to the panel discussion on Public-Private partnerships for development, taking place tomorrow.

Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Global pandemics, climate change, natural disasters, poor soil conditions, and deforestation — all these are issues at the heart of sustainable development, and ignoring them could have many possible consequences: such as rising sea levels, extreme droughts, erosion and loss of forests, increases in slum populations (noting that the majority of slum-dwellers are under 25), species extinctions and collapsing fisheries. There is also increasing evidence that issues such as water scarcity play a role in internal violence and regional conflict. I assume these are all scenarios that we want to avoid, so we have to fight these trends.

Migration, Mobility, Intercultural Dialogue and Co-development
The planned European common system for immigration and asylum focuses almost exclusively on ever-tougher deterrence by violent means and deportation beyond judicial control.

It is illusionary to believe that the stream of immigrants trying to enter the EU can be halted by increasingly excessive means of violence: we must counter this dangerous claim vigorously. Policies relying on violent deterrence will only raise the death toll, but won’t stop immigration.

Intercultural Dialogue seeks to approach these multiple viewpoints with a desire to understand and learn from those that do not see the world in the same way. A good ‘dialogue’, therefore, is an enriching and opening interaction which encourages the respectful sharing of ideas and an exploration of the different thought-processes through which the world is perceived and understood.

Employment and Decent work Agenda
Having a job does not only mean receiving an income, it often means dignity for a person and his or her family and it leads to stability of communities. Having a decent job not only means an income, but also the right to organise into a free trade union, removing glass ceilings for women, having social security and protection: having a decent job means working in dignity.

In many countries legislation to safeguard decent work conditions does not exist, but even where it does exist, governments often fall short in implementing the commitments made and international institutions lack mechanisms to enforce decisions taken.

Strategy and Instrument for Euro-African Youth Participation and Cooperation
The EU Common Agricultural Policy requires further reform - urgently. This is not only indispensable for larger investment in education, research and development, but it must also be the basis for fair trade relations and development cooperation with other world regions.

Exchange programmes, scholarships, job shadowing and development cooperation are just some areas where Euro-African Youth cooperation needs to be strengthened.

This consultation is a first step to such increased cooperation as it seeks to demonstrate the good practice of working together with representatives of the African Diaspora; similarly, I would like to thank those organisation that held national or internal consultations before coming here.

I’d also like to stress how integral this cooperation is for this process, by using the Zulu maxim “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” — meaning, in essence, “a person is a person through other persons.” The practice of ubuntu is fundamentally inclusive, involving respect and concern for one’s family and one’s neighbours. Ubuntu defines the individual as a component of a greater inclusive collective whole, and it stresses social consciousness and unity: it is with this spirit that I’d hope us to engage in this conference. Furthermore, it is our multitude of experiences that can make this event a success.

It is my conviction that we have to fight and negotiate if we want to change something, and that such fights are only possible when we are organised and work together. Africans and Europeans must work together to fight against conflict, hunger, poverty, disease, water shortages and environmental degradation, and as such, I wish us all a lot of success for this consultation and for the plentiful action to follow.

good people

2007-07-26T12:21:00.000+02:00

Korea seems very family friendly and social. It is all the little things that let me get a very good impression of Korean way of community life.
There are surely also some curiosities; for example the Etiquette bell at every toilet, it is a bell that makes a loud flush like sound; people press it that their own body sounds that they might make at the toilet are not shared with other people.
Then they behave like in classic Asian tourist commercials. They smile and are friendly; they keep on bowing in front of people and try to make your life convenient. I was really treated like a states guest there. I have to admit thought that it is not easy to deal with the fact that someone is bowing for you all the time, I can not get rid of a servant and devote image in my head, although it seems to be mainly respectful and courteous.
They seem to be super punctual and hard working, once a working session started 3 min late and they were all very apologetic for the disrespectful delay.
So often I got the impression there is a strange mixture between American Puritanism and Japanese busyness and hectic (not that I have been in Japan ever before). So they are friendly, rather conservative, they have churches everywhere (with neon signs saying “CHURCH” and huge illuminated crosses on top).
The American life style is copied in university clubs and societies who go out in groups on Fridays and get drunk on pitchers and pitchers full of beer, always the hand in front of the mouth when giggling, total fashion victimisations (if I draw conclusions from the window shopping I did and the adverts I saw) – but there is not much going out on Saturdays, because that would be bad for attending the religious service on Sunday morning. But going out in Sinchon on a crowded Friday evening was a tremendous experience.
Seoul has a wide and modern underground that functions well. It is not very expensive but still older people and kids can use it for free. As they have barriers for entering the underground like you might know it from London or Paris, every ticket counter has a little box with free tickets in front of the glass window of the counter. Old people and kids can go there to pick their free tickets and it seems to work and not being abused by others for free rides. The other people have kidney bean sized little cell phone straps with bar codes that they swipe at the barriers to pay their for their transportation. And as everything is focused on mobile phones – there is a mobile phone charging station in every car of the metro, 4 in each to be precise.
In addition Koreans are also very strict – guess that is the part that makes them so hard working. The Agenda for our meeting for example had every day an agenda point called “go to bed” this point was usually scheduled for 22:30.
Unfortunately I was there in monsoon period. Which means that the whole city was covered in one big cloud, the humidity was around 3728% or so and every move made me sweat a lot, despite the fact that it actually only had 24°C.

food and korea

2007-07-26T11:48:00.000+02:00

Korea and food is a fascinating chapter for me. Not only because most of it tastes well, but also because I brought back lots of goodies with me! (Took the big suitcase from my mum).
First of all Koreans seem to know only chopsticks and spoons, no knives no forks, and other then we see in some Asian movies, they never get the bowls with food close to the chin or mouth, no, they leave them on the table. Now everyone who has read my miserable attempts to eat Bacalhau knows that chopsticks are not a smart idea for me.
Then there is Kimchi. Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish that can be stored for a long time. There are more than 160 Kimchi varieties – the ones I tried taste like cabbage with some spicy red pepper paste; this all would not be a bad thing, but kimchi is the sine qua non of Korean kitchen, and I am not good with cabbage for breakfast.
And then there is seaweed. As crisps, as soup, as suckers, as everything. Do you remember that slightly rotten and salty taste of the sea? Well, this is what seaweed is all about. Being woken up in Korean airlines with a rice porridge and seaweed breakfast was not the most pleasant waking up I could imagine.
Teas, the teas, I really do like herbal teas, so Korea is a paradise for me, but there are some flavours of hot drinks that I am not such a big fan of. Rice teas, it is just – well, they taste like when you but rice in water, let it wait a bit and then take the rice out again, I consider this is a very boring taste. Sweet corn tea on the other hand tastes a bit like liquid popcorn, also not really something I missed so far in my life.
But now I sounded very negative, I really liked all the rice dishes, the fruits and vegetables are wonderful and must tastier then the things we get in Austria where they are taken off the plants when far from ready for harvesting and I love Bibimbap.
I was served Bibimbap in the airplane and the hostess was very apologetic that she had only Korean food left. So I was a bit scared when I had it on my tray, especially as I got also a manual how to eat it correctly. I can only say it tasted well, it had only a not so good seaweed soup coming with it, but if you ignore that one, it was wonderful.

Choruses from the Rock

2007-07-26T11:20:00.001+02:00

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

2007-07-17T15:16:00.001+02:00

Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
Genesis 19, 27

Sodom and Gomorrah

2007-07-16T10:54:00.000+02:00

The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Genesis 18, 26

so beautiful

2007-07-14T12:07:00.000+02:00

Love is like an aeroplane
You jump and then you pray
The lucky ones remain
In the clouds for days
If life is just a stage
Let's put on the best show
And let everyone know

Cause if I have to die tonight
I'd rather be with you
Cut the parachute before the dive
Baby don't you cry
You have to bring me down
We had some fun before we hit the ground

Love is like a hurricane
You know it's on the way
You think you can be brave
Underneath the waves
If life is just a dream
Which of us is dreaming
And who will wake up screaming
(sean lennon)

a weekend in lisbon

2007-06-24T23:06:00.000+02:00

Portuguese dances. Fado. Folklore.
A Portuguese evening designed for tourists, impressive dancing. Elements that do seem familiar from tap dancing, Hungarian, Alpine or Russian folklore. Funny. A bit less funny – eating in the dark, eating while the performers are on stage. I am already super clumsy when eating, but eating in the dark – not such a good idea for me! I think the shirt I wore Saturday evening can be easily sold as a modern piece of art now, actually, I could be a fleece to be put on the wall. Fancy it? Anyone? You know my number!

Ok, I am sitting in a room in rainy Portugal. Yes! Rainy!
I am listening to speakers that tell many things but neither new nor even presented in an interesting way. I honestly do not have a problem with theoretical debates, sometimes there is way too little time allocated for theory and conceptual discussions. But this here is not theoretical, it is not practical either, it is just terribly boring.

Is it more difficult to dream away whilst making an effort not to fall asleep or is it more difficult to listen whilst making an effort not to fall asleep? This is a relevant question that I kept on asking myself mainly during conferences where I was tempted to fall asleep. Falling asleep is a temptation for many reason, let me list a few common ones: bad light conditions, lack of oxygen, boring or badly presented inputs, frontal teaching instead of interaction, general lack of sleep from previous days, information overload, eye infections, listening to interpretation all the time, melancholy and boredom - and sometimes all of them together.

And somehow I always have another taste then the chair of the session, there is once a contribution that seems interesting, that is worth listening to, that gives food for thought and relates different theories in a relevant ways with each other, but exactly this one is cut by the chair. And the next one, talking about everything and nothing, just informing the audience about common places, this one gets the double speaking time, because… well, no clue why, I guess because he is a friend of the chair of the session, no other logic explanation otherwise! But highly irritating, disrespectful towards the other speakers and absolutely inappropriate for a discussion format where practically all fit around one table!
I also get the feeling that the phrase “rich debate” is just a code for: “almost half of the people present managed to stay awake”. Such interesting questions, so much need for debate, and all ruined by self-centred speakers that do not stick to their time and chairs being incapable to just turn off the endless speakers microphones.

And then there is an additional obstacle for interaction. 80% of the participants speak only French, and when I say only, I do NOT mean mother tongue plus French, no, French only! Half of the participants are French and live in Paris or Strasbourg; two thirds of the speakers were French. There are some from Alsace that do speak a bit of German, but not really enough for a conversation. Well, bless them; they are all over 60, during their school time there was not much quality language teaching.

and just to make sure no one misunderstands, i do like lisbon, a lot!

the graduate

2007-06-20T14:33:00.000+02:00

My baby brother is – as the name explains – a baby. Fortunately he is that baby only in my memory. This still very strong and present memory makes it difficult to accept that he is now 19, has a job, has a car and lives an almost independent live. Last week he graduated from high school, since then he arrives back home when I have breakfast. He burnt his maths books and notes, he has his alternative civilian service arranged for the fall, and he is kinda grown up now, well, he still lives with our mum. Scary thing that is, cause in inference it means I am getting really old.

youth week

2007-06-19T21:07:00.000+02:00

“You are turning into a penguin, stop it”
This is a quote from the “Hitchhikers guide to galaxy” where Arthur Dent says this to Ford. To understand the quote you need to know more about penguins.
Penguins like to stay in groups to remain warm and what they want most of all is FISH. Penguins are no daring animals and they do not feel the urge to explore.
But we want you to dare and to explore, we want you to stick up your head.

The European Youth forum is an umbrella organisation of almost 100 National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations. Together with our members we are trying to be advocates of social change, a change that would allow more people, already when being young, to enjoy the right of being who they are.

The European Youth Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in the shaping of Europe and the societies in which they live, and in improving the living conditions of young people as European citizens in today’s world.

The European Youth Forum defends the interests of all young people in Europe. As a platform, it is the representative body of its member organisations towards institutions and partners active in the youth field.

Whilst understanding everyone who wants to live a life as penguin, we will try to support young people in a way, so that they can stick up their heads and can go their own ways. And we will try to convert the cold wind blowing in ones face into a favourable wind supporting a young persons spine.

Youth organisations play a key role in reducing the gap between where decisions about society are made and where they are implemented. We do this by being there both when decisions are made and when they are carried out. We are engaged in opening up political processes at all levels, and making them accessible to young people. Our wish and ability is to contribute with a spirit of enquiry, new thinking and competence.

Different from penguins’ youth is not a uniform group, we are the ones understanding how to cherish diversity and knowing that our differences are our strength. We would like to explore – but still many barriers are hindering us, barriers such as visa regulations or bureaucratic obstacles.

One person that was never uniform and never stopped daring and sticking his head up was Peter Lauritzen. Many of you might not know him, but the hand full of people in this room who does know him, will be with me when I say that he was always committed for the rights of young people, he stayed young at heart and was a friend and mentor to many of us.

I hope the youth week will have a lot of success, with concrete recommendations and measurable conclusions. Enjoy the meeting and never stopp daring, because we want more then fish!

attempts to tidiness

2007-06-17T20:43:00.000+02:00

To clean up and tidy everything in my apartment sometimes has the effect that I feel like I have straightened all my life. The purge in my larder and kitchen was urgently needed, but unfortunately, it did not sort anything else in my live but my pantry and my kitchen. And now I feel old, cause my body hurts as if I ran a marathon, but my whole flat seems much brighter, now that the windows are cleaned.

enterprise -lessons to be learnt from NGOs

2007-06-15T15:39:00.001+02:00

Why would a youth organisation be interested in Entrepreneurship?

As a representative body for youth, the YFJ is concerned with youth employment and has duly been working on the Lisbon agenda. As the EU has set the aim to foster an entrepreneurial mindset through education and training, we as youth organisations are relevant stakeholders in achieving this aim.

As we all agree that an entrepreneurial mindset is best fostered through real experience, I will outline some examples where such experiences take place on a daily basis within youth organisations.

When organising a concert night in a local youth club, one has to budget, plan the event, advertise and market it, find sponsors, pay the artists, and manage the event itself to ensure the evening runs smoothly.

When organising a tournament within a sports organisation, one has to arrange transport for the participants, ensure adequate facilities for spectators, secure media coverage and make sure the event is visible.

When organising an international youth exchange one has to take care of travel arrangements, board, lodging, the activities programme, and social programme, and coordinate a team of volunteers responsible for the running of the exchange, while maintaining contact with other partners of the project.

Through such daily work within youth organisations, young people learn how to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate projects. We are supported in using our creativity – to solve problems but also to devise and develop new ideas for projects and campaigns. We gain self-confidence, social skills and motivation. Planning time lines, budgets and media strategies - and ensuring they are in accordance with the rules and regulations set by the program or donors that fund us - and making sure that the project has visibility to safeguard future support for similar projects as well as keeping the volunteers motivated, are just part of our every day work.

Dividing tasks, lobbying public authorities for our demands and keeping constant advocacy contact with public authorities as well as networking with other stakeholders are key to the success of campaigns of youth organisations.

Nonetheless, it is clear that most NGOs are non-profit and people unite in these organisations for an idealistic aim and not to earn money, thus, the raison d’être and the incentives to work are significantly different. Yet, the work in a youth organisation can and does still foster an entrepreneurial mindset.

Whilst our education systems largely follow the sad tradition that young people who have just learned to walk and talk should now be forced to shut up, sit and listen, youth organisations - where young people gather voluntarily - are an important compliment to formal education.

Innovation is the key word in the policies surrounding this knowledge economy, and according to the American researcher Paul David and his French colleague Dominique Foray, there are two ways innovation comes about: firstly, research as a formal activity generates new knowledge. Secondly, individuals learn by doing and thus make discoveries, which can progress knowledge. Both approaches are central to the Lisbon strategy: producing marketable knowledge and educating human resources for the labour market. Youth organisations, in particular, can contribute to the ‘learning by doing’ approach.

But what is needed to make the contribution of youth organisations matter in the labour market?

-First of all, recognition by the labour market and the formal education sector of the skills and real competences that young people gain; non-recognition is de-motivating and definitely does not support initiative and innovation;
-One-stop shops for support to set up businesses and get start-up advice;
-Curricular reforms in formal education – which should also be supported financially by the EU, and which should move from an educator-centred approach to a learner-centred approach, best supporting students in their needs and abilities;
-Clear and accessible social security schemes that allow registration of businesses without risking one’s whole existence;
-Learning and profiting from non-formal education pedagogy in formal settings also;
-More and better mobility programmes that per se foster an entrepreneurial mindset;
-Credits and other forms of recognition for extra-curricular activities;
-Improved teacher-training allowing better guidance and help for learners;
-And finally, investments in youth organisations which truly stimulate entrepreneurial spirit in all projects, by enabling young people to take responsibilities and to grow with their tasks.

Support – Protection – Recognition – Reward

These words are key for education for enterprise, and are all basic principles for youth organisations. This is why so many young people who have been active in youth organisations establish companies in the fields of management, training, education, consulting, advocacy and lobbying; and this is why it is worth investing in youth organisations - not only from a democratic perspective but also from a business perspective.

on the train again

2007-05-29T17:36:00.001+02:00

Trains. I spend a lot of time on the train lately. I came to the conclusion that they are at the end of the day not so annoying as I have been preaching for the last years to my ESIB and YFJ colleges.
Going from Salzburg to Vienna by train functions as a debriefing for me. Slowly moving from family life back to working life - meter by meter; listening to the sounds of the railroads (just in the background because of the iPod), feeling the movement of the train, dozing my way to Vienna, ruminative. You might think I know the landscape by now, but no, actually I discover something new each time I watch the countryside passing by my window.
Usually I am mainly in cities and towns, where I do not really notice much about the specificities that the seasons have to offer. Now having a closer look at the rural parts of Austria I can see the differences in the vegetation and I am enjoying the different shades of green. I tell you, it is almost as relaxing as watching the foam on top of the waves at the seaside.

Challenges for Investing in Youth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA)

2007-05-22T15:44:00.000+02:00

Let me illustrate the challenges in the ECA region by using a prominent but very average family. Lets imagine the family Simpson lives in the ECA region. Father Homer did leave school after lower secondary level and is an industry worker and an alcoholic, Mother Marge completed upper secondary level and since then is taking care of the children, 3 by now. Lisa, a smart, musical 3rd grader who is able to adapt to different situations and is well achieving in school, Bart a 4th grader who is a little nasty brat, low achieving in school but very creative and interested in experimental learning. And the toddler Meggie. The family is living in the small town Springfield in the middle of nowhere, they have a family disability of having only 4 fingers and their nutrition is really bad. If this family is living in the ECA region, what are the challenges that Lisa and Bart will face when trying to complete their education or transfer from education to work?
Statistics say that as they are coming from a workers family on the countryside, they are both likely to end up in a series of phases of unemployment and precarious work contracts and they will both never even reach higher educations.

Not only Lisa and Bart are facing difficulties, generally students from disadvantaged societal groups are more likely to drop out. There are several groups of people who are marginalised in education, and it is these groups that are more likely to leave school early or not to complete their studies successfully. These groups are: Students with inadequate high school preparation, students who are recipient of welfare or vocational rehabilitation program benefits, students from remote and rural areas, students who have the language of instruction as a second language, students who have a cultural heritage or lifestyle choice that is not sufficiently or accurately represented in the traditional curriculum, students with a non academic family background, women in courses who are traditionally perceived as male such as technical studies and science, students with disabilities, students with a lower socio-economic background and second chance or mature students, people with caring responsibilities, especially single parents, students whose wellbeing is endangered because they are discriminated against.

Drop out is way to often seen as a failure of the individual, whist it is a failure of the system. Unfamiliarity with higher education often leads young people from deprived neighbourhoods to enrol for inappropriate courses. Many students who were the first in their families to enter university felt schoolteachers, guidance staff and the careers service had poorly advised them. They often received little prior information and preparation for the courses they follow. In addition there is often a lack of encouragement from the teaching staff as well as from the families. A lack of money and financial security, which of course limits choice and the length of time they were prepared to stay in higher education before they look for a full-time job.

Youth Organisations play a vital role when it comes to reaching out to disadvantaged youth, when it comes to empowering them and enabling them to speak up for their own needs, and for integrating of reintegrating marginalised young people to society. We speak the same language and hang out at the same places.

So how can we address such challenges in the ECA Region to help Lisa and Bart?
Lets first identify which policy approaches do the countries in the ECA Region have in common?

I would say the most dominant policy complex and approach are the Lisbon Objectives of the European Union – to become by 2010 the most dynamic knowledge based economy in the world with more and better jobs and a greater social cohesion.

Why is this goal of the EU relevant for the ECA Region?

The member states
Well, firstly because 10 countries are members of the EU and have committed to achieve the Lisbon Objectives.

Accession countries and candidates
Turkey still under negotiation, as well as candidate countries to the European Union, which includes Croatia and Macedonia receive accession support measures through a number of specific programmes. However they are also expected to meet certain political, economical and fiscal criteria developed at the meeting of the Council of Ministers in Copenhagen in 1993 as well as they have to comply with the acquis communautaire.

Western Balkan and Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP)
The countries of the Western Balkan have a very specific political relationship with the European Union, which is called Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP). In addition to Croatia and Macedonia as candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Serbia and Montenegro are included in this process. These countries are granted access to the internal market of the EU and receive financial as well as political support in their internal political reform processes.

European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)
Furthermore the EU has developed a so-called European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which encompasses countries in Eastern Europe as well as the Southern Mediterranean and countries in the Middle East. Through this programme the Ukraine, the Republic Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan receive partial access to the internal market of the European Union, favourable trade regulations as well as financial support under the condition of the implementation of democratic and economic reforms, the rule of law and the safeguarding of human rights in their respective country.

The political impact from the EU on the countries of the Western Balkans as well as Eastern Europe stems from the precondition for the diverse financial support measures and access to the internal market of the EU outlined above. So the Lisbon Agenda of the EU leaves its footprints in all of these countries.
Part of the Lisbon Process is also the European Youth Pact, which is providing a cross sectoral approach to youth policy.

What are the key policy areas that the Lisbon agenda is promoting?

5 key policy areas – all of them related to Youth Policies, the Lisbon re-launch and the Kok Report:

1. The knowledge society: increasing Europe’s attractiveness for researchers and scientists, making R & D a top priority and promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs);
2. The internal market
3. The business climate: reducing the total administrative burden; improving the quality of legislation; facilitating the rapid start-up of new enterprises; and creating an environment more supportive to businesses;
4. The labour market: developing strategies for lifelong leaning and active ageing; and underpinning partnerships for growth and employment;
5. Environmental sustainability

Lets have a closer look at Education and Employment policies affecting youth, starting with Education, as employment can be seen as harvesting the fruits of education.

We are living in times of continual educational reform. Now, more than ever, the lines between education and commerce are being blurred. We are told that we have to be »competitive« with the American market and, that in order to achieve this goal, there will have to be “winners and losers”. These are the keywords used in promulgating the Lisbon Agenda and it seems to be also generally zeitgeist; these are the keywords used by people promoting the commercialization of Education in the name of achieving a »knowledge based society«.
The Youth Forum strongly disagrees with this reasoning. We believe that what is needed for a true knowledge based society is involvement of stakeholders such as youth organisations in all processes, increased accessibility to education and committed and qualitative governmental funding and support for education institutions and students, a diversification of the student body and the recognition of non-formal education.

And this is where Youth Organisations come in to remind governments about their commitments. Youth organisations play a key role in reducing the gap between where decisions about employment and education are made and where they are implemented. We do this by being there both when decisions are made and when they are carried out. We are engaged in opening up political processes at all levels, and making them accessible to young people. Our wish and ability is to contribute with a spirit of enquiry, new thinking and competence.

What are key concepts that become apparent when trying to become a knowledge economy?

Innovation is the key word in the policies surrounding this knowledge economy, according to the American researcher Paul David and his French colleague Dominique foray there are two ways innovation comes about. Firstly, research as a formal activity generates new knowledge. Secondly, individuals learn by doing and thus make discoveries, which can progress knowledge. Both approaches are central to the Lisbon strategy: producing marketable knowledge and educating human resources for the labour market. Since education and research are not primary responsibilities of the European Union the coordination of the Lisbon agenda works through management by objectives.
So for the Simpson’s this would mean Lisa would be better placed in a formal setting, whilst Bart would not function in a research institute and would for sure prefer experimental learning. But would anyone be ready to recognise Bart’s out of school learning experiences?
And how can we stimulate innovation also in the future whilst having negative progress in basic reading and writing skills in the ECA region as well as unpleasant figures for early school leavers and completion of upper secondary education?

So what are the shortcomings of this Lisbon agenda and the difficulties for the ECA region?

The problem of setting the agenda through diverse means instead of developing it with all partners involved on equal footing develops a problem of acceptance of and resistance to these policies. Non of the countries present here, with the exception of Italy, was EU member when the objectives were set for the Lisbon Strategy.

The meanings of terms like learning, knowledge and education are losing their emancipative character; education is mainly seen as an instrument with which to improve the global competitiveness.

With the management through objectives the democratic process often has significant shortcomings. For a long-term policy progress it is imperative to involve all relevant stakeholder in policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Fiscal and monetary regulations are often in conflict with investments needed to achieve greater social cohesion. Most countries argue that financial constraints keep them from implementing necessary reforms in the fields of social inclusion and employability.

Unless significantly more efforts are made in the areas of early school leaving, completion of upper-secondary education, and key competences, a larger proportion of the next generation will face social exclusion, at great cost to themselves, the economy and society.

The Lisbon agenda or more general – internationalisation is abused by policy maker as argumentation for unpopular and often short-sighted policy measures.

So how can these challenges be addressed in the ECA Region?
Where should the World Bank and the European Union work together to address the challenges mentioned so far?

Implementing national Youth Pacts with a real impact in the ECA region. As a cross-sectoral approach to youth policy is the only way to address the multi dimensional needs of young people.

Investing in education and training has a price, but high private, economic and social returns in the medium and long-term outweigh the costs. Reforms should therefore continue to seek synergies between economic and social policy objectives, which are in fact mutually reinforcing.

The creation of a European Qualifications Framework, and will also focus on increasing the quality of teacher education and on adult learning. When countries are creating them – and many have committed to do so through the Bologna Process, they must foresee from the beginning on the recognition of non-formal education.

The recognition of the providers of non-formal education is equally important as the investment in qualitative research on non-formal education.

Clear regulations for internships must be implemented. This concerns decent work conditions as well as the type of work, as not many get a decent job through a coffee cooking internship.

The inclusion of all stakeholders in policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies is key to their success. Youth Organisations must play a formal role in defining employment, education and citizenship agendas.

Governments have to recognise the category of youth as a progressive one, the one carrying development and democratisation, an investment in youth is an investment in the future of the country and its society and an investment in co-management and power-sharing based co-decision is a direct step towards the development of an open and democratic society with a sound basis for economic and social development.

Investment must be made in vocational training, civil society projects, fostering youth participation on local and national levels, development of civil society, human rights education and active citizenship.

The Youth in Action Programme, the framework programme for LLL, the PROGRESS program and comparable programmes must be given more financial resources to truly empower young people and reach out to the disadvantaged and to extend the programmes.

The Tempus programme funds cooperation projects in the areas of curriculum development and innovation, teacher training, university management, and structural reforms in higher education. It puts special emphasis on the mobility of academic and administrative staff from higher education institutions, both from the EU and the 26 partner countries.
Similar funding schemes are needed for primary and secondary education.

Create a funding mechanism for the development of access policies as well as retention and completion strategies to and to widen the participation in education and to diversify the student body. These policies must include multiple entrance and exit points to allow a life long learning approach and they must recognise prior learning experiences.

If these measures and similar ones are not taken, Lisa is very likely to be a teenage mum, she is at high risk of getting HIV/aids and she will despite her intelligence never get a well paid permanent job contract. Bart will soon start to smoke, binch drink and drop out, he will be a violent and unhealthy young unemployed.
If Bart gets to be active in the scouts and his sense for adventure and experimental learning is taken care of and if those experiences are recognised he has a chance. And if Lisa will get involved with Jeunesse musicales and she is finally rewarded for all her efforts and finds a place in the world where she can be who she is, her future will be bright.
So it is time to get started to move from policy to action.

thank you ingolf ;-)

my odd village

2007-05-20T23:36:00.000+02:00

Living in a small town has its own flair. Most of the times I tend to agree with Lou Reed, when it comes to small towns. Especially as I am of the opinion that trees are evil and just make me cry. But there are also many odd things happening on the countryside.
I was at a electric shop to buy a new mobile phone with the credits I collected through the long term customer bonus program. And the shop assistant – wondering why I had so many credits, asked me why I have such a high phone bill and what I am working and how I got there and all of this. Never did anyone try to find out so much about me in a big store in Vienna.
The bank assistant ran out of the bank when seeing me on the market square to ask me something about my account.
At the super market the cashier asked me what I am going to cook with the ricotta, as she never saw anyone buying it and was wondering what it is.
So many odd situations, so many childhood memories and still I feel like a tourist there, it is not my home anymore, it used to be and it is still very familiar, but it is not anymore - i grew out of it, but it seems it did not grow out of me.

getting dry hands

2007-05-16T20:14:00.000+02:00

Cooking in other people’s places is really difficult. There are differently shaped and sized pots and pans, there are edgeless knifes; there are different herbs and spices, oils and dairy products. So all very complicated, but the worst is, cooking in kitchens without dishwasher. For years I have a dishwasher now, whilst being fully aware that this is a luxury, it is a luxury I got used to. So shopping, cooking, dishwashing, doing the laundry in a different household, with a different micro-cosmos is really awkward, but in a household without dishwasher it is just – annoying!

what i have been up to

2007-05-11T00:04:00.000+02:00

It has been an exiting few days. I had the opportunity to meet many or the youth forums member organisations, but most importantly, I was invited to attend the seminar and board meeting of ESIB, my home base in the youth forum.
First I was at the IFM-SEI (International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International) conference in Vienna, congratulations to Tamsin and Tim who got entrusted to be the new leadership of the organisation. It was good to see how passionate people were about out of school education and the empowering and liberation character of education.
After this I moved on to the European Guides and Scouts conference in Slovenia. This is a joint conference of WAGGGS (the world association of girl guides and girl scouts) and WOSM (the world organisation of the scout movement). I have never heard so many quotes of one person on only one day; Baden-Powell really has a fan club that is huge. Though it was very new for me to see so many young people in differently coloured uniforms. Congratulations to the new leadership, especially to Henrik, one of my predecessors as a president of the youth forum, who was elected into the leadership of WOSM. Right from there I flew to the place where Baron Baden-Powell was born almost exactly 150 years ago, to London.
London these weeks is the capital of European Higher Education policy, not only that ESU – the European Students Union (formally known as ESIB- The National Unions of Students in Europe) has its board meeting, but also the Ministers of Education will meet there in a couple of days time. It is the Ministers conference that is taking place every second year in the framework of the Bologna Process, this time London, first time with the obligation for every country to bring a student representative in their national delegation. It was not only very pleasant to come home to ESU, but also to be in the UK and meet up with old friends and find time for new friends.

good bye

2007-05-11T00:03:00.001+02:00

It has been an honour to serve this great country. I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short.

when loved ones are ill

2007-05-02T09:48:00.000+02:00

Live the Questions Now
...I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903
in Letters to a Young Poet

She has helped me build my life and who I am today is because of her.

this weekend

2007-04-25T12:01:00.000+02:00

This weekend I have been at the congress of the Federation of the Young European Greens (FYEG) in Vienna and at the congress of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC); two activities that could have hardly been any more different. But Lets start with the similarities, both organisations are members of the European Youth Forum, both are youth led NGOs, both met in European capitals, and both events full of engaged volunteers willing to change the world; but that’s about it with the similarities.
In Vienna with the greens there was an all vegetarian congress, where the hosting organisation cooked themselves, the guest speakers got organic fair trade chocolate, they discussed internal structures and women empowerment, a social and green future for Europe and the hierarchic structures of the Youth Forum, they extensively discussed their relation to the European Green party and they held elections of their new spokespersons. Congratulations to Marina Barbalata (Romania) and Bartek Lech (Poland).
So Saturday night I have been at the party of the Greens and Sunday morning I joined quite some hang over suffering Liberals in Berlin. Quite a cultural shock; very different types of people, different dress code, very different discussions such as the positive sides of globalisations and how globalisation should also change Europe more, the negative effects of tax harmonisation, Darfur, Western Sahara, Migration obstacles – hindrance for economic development, building the internal coherence and democratization of the EU through a new short-term treaty (replacing the unsuccessful Constitutional treaty), to the need for greater investments in research and development and a more united and proactive role for Europe in the world. LYMEC had the luxury of not having elections, which meant that they had more time to deepen discussions.
Good luck to both organisations to achieve their aims till their next congress.

hate speech

2007-04-19T12:16:00.000+02:00

The opposition between the positions of Voltaire “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.” and that of Saint-Just “No liberties for the enemies of Liberty” is still a wide-open debate in Europe today. We can clearly see this in the debate on the declaration “outlawing racism and xenophobia throughout Europe”.

Germany declared its aim to impose criminal liability on the following offences:
Public incitement to violence and hatred out of racist or xenophobic motives
Racist or xenophobic agitation
Denial or gross minimisation of genocide (mainly holocaust)

The maximum term of imprisonment for these offences would be one to three years - member states could make criminal liability dependent upon the determination by a national or international court that a known event in history constituted genocide, a crime against humanity, or a war crime. The goal is to attain minimum harmonisation of provisions on criminal liability for disseminating racist and xenophobic statements. The legislation would criminalize the denial of genocide, but does not specify which historical events fall within that definition, according to a draft version. It does, however, use Holocaust denial as an example of how the law may be applied. 9 out of the 27 member states of the EU already have holocaust denial legislation; several other member states already have legislation on hate speech.
This framework directive is already discussed since 2001 and it is the 3rd time on the agenda of a council meeting. Lets see where it leads to this time, I am especially curious what this means for media regulations of spoken and written word and in particular for cartoons and pictures.

mama

2007-04-13T00:29:00.000+02:00

Ana behibek
Learning by trying it's hard to deny it

while paying for what I used to know

Dreams are deceiving untill I'm achieving

the goals I haven't set too low

Waiting for a new day

to wipe away

the Uncertainty that flows around me

once again to stay

So many choices but so few answers

my time slips away while thinking too much

Whom to believe in they're all just repeating

the same old lies so nice to clutch

Waiting for a new day

to wipe away

the Uncertainty that flows around me

once again to stay

queer easter 07

2007-04-10T11:03:00.000+02:00

I have been a week in the educational centre of the German Falcons now. A week long on one place did not only do my back a lot of good, my constantly complaining shoulder feels a lot better now, but also made me go through a very intense educational experience. The Activity was hosted by ECOSY, IUSY and IFM-SEI. Seminars in the Kurt Löwenstein Haus are always done with a specific educational method, which is letting young people work on a topic not only by debating it or writing resolutions about it but in a more indirect or creative way. As I am the rest of the year mainly involved in resolutions drafting and conference style activities this was a very welcome change. Through different media such as music, campaigning, pod cast, blogging the participants worked on the seminar topics. In addition, if you put 90 young people in a house in the middle of nowhere they will become friends. For me it was not only intense because of the recovery of my shoulder or because of making new friends, no I was also catching up with old friends (see also here). Berlin was nice to me this week, the sun was shining, I met a prince and I let my soul dangle whilst counting freckles. Sometimes all you need to be happy is on one place, this weekend my happiness visited me in Berlin.

ecosy congress

2007-04-02T16:25:00.000+02:00

Straight from Istanbul I went to attend the ECOSY congress in Warsaw. A lot of my friends have worked for the last weeks and even months to make this congress a success and it was really rewarding even for me to see how flawless and smooth this congress was organised. Congratulations for the team.
I was an electoral congress and ECOSY now has a new team of vice presidents and a re-elected president and secretary general. I wish them all good luck with the challenges ahead, lots of classical socialist points on the EU agenda where the contribution of ECOSY will be of importance such as the discussions on labour law, on flexicurity, on the constitution, foreign and security policy and many more. Curious and happy to work with them in the coming months.

istanbul

2007-03-30T10:35:00.000+02:00

Conference centres are evil. In a conference centre you have everything from accommodation, to board, lodging, bars, workshop rooms. So the effect of a conference centre is that you never find you way out of it. And this is bad. I am here in Istanbul now for quite a while and I still have never managed to get out of this hotel. In fact, once on the terrace, so there is still a sky here! I will be advocating for more outdoor educational opportunities now, hoping I get to attend some of those. So I goggled a bit and found this image, this is what Istanbul is supposed to look like!

inter cultural dialogue

2007-03-28T12:22:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I have the feeling that activities aimed for intercultural dialogue do not much more but confirm stereotypes.

but which would be a better place to discuss the dialugue between cultures then Istanbul.

So what is culture?
We define culture as a set of values, norms, institutions and artefacts– we must be aware that there are many cultures even within cultures. All of them ideological, sociological and technological subsystems of our societies that govern interactions between people. Culture therefore refers to consumption of goods, productions of goods, construction of meanings and social relationships. Addressing intercultural learning within an organisation and beyond therefore implies a complex set of measures. All recommendations from the symposium here should be based on the principal “nothing about us without us” which is essential for the sustainability of intercultural dialogue. I think this is a tuff job to perform and I am curious how the symposium continues and lets see if it reaffirming preconceptions or actually scrutinizing them.

Youth Summit in Rome

2007-03-24T02:35:00.000+01:00

Youth Summit for tomorrow’s Europe
Rome 23-25 March 2007
Opening address

People like great moments in history. And everyone likes them to be surrounded by drama, flashlights and heavy rain and in the end the hero survives. The process that led to the signing of the treaty of Rome was almost ineffably mundane – a series of long meetings between long-since forgotten bureaucrats in rooms full of smoke.
There is much less smoke today for sure, but again, everyone seems to ask for heroes. But Europe already is a hero in many ways, the quiet glory of the post-national, post-modern entity is not the glory of a beautiful, vigorous, flag-waving hero.

So does the EU need a new narrative? I believe it does not, it does not need new heroes or values, and it will always remain an unfinished story… and we, the young people of Europe, are the ones to write the next and crucial chapter of this tale. Effectively addressing the questions raised at this Youth Summit is vital for the healthy democratic life of our continent in the next 50 years.

How shall we deal with the popular disenchantment with the EU?

Youth organisations play a key role in reducing the gap between where decisions about society are made and where they are implemented. We do this by being there both when decisions are made and when they are carried out. We are engaged in opening up political processes at all levels, and making them accessible to young people. Our wish and ability is to contribute with a spirit of enquiry, new thinking and competence. This was clearly shown through the tremendous job of National Youth Council when organising the national debates and consultations. National Youth Councils have proofed to be reliable partners to the European institutions.

The Spring Summit of the Heads of State and Government conclusions just two weeks ago highlighted “the importance of a stronger sense of ownership of the Lisbon Strategy by civil society, social partners, regions and local authorities.“ This means, that the conclusions that we will come up with here – have to be taken into account and not just seen as mere protocol demands.

Europe is already excellent in giving glorious statements of intent, but often fails to deliver practical steps to achieve them. Europeans seem to have a bad habit of missing their own targets. This mismatch has to be altered.

We call on politicians to be accountable and we want to see a strong European Parliament, as the EU elected body that has legitimacy as the natural conduit connecting citizens to the European Union. Most of today’s leaders spend more time attacking Brussels than acknowledging the EU’s achievements. This is despite the fact that it is the national governments that make legislation through the senior law making body the Council of Ministers.

Is the Future of Europe really all about resuscitating the Constitutional Treaty?

Indeed the feeling of unfinished business haunts everything else that the EU does, but claims that since 2005 the EU has been unable to function seem overblown.
The Prime Minister of Luxemburg, Jean Claude Juncker said once “we all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it”. Does this mean that leaders like Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac are planning to surprise us in Berlin and unveil the solution tomorrow, since they are not aiming at re-election? I am curious, I have to admit.

Is there a Future for a Common Foreign Policy?

Despite being the world’s biggest aid donor, enlargement has been the single most important goal of the Common Foreign Policy of the EU. From reinforcing young and fragile democracies in Greece, Portugal and Spain, to championing major economic and civic rights developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover enlargement prospects function as a carrot for further stabilisation and consolidation of democracy of the western Balkans.

The EU remains a dream of peace, guaranteed Human Rights and prosperity to many of our neighbours.

So is it time to define the boundaries of the EU? Or does the nervousness about enlargement reflect the failure on the part of the EU leadership to explain the benefits of an expanding EU? Populist rejection of enlargement jeopardizes the most precious achievement of the European Union: stabilizing, and further reforming and democratizing its current and future member states, as it has successfully achieved throughout its history.

Most citizens identify the state as a means of collective security against the perils of globalisation and social turmoil. The European Social Model serves as a metaphor for the challenges Europe faces on how to ensure solidarity, justice and equality for all. A first and important step must be the monitoring and enforcement of existing EU legislation.

Moreover, the Common Agricultural Policy requires further reform. This is not only indispensable for larger investment in education, research and development but it must also be the basis for fair trade relations and development cooperation with other world regions.

The Europe of the future should be about solving global problems by pooling sovereignty and setting up a framework of mutually accepted rules.
However, in the current political environment, the dominant theme in political discourse is security. Political ideologies provide different explanations on what the sources of insecurity are, as well as how to provide protection against it. Insecurity may span from economic to social and even cultural fears.

As immigration is seen as a growing threat to economic stability and security, parties from both the right and the left have toughened immigration laws radically. This crackdown on immigrants is probably the most appalling and shameful of the European policies of recent years. We need to set straight cause and effect: It is the police violence and disfranchisement of immigrants that create criminality and deteriorate job markets. Destabilisation through immigration is not a sign that rules are not tough enough, but rather that immigration policies have failed.

Europe is facing demographic challenges, in an ever more ageing population; our continent has to turn to immigration to help replenish the shrinking workforce, without forcing people into illegal and shadow markets.

What is the role of young people in the European story today?

We are said to be the
∑ Generation Erasmus – travelling from Skellefteå to Palermo without a passport.
∑ Generation iPod – we are supposed to be apathetic and hedonist.
∑ Generation Internship –well-educated graduates that increasingly accept unpaid jobs in the quest for elusive permanent posts.
∑ Generation precarious –we have to accept all kinds of doubtful work contracts, before we get genuine social security.
∑ Generation Baby losers – in clear contrast to the baby boomers.
∑ Generation hotel mama – as spiralling property prices and poor job prospects are conspiring to keep us living with our parents.
∑ Generation boomerang –after study periods abroad, a traineeship here and a freelance contract there we are too often thrown back and obliged to start again from scratch.

This just describes the situation of those who can afford iPods, who have access to education systems and enjoy the privilege of being highly mobile. However, there are also many young people who do not have these opportunities and who have been failed by our education systems. Defining fundamental rights is imperative for those young people with fewer opportunities to support their efforts to overcome the legacy of discouraging experiences.

There are indeed many crucial questions to find answers to.
Will Europe be able to find the right path between the free market and social as well as environmental protection? Between the need for security and the compliance with Human Rights?

Will the Europe of the next 50 years manage to be diverse rather than uniform, a group that emphasises community relationships and responsibility over individual benefits, that celebrates cultural diversity rather than assimilation, that aims at a genuine quality of life for all over the accumulation of wealth for few, a Europe that will stand for sustainable development?

Will Europe be able to deliver more than just beautiful declarations or lengthy treaties?

The EU does not need a new narrative or new heroes. It needs to stop moaning and ensure politics addresses the real needs of its citizens and it needs to recognise the many experts it already has, who are ready to contribute and value them through meaningful civil society involvement. The EU needs to listen to its citizens and in particular its young citizens. We are definitely ready to contribute to this chapter of the tale.

Macedonia

2007-03-15T13:25:00.000+01:00

I have just been to Skopje, the first time ever that I have been to Macedonia. And I very much enjoyed it, not only because of a productive bureau meeting, but also because Skopje is a really nice town with a really friendly climate, given that it is only march. I did even manage to see a bit of town and we all got a nice guided tour by Diogo.

The tour included the Kale fortress that was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian who was born in the village of Taorion near Skopje.

In 523 Theodora (a women coming from the theatre, if not even a prostitute that is now a saint) married Justinian, the magister militum praesentalis in Constantinople. On his accession to the Roman Imperial throne in 527 as Justinian I, he made her joint ruler of the empire, and appears to have regarded her as a full partner in their rulership – Theodora was the first women in European History that we have record of signing law decrees. As strong-willed woman, she showed a notable talent for governance.
Some scholars believe that Theodora was Byzantium's first noted proponent—and, according to Procopius, practitioner—of abortion; she convinced Justinian to change the law that forbade permit noblemen from marrying lower class women (like herself). Theodora also advocated the rights of married women to commit adultery, and the rights of women to be socially serviced, helping to advance protections and "delights" for them; and was also something of a voice for prostitutes and the downtrodden. She also helped to mitigate the breach in Christianity that loomed large over her time; she probably had a large part in Justinian's efforts to reconcile the Monophysites to orthodoxy.
Other scholars (and those who venerate Theodora as a saint) instead regard Theodora's achievements for women not as a modern feminist "liberation" to commit abortion or adultery but rather as a truly egalitarian drive to give women the same legal rights as men, such as establishing homes for prostitutes, passing laws prohibiting forced prostitution, granting women more rights in divorce cases, allowing women to own and inherit property, and enacting the death penalty for rape, all of which raised women's status far above that current in the Western portion of the Empire.
Some of the legislation passed includes:
∑ forbidding the exposure of unwanted infants - far more often girls than boys
∑ Easing the punishments for adultery - while a husband might kill his wife's lover with impunity, he might not kill his wife (and before he killed the lover, he must send him three written warnings, duly witnessed)
∑ Ensuring that a woman should not be put into prison where male guards might rape her; women who required detention might go to a nunnery
∑ Instituting equal rights for a woman to hold property

Given that this was all around 527 and the following years, she was truly a remarkable woman! And Macedonia is and was a remarkable country.

a lot of work

2007-03-10T17:51:00.001+01:00

The last weeks have been very exiting and full of work. Since I attended the Commission on social development in New York. I was around 10 days in Brussels attending numerous meetings together with other bureau members, such as our network of partisan youth organisations, a seminar of the Liberal youth on the abolition of visa regimes, the European Union Affairs Commission, a coordination meeting of our members on Belarus as well as several meetings with Brussels based member organisations. The youth forum also hosted an open house day and there were a lot of preparations to be done for the bureau meeting starting on Monday in Skopje. I am mainly telling you this to justify why I did not answer you mails as fast as usual or why the sms frequency is lower then normal. It is a great feeling to work on many issues at the time, it is challenging and exiting to be at many different places and work with different groups of people and it is very rewarding to see projects taking shape. The wonderful and addictive thing about youth work is the enthusiasm and dedication of the people I work with!

newsflash

2007-03-03T18:11:00.000+01:00

Bettina is a long-distance bus who grew devoted to a young medieval literature scholar.

see this

2007-02-23T16:29:00.000+01:00

Phil Hansen's Art

chick flicks

2007-02-18T17:59:00.000+01:00

I love chick flicks and I detest them.
I love them because I like to just enjoy a movie where I do not have to think much, where a happy end is guaranteed, where there is lots of romantic mushy stuff. But I hate them for the same reasons, I mean, real live is not always ending happily ever after and there is much less mushy stuff, at least in my life. But then again it is so easy to dream away …
When I think of it rationally, all those beautiful people, with no money issues, in those gorgeous houses on the beach or in the forest or the pent houses, with their enormous success – so not real, why the hell is it so easy to get me all emotional with them? Not that I get less emotional in non-chick-flick movies, but they are usually closer to reality. Maybe the surrounding just does not count when the emotions appear familiar. The only thing that makes me sob even more is films about friendship and about mother and daughter relationships. “Me without you”, "Beaches”, “The divine secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood” , “Fried green tomatoes” or last but not least "stepmom"
But enough about weeping.

lumbago

2007-02-15T15:19:00.000+01:00

i am in pain! working in the household is dangerous!

statement to the commission on social development

2007-02-13T18:14:00.000+01:00

to the 45th session of the Commission for Social Development
Presentation of the World Youth Report 2007

Dear Chair- dear Delegates-

The slow and delayed progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals is, frankly speaking, a major disappointment for all, and particularly, for the youth of the world: this failure in acting to solve humanity’s most agonising problems is unsatisfactory and dangerous. As youth organisations, we will comprehend our responsibility and duty to hold governments accountable for their actions and their inaction in this regard.

With twelve years of the World Programme on Action for Youth having passed, a great deal of work still remains to be done; yet while the list of problems that need to be tackled continues to grow, the willingness and enthusiasm of young people to contribute to the success of the programme remain unbroken. As it is imperative that all possible means and tools are mobilised to achieve the MDGs –it is therefore evident that the World Programme of Action for Youth needs to be connected to the MDGs and must itself have targets and goals.

Youth organisations continue to be steadfast advocates for the participation and inclusion of young people in all levels of decision-making - equally crucial throughout the world. While the mainstream media continually portrays an over-simplistic image of young people as passive and apathetic or violent, we know this is unreflective of our true diversity, potential and passion; obvious, indeed, through the dedication and professionalism exhibited by the youth representatives here at the CSocD. But looking at the origin of the youth representatives does, however, make it evident once again that there is a need for resources and commitment to assure youth representation from all regions of the world.

I can only remind governments of the apparent need to have more youth representatives involved in the UN system, as well as to promote and recognise the key role of national youth councils, international and regional youth platforms and NGOs. Youth organisations together with governments and the UN system, can define priorities, set goals and targets, and implement decisions on the local, national and international level, while monitoring indicators.

Many Agencies and Programmes of the UN system, as well as governments, have already acknowledged that youth is key to development most explicitly the World Bank. It is essential for governments and the UN System to make sure young people are not only a rhetorical priority in speeches and sound bites, but a genuine priority in policies and budgets. Governments, the UN and youth organisations together are responsible for being guardians, promoters and multipliers of the World Programme of Action for Youth by complementing each other in order to address shared concerns in a holistic manner.

In addition there is a clear need for inter-agency coordination on Youth issues in the UN system. We strongly recommend that the UN Youth Programme, in constant consultation with youth organisations, should undertake this coordination.

***

Young people are often seen as those most susceptible to influence and of having their opinions and ideas swayed by trends, but it is us, in fact, that can provide a sense of stability and cling to long-held visions of peace and cooperation. We are the ones that have already understood that Sustainable development is a basis for all political work. All political decisions must be marked by the right of all coming generations to shape their world without being required to face the consequences of an earlier generation's ecological, social or economic activities.

Our generation has developed an understanding that poverty is an outrageous violation of human rights and climate change a threat to humanity; and that the solution is a global partnership for development. The Millennium Development Goals are ambitious, but they are not unreachable. There is an urgent need for a renewed commitment from political leaders and a real commitment for the full and effective involvement of civil society in the decision-making that will affect us.

Mister chair - let me conclude:
- It is imperative to establish goals for the World Programme of Action for Youth in accordance with the MDGs.
- It is essential to increase youth participation at all levels and assure greater regional balance of youth delegates to the UN.
- It is indispensable to have a greater UN inter agency coordination led by the UN Youth Programme.

Thank you chair.

big apple

2007-02-07T01:35:00.000+01:00

I arrived in New York, and found a freaky little sleeping box – African style – in the chelsea star hotel. it is tropically hot in the room, really cold outside and all a bit weird. I guess it is typically American :-). Anyhow, I am here and I hope I will manage to see something of the town – including friends.
All those of you who asked me to buy things for them – please remind me frequently what it was, as I got so many buying requests, that I never properly listed, that I will need your help!
update:tropical for my room was an understatement. and outside it is fucking cold.

brussels

2007-02-04T12:29:00.000+01:00

I know that many people do not like Brussels because it is grey and does not have the best city planning when it comes to architecture or public transport. But for me Brussels I much more about the work I do and the people I meet. The last few days ins Brussels were great; so many people here I like and I admire for the work they do – secretariat of the YFJ, Council of Europe Affairs Commission, IGLYO board, ECOSY winter university, Balkan gatherings, lot of INGYOs here – so many people to meet, discussions to have, friends to play with and so little time left after work. Brussels is always hectic for me, because I have difficulties to prioritise who to meet and what to do after leaving the office (which is a black hole to; where one can easily get lost). Yesterday, you might not believe it; the sky in Brussels was blue, which made my whole stay here even more pleasant.

winter

2007-02-01T05:02:00.001+01:00

This was the warmest winter since 1776 in Austria.
correction: January

mountainmania

2007-01-29T19:37:00.000+01:00

For the last 5 days I have been on a “Alm” (mountain pasture/alp) in Salzburg. We had no Internet, no TV, Radio or Newspapers, and hardly any mobile phone couverage. I have to admit it was fabulous. But the best was not this retreat from civilisation, but the company I had. We were there for a teambuilding and the first bureau meeting in the new mandate. It was a strange feeling to have many of my colleagues in Austria and showing them places of my childhood and youth. But it was also a really assuring experience that the new bureau is full of dedicated and experienced people very motivated to work hard for the youth forum in the next two years. On Sunday I had the opportunity to bring some of them to the village where I grew up and it was moving to show them around. The 5 days were full of surprises and happy ends, we found teddy and his buddy again, we had 40 Schweden Bomben and 100 Mozartkugeln; not many of us had the opportunity to eat balisto, we found out that Jovana and Luiza are natural talents in downhill sliding, we witnessed that Portuguese are excellent snow ball throwers, we have a lot of common ground to share, we have proper punks amongst us and there will never be enough Ribs to eat and you need oxygen to light fire! Thanks for the good times.

welcome to salzburg

2007-01-24T06:57:00.000+01:00

hope & dance

2007-01-21T23:44:00.000+01:00

Hope is evil. Hope creates expectations and makes you disappointed, when things come different. Hope make you cling on things that you should let go already for long. Hope makes me believe in the good in people and makes me crestfallen when they are not so nice after all. You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.
Hope is indispensable – because it keeps everyone going and then there is no need to cry because it's over, but many smiles because it happened.
Dancing is joy. Last time I really danced was in July in Alikante (borke my toe there). Waiting so long for the next real dancing session was a very stupid mistake. I should dance much more often. Already the first healthy weekend this month in Helsinki I remembered it and it was absolutely fabulous (not mentioning the strange courtship rituals of Finns). Having a nice party after done work, like yesterday in Brussels gives me so much energy; it is a really sustainable mood booster. I should never forget that again.
Dancing is indispensable for my wellbeing! (but I should not do it with heels, my feet ache!)

Treaty of Rome

2007-01-18T07:50:00.000+01:00

The treaties of Rome establish the European Economic Community and France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg signed them on the 25th of March 1957.

The 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome is not only an opportunity to reflect on the last 50 years of European cooperation, but also a time to look forward to the future of the EU. With this in mind, the European Commission and European Parliament, in close collaboration with the Youth Forum, are organising the first ever a European Youth Summit "Your Europe – Your future" in Rome on 24-25 March. 200 young people from different backgrounds in all EU countries will attend the summit to discuss what kind of EU they want for the next 50 years. The Youth summit will take place in parallel with the European Council in Berlin, where Heads of States and Governments will adopt a political declaration setting out the values and ambitions of the European Union.

The Youth summit will deliver messages for the future of Europe to the EU leaders on Berlin.

In preparation of the Youth Summit, a debate and consultation process is to be launched. The process will lead up to the Youth Summit and will kick off in Brussels on 18-20 January with a preparatory meeting. The meeting is being coordinated by Youth Forum, and will be attended by national representatives from Youth Councils and International Youth NGOs. The following six themes will be worked on with the aim of producing a discussion document: the future EU Treaty, the Social and Economic Model, Sustainable Development, the EU’s role in a globalised world, democracy and civil society, youth and education.

weather conditions

2007-01-12T09:50:00.001+01:00

Vienna 14°C
Helsinki -4,5°C

it is there

2007-01-10T14:37:00.000+01:00

99 days

2007-01-09T10:50:00.000+01:00

99 days and all we got is forced volunteering

first new words in 2007

2007-01-06T20:51:00.002+01:00

ditch: a long, narrow, open channel dug in the ground, usually at the side of a road or field, used esp. for supplying or removing water

skid: to slide unintentionally on a surface, (esp. of a vehicle)

destitute: without money, possessions, or any of the things needed to live

slack: showing a lack of activity; not busy or happening in a positive way

skewed: to cause something to be not straight or exact; to twist or distort

thats what friends are for

2007-01-04T10:59:00.000+01:00

When I think back (which I tend to do at the end of one and beginning of another year) I see memories of very different nature – sad ones and happy ones, but all of them have one thing in common, main actors in those memories are friends. Friends who know all about me and still talk to me and more so – they even like me and care for me. These people who force me to examine, who are frank and honest with me and encourage me to grow. I have friends in different places of the world, the oldest and best friends are for sure in Austria, but there are people I have shared a lot of laughs and also tears with in other places of the world, but luckily true friends are never apart, maybe in distance, but not in heart. Thanks to that I can live the travelling life I do, cause it is not the quantity but the quality of time spent together that counts. This is also my only new years resolution, to spend more quality time with the people who I love the most.
Many people come into our lives and quickly leave. It is the special few that came in and left a footprint in my heart; that changed me and made me learn essential things for life.
Truth is the strongest bond that exists between friends if you lie or break a promise then you have broken that bond, which only time can heal, a bond which is so indispensable for trust and respect.
Nothing feels safer than a friend understanding me without me saying anything. Real Friendship is the sharing of all the secrets that my heart holds inside, it's tears and laughter, it's joy and broken dreams, its embarrassment and honesty, it is parallel reading of Gala, it is sharing flat, it is singing with each other, it is getting introduced to new music, it is drinking liters of tea with each other, it is forgiving, it is knowing each others families, it is driving home for Christmas together, it is being there for each other, it is borrowing a shower or bath, it is reading your blog, it is listening to your podcast and watching films with you, it is cooking for you, it is waking you up in the morning, it is travelling with each other , it is staying up all night to talk, it is arguing and finding conclusions, it is playing dice poker, it is organising theme parties, it is making coffee for each other, it is playing sing star, it is texting sms during boring meetings – it is love. Thanks to all of you who have been patient with me in 2006 and who have shared ups and downs with me. Luckily the contract of our friendship is not terminated.

Bettina is ready to tackle 2007

2007-01-02T22:46:00.001+01:00

lots of love and power to you all

Christmas in salzburg

2006-12-25T23:53:00.000+01:00

children playing - having fun

2006-12-22T12:08:00.000+01:00

If you like Christmas you got to celebrate it. After Climo made me listen to “Merry Christmas everyone” approximately 17 times, we were in a Christmas mood. The flat was full of candles and smell of mulled wine, cinnamon and almonds. We baked ginger bread, mainly ginger bread teddies and decorated them with sugar stuff, chocolate and lots of creativity. My favourite still being “measles bear”. The flat smells now more like beer and cigarettes, but yesterday, yes yesterday it smelled very much like Christmas.

folklore

2006-12-19T14:28:00.000+01:00

I had a very interesting folkloristic experience yesterday. I was invited by the Autrian National Youth Council to their Christmas Party. They decided to show the richness of their member organisations, which in practical terms meant that the rural youth made a show. And if I say show I truly mean show. The “Aufriss plattler” appeared in Lederhosen and accompanied by women in Dirndl to dance for us “Schuh Plattler”. Although I grew up on the countryside I have never seen such an act live. I was seriously overwhelmed. I made little videos with my mobile phone. Who ever is interested in finding out more about Austrian folklore dancing, just write me an e-mail and I will gladly send the videos to you!

cause its christmas time

2006-12-16T15:01:00.000+01:00

Ok- here is my confession. I LOOOOOOVE Christmas. I am well aware of the fact that Christmas songs 24/7 are a bit annoying, but I know their lyrics, their melodies and can any time sing along, which is kinda cheerful. I like buying presents for people that I care about. Most of all I like spending time with people I care about; and by the end of the year I always take time for my family, that most of them make excellent cookies is indeed an additional motivation. The good thing about my family at Christmas is, usually they are spread all over the country, but for Christmas we all meet at my Grannies. This means it is way less complicated to manage to see them all. But also now, I am a few days in Vienna and catching up with friends, talking things over, going to Christmas markets, drinking plenty of mulled wine, having fun and party but also time for myself. Just sorting things in my life and calming down a bit. Surely there are always people who I would like to have with me and spend time with but I do not manage. That is partly the theme of my life, it happens less during Christmas, but it does. There are people who I miss. Most important and despite everything - I love Christmas time, I really do.

christmas around the corner

2006-12-14T13:23:00.000+01:00

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with string,

Cream coloured ponies and crisp apple strudel,
Door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings,

Girls in white dresses and blue satin sashes,
Snow-flakes that stay on my nose and eye-lashes,
Silver white win-ters that melt into spring,
These are a few of my favorite things,

When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel, so bad.

the new team

2006-12-12T11:43:00.000+01:00

I am happy!

Medellín II

2006-12-05T15:56:00.000+01:00

Part of the visit to Medellín was site visits to local empowerment projects. We passed by Moravia, the highest populated area in Medellín with 42 000 inhabitants and only 0,37 square meters of space per person. It is an illegal settlement built on top of a dumpster. Moravia is now one of the main development priorities of the municipality; the main investment is made for reallocation of 4426 homes, entrepreneurship and the quality enhancement of education.
We also went with a gondola to Santo Domingo, a beautiful but poor area in Medellín, where we met young girls involved in a leadership development project which uses art to reach out to as many young people as possible. In the framework of the “Library Park Project” Santo Domingo is getting one of 5 great knowledge centres, devoted to culture and civic encounter.
It is fascinating to get to know the city a bit, to have the opportunity to learn about concrete local projects and how the municipality together with NGOs is trying to combat poverty and violence. One more note about the breakfast, the group moved hotel, and now the breakfast pergola is next to a river and in the middle of tropical greenery. There is just an awesome fresh fruit selection every day; I love countries where “5 a day” can be done already by breakfast.

And as I was asked, why I have this unique opportunity to be in Columbian sun and rain whilst half of Europe is undoubtedly heading towards winter. I am here for the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO), which was established in 2004 as an initiative of the major global youth NGOs and regional youth platform to strengthen and develop global and regional youth cooperation.
And a special thanks needs to be made public to our translators, who had a very tuff job throughout the meeting, first and foremost Pablo, but also Paola and Arturo. Thank you.

Medellín

2006-12-02T14:42:00.000+01:00

I am finally after a long long journey in Medellin, Columbia. Traveling today is not so nice, because one is not really seen as a Human being, not to talk about treated like a paying customer, no, every one of us is mainly an alleged terrorist. This makes traveling much less fun then it anyways ever was. So after traveling 23 hours, spending half of the time in planes and the other one in queues for security, passport and customs checks, I finally arrived with the boys in Medellin.
Medellin is Colombias’s second largest city with approximately 3 million inhabitants. It is nestled in the Aburrá valley, between two Andean mountain ranges. So we drove down in the dark, from one of these mountains seeing the whole town with all its lights shining below us. So my first impression of Medellin was very impressive. The city is called the place of eternal spring, because it has a very mild climate and everything is very green here. Medellin is also know for “el Metro” the only subway system in Columbia, its stunning mountain views and the warmth of its population of “paisas”.
Thanks to the eternal spring here I just had the best breakfast that I can possibly imagine. Those of you who traveled or stayed with me somewhere the last years must be painfully aware how much my mood depends on breakfast. If someone wants to sell me a dry facial peeling mask as bread, they not see me smile (staying often in France, where they have no breakfast culture what so ever, no choices of bread and basically eat chocolate on cotton wool made me often grumpy) . So the quality of a breakfast depends on a number of things, number of different bread types, number of ways that you can have your egg prepared, variety of cereals and fresh fruit. And the 2nd of December 2006 will go into my diary as the day where I had the best fresh pineapples ever in my life! Thank you eternal spring of Medellin.

swing it baby

2006-11-29T15:39:00.000+01:00

The big hit, the number one demand at my local children parliament is the “korbschaukel” a swing that is essentially a basket. All kids seem to want it, and the ordinary swings that I used to swing on as a child seem to be totally uncool. So see this as a tribute to the new generations of swingers.

never forget

2006-11-28T16:43:00.000+01:00

The term "euthanasia" (literally, "good death") usually refers to the inducement of a painless death for a chronically or terminally ill individual. In Nazi usage, however, "euthanasia" was a euphemistic term for a clandestine program that targeted for systematic killing institutionalized mentally and physically disabled patients or those who supposedly have ill genetic heritage, without the knowledge or consent of themselves or their families. Children with disabilities or diagnosed as idiots (some of them even healthy but bedraggled), brought to Vienna’s “Otto Wagner Hospital” am Spiegelgrung, a specially designated paediatric clinic, were murdered by lethal overdoses of medication or by starvation. Some 800 infants, toddlers, and juveniles are estimated to have been killed between 1940 and 1945. The deaths of hundreds of Spiegelgrund children were accelerated through lack of food and neglect. The drugs they received sometimes helped to bring on fatal pneumonia - which could then be registered as "death from natural causes". Today I attended the annual commemoration ceremony where letters of parents were read, who wanted to get their children out of the hospital again; of children that wrote to their parents and clinical records of the victims. After the children were killed, body parts such as their limps, but mainly their brains were kept for scientific purposes; their remains were only buried in 2002.
It is really hard to put my speechlessness into words.
Find out more about it here

smile

2006-11-23T11:53:00.000+01:00

Don't need the sun to shine
To make me smile
Don't care if it's dark outside
And though the rain may fall
No I won't care at all
Don't need a rocket man
To help me touch the sky
I don't need to fly a plane
To get this high
Don't need the sun to shine
To make me smile

benedict XVI

2006-11-22T20:01:00.000+01:00

Pope Benedict is considering whether to allow Catholics to wear a condom to protect themselves from AIDS. A study was carried out on the use of condoms, both from the scientific as well as the moral point of view. Vatican experts say the study is seen as a potential opening towards the use of condoms, which are strictly forbidden under current church rules.

The United Nations released its annual report on the spread of the disease on Tuesday. It said AIDS is spreading with worrisome signs of resurgence in some countries that were trumpeted as successes in combating it. But the prevalence of HIV among young people has declined in eight African countries, showing that prevention efforts can work.

An estimated 39.5 million people are now living with HIV, the report said. Of that total 4.3 million became infected this year. There have been 2.9 million AIDS deaths in 2006, the highest number reported in any year. The comparable figures in 2004 were 36.9 million living with HIV, 3.9 million new infections and 2.7 million deaths.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, infection rates have risen by more than 50 per cent since 2004. The number of new infections in the US has remained stable at 40,000. In China, official media reported that HIV/AIDS cases have grown by nearly 30 per cent this year.

Maybe it would indeed be time for the Catholic Church to get real.