Samstag, November 07, 2009
Worte über Mama
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.
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.
Montag, November 17, 2008
leaving the forum
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!
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!
Montag, Juli 14, 2008
mental health
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
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
Donnerstag, Juli 10, 2008
how democratic are our democracies?
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.
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.
Dienstag, Juli 08, 2008
Work and family life balance
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.
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.
Montag, Juli 07, 2008
Refugee Rights
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.
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.
Mittwoch, Juli 02, 2008
Integration and participation of youth in local and regional life
“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.
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
this one is for Diogo!
Freitag, Jänner 11, 2008
work makes work
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!
Donnerstag, Dezember 20, 2007
its presents time
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.
Mittwoch, Dezember 19, 2007
nothing is certain
“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
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!
Montag, Dezember 17, 2007
friends weekend
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!
Donnerstag, Dezember 13, 2007
its a miracle...
...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!
Mittwoch, Dezember 12, 2007
almost over now
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.
Dienstag, Dezember 11, 2007
message to ther heads of states
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
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
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.
Mittwoch, Oktober 24, 2007
the word of the day is
defenestrate
Dienstag, Oktober 23, 2007
Sisyphos work to be done...
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.
