Maarten de Groot, member of AEGEE-Amsterdam is the Manager of “Think before you Vink”, a campaign on behalf of AEGEE in the run-up to the referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which will be held on April 6th. We asked him for more info about this campaign and the activities concerning this topic.

During the Network Meeting (NWM) in Delft, in November 2015, Loes Rutten (AEGEE-Utrecht and Network Commissioner) started the discussion on the referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association within AEGEE. During a couple of Skype meetings with active AEGEEans interested in the topic, a basic outline of an AEGEE campaign was established. Members decided to launch an open call for campaign team members, because they needed more human resources to make their ideas come true. After a successful recruitment period, they managed to form a campaign team consisting of fifteen AEGEEans from six Dutch locals. In order to organise their work efficiently, they distinguished between a Core Team and three sub-teams (Content Team, PR Team, Video Team).

The following AEGEEans are members of the campaign team: Femke Lokhorst and Steven Hagen from AEGEE-Delft; Willem Laurentzen and Matthijs Dirks from AEGEE-Nijmegen; Rick Kloosterman from AEGEE-Groningen; Sien Rongen and Jeroen van Rijn from AEGEE-Utrecht; Isabel Louhenapessy from AEGEE-Leiden; Gijs van Amerongen, Leonie Francien Sellies, Herman Hilverda, Tessel Peereboom, Maxime Nelissen, Margreet Clemens, and Maarten De Groot from AEGEE-Amsterdam.

Since July 2015, a new Dutch law has come into force, which allows citizens to call for an advisory referendum on many of the bills that pass Parliament, as long as they collect the right amount of signatures (i.e. 10.000 in the first and 300.000 in the second round). The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was the first bill to pass the Parliament after this law had come into force, and a number of organisations working under the name of GeenPeil have taken this as a first opportunity to launch a citizens’ initiative. The basic reason behind their initiative is that citizens must have a more direct say in the political decision-making processes, and European ones in particular. They managed to collect 428.000 signatures, which is more than enough to call for a referendum.

The Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine would tighten the cooperation between the EU and Ukraine considerably. Most of the 323 pages of juridical text concern trade and economic cooperation, but others relate to the fight against corruption, strengthening the rule of law, human rights, and easing visa regulations.

‘Vink’ means ‘to tick a box’ in Dutch, which is what you do when you go to vote, so the campaign name basically states ‘think before you vote’. This is also what the team essentially wants to convey and facilitate with their campaign. They want to inform young Dutch people about the Association Agreement and the referendum in general, to involve them actively in balanced discussions on the topic, and to encourage them to cast a well-considered, well informed vote.

“We notice that many people in the Netherlands do not really know what to do with this referendum. The topic is a complex one, and not everyone is convinced that it is well-suited for a referendum. With our campaign we hope to stimulate Dutch youth not to take for granted their democratic right to vote, and to use it responsibly. That is to say, whether young Dutch people decide to vote or not, and if so to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is up to them, but we want them to take this decision only after careful deliberation” says Maarten.

The team started the campaign during the EPM Fair in Leiden, on February 27th. Subsequently, it held a lecture in Delft on March 4th, with Vasyl Myroshnychenko and Laura Starink, on the wider context of the Association Agreement. It was a successful event, in a room packed with 60 participants.

The biggest event took place on April 3rd, in Amsterdam: the Big Referendum Afternoon. There was an academic introduction of the topic of EU-referendums, followed by debates between six Presidents of Dutch youth political organisations, and a debate between a member of the Dutch national parliament for GroenLinks, the Dutch Left-wing Green Party and a member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Socialist Party. After this three-hour program, there was be the opportunity to talk to Ukrainians during a “living library” event combined with social drinks.

More information about the program of the AEGEE campaign can be found on their website or Facebook-page, mostly in Dutch.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

From Rome to Kuala Lumpur, from Cleveland to even Moscow, Ukrainians and representatives of different countries (some from Europe, some from Russia, Georgia and even Belarus) gathered in the main squares of Kiev to show that, regardless of where they live in the world, they support the EuroMaidan protests. The protests have been going on for more than two weeks (21^st of November up until today) and despite the bad weather conditions, threats and lack of sleep, Ukrainian protesters have remained at the Independence Square called Maidan. They have returned to the location of the «Orange Revolution» in 2004. But the situation is different now.

When I read about people gathering at Maidan, I was in Brussels, the “centre” of the EU. I found it difficult to imagine the spirit of the people protesting in Kiev. And honestly, I was also very mistrustful of the desirable “better future” that people were protesting for. The reason of my skepticism was caused by a sad conclusion – that after gaining Independence 22 years ago our politicians could not create a country that doesn’t need any help from others. And we still have to ask for money and choose which partner to work for. I did not expect that in two weeks everything could change. And I was so wrong.

A bit of background

On 30th March 2012 the European Union (EU) and Ukraine signed an Association Agreement. However, the EU leaders later stated that the agreement would not be ratified unless Ukraine addressed concerns over a “stark deterioration of democracy and the rule of law”, including the imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko in 2011 and 2012 . On 21st November 2013 a Ukrainian government decree suspended preparations for the signing of the association agreement. The reason given was that during the previous months Ukraine had experienced “a drop in industrial production and our relations with the Commonwealth of Independent Countries (CIS)”.

The day when Ukraine rose again

The first protest started that day. Approximately 2,000 people gathered on Maidan after these breaking news. During the first week up untill the 29th of November, the number of people kept on increasing. The students of the main universities left lectures and went to Maidan. On 27th November it was reported that Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute staff allegedly checked class attendance, threatening truant students who attend Kiev’s EuroMaidan rallies with expulsion. In other universities, administrators have forbidden students from joining pro-EU protests, posting political commentary to social media networks, and wearing Ukraine-EU ribbons. The nation rose up after nine long years of waiting for a better life. On the 28th and 29th of November when our President Yanukovych did attend the EU summit in Vilnius the Association Agreement was not signed. The number of protesters in Kiev went up to 10,000. In Lviv, protesters numbered some 20,000. As in Kiev, the Lviv protesters locked hands in a human chain, symbolically linking Ukraine to the European Union. No party symbols were there, only Ukrainian flags and the EU flags.

I will always remember the night and the morning of the 30th of November. My friends and I were going home around 3.25 am and decided to pass by Maidan. I was surprised to see only around 300-400 people as five hours before I had checked Facebook and the Maidan was absolutely crowded with protesters. They were singing and dancing near the main monument that symbolises our Independence. Most of them were young guys and girls, some journalists and people from other cities who didn’t have anywhere to go. If I do have the angel who protects me I think I was protected by him that night. In half an hour when I was sleeping at home, these peaceful people were attacked by the Berkut special police units, armed with batons, stun grenades, and tear gas (the video is almost deleted from the Internet). Berkut forces chased unarmed people several hundreds of metres and continued to kick them and beat them with batons. 35 people were injured as a result of the militia raid, including a Reuters cameraman and a photographer. Other protesters were detained. Most of the protesters were students. At 09:20 the Berkut besieged the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery where approximately 50 Euromaidan activists, including the injured, found sanctuary.

Have you heard the explanation of these cruel actions? I’ve never been so angry and ashamed of my government as when they claimed that protesters were interfering with preparations to decorate the square for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. In the morning this Christmas tree was characterised as “bloody” and we all lost the desire to celebrate Christmas with our government.

From this day onwards, the protests ceased to be about the EU Agreement. The protests are now about human rights; the rights of every Ukrainian and our dignity. On the 1^st of December, Kiev’s District Administrative Court banned further protests in downtown Kiev at both Maidan and European Square, as well as in front of the Presidential Administration and Interior Ministry buildings, until the 7th of January 2014; nevertheless, on this day, around 500, 000 gathered on Maidan. The feeling was just incredible. Me and some other AEGEEans made posters to show our position. We stood with other people with smiles on our faces, with hope in our eyes, singing the national anthem all together and I’ve never believed in my nation so much. When the opposition appeared on the stage I thought that we had leaders and a chance to change things in Ukraine. Three of them – Vitaliy Klitchko (famous boxer from his party «Udar»(«Hit»), Arseniy Yatsceniuk from «Batkivscshina» («Homeland» – Yulia Timoshenko is also from this party) and Oleg Tyagnybok «Svoboda» («Freedom» – right nationalistic party) created the Opposition and said many words but there were no actions. While we were standing there, some people were already near the President’s office (ten minutes walking from Maidan) and the chaos began. We were aware that provocateurs were working against us but no one expected that a bulldozer would suddenly appear on the street without being stopped by Berkut. Many, many times there were posts on Facebook asking for the opposition to come to solve the problem but no one came. Many guys were beaten again when they were trying to talk to the police and now nine young innocent people are in jail. Now the media all over the world is telling this story in a different manner.

The 1^st of December was the start of another protest. A protest against bribes, corruption and against the permissiveness of the authorities that came in 2010 with Yanukovich. Against the brutal system where the winner is the one who pays more, where drunk drivers who killed a girl can pay the right people and be set free, where old people live on 1200 grivnas (120 euros) per month. We are waiting for an adequate plan from the opposition who don’t do anything. I do not blame them, as who knows, maybe they have been threatened by the President. But after today’s march of millions I don’t think people need that much support from them. The new leaders have been born on Maidan. Some of them are well-known active citizens, singers, writers or journalists and they have stood on Maidan from the very beginning.

There are many things that I would like to explain, illustrate or prove to my friends abroad to break the stereotypes they have from the media. However, I will sum up what I feel is most important. All that is mentioned above and below are only my personal thoughts and conclusions:

 1. Maidan is supported everywhere in Ukraine

As every coin has two sides, Maidan is not supported by everyone. Many people in the West of the country gathered in Lviv and other Western cities during the very first days of the pro-EU protests. But during the first week when the main issue was the Association, people mostly on the East gathered to show their negative attitude towards it. And they had a right to do that. Even now you can find such different opinionated comments on the Internet.

2. Protesters’ main aim is signing the Association Agreement

After the events on Friday, one week ago, it is not about EU or Russia anymore. Some call it useless some say there is no alternative but protesters want to show that they are fed up with the attitude towards them and they do not want to live like this anymore. Now it is not about following the leader who will change something, is about creating these changes in the system so that no one will be allowed to give bribes or to put innocent people in jail. I honestly admire their strength. The real problem is that there is no strong leader to follow. The opposition seems to be frightened by the number of protesters but they cannot just leave now as too many rely on them.  I spoke to an old lady, Oksana, who came to Kyiv from Lviv and has already been protesting for ten days. «We stand here but we don’t know who we stand for. Nevertheless, we have to be strong as we are the hope for many. It is our last chance to show that we do not agree with the way the government treats us».

3. Protesters are against Russians

The relationship between Ukraine and Russia will always be a difficult issue because of our common past. It is true that in the West, the Russians are not the most popular of nations. But not everyone feels this way. Despite the fact that protests are forbidden in Moscow after «Bolotnoe case», many Russians went to the city centre holding the poster «Russia is not Putin» (AEGEE-Moskva as well). There will always be the ones who will just follow the stereotypes but I believe that smart ones understand the fact that Russians are not the same. There is an interview on YouTube where a Ukrainian protester from Lviv is saying «We are okay here, it was much worse in Moscow and I’m really sorry for them». Now I am happy to see that throughout Facebook people are united.

“Putin! Hands off from Ukraine! Let people live!”. The protest in Moscow.

4. People are paid to go to Maidan

That’s what most of Ukrainians who watch TV think. Moreover they are told that drunk, homeless and ill ones are staying there because they have nothing else to do. That is not true. I am a skeptical person and do not believe things without finding out for myself. In the last two weeks I have been on Maidan more times than during the summer. I actually don’t like this touristic place but now it feels like home there. When I first went there I was offered hot tea and some food, I saw how the protesters cleaned the street and how they throw out drunk people, how my friends’ mom and Miss Ukraine 2013 come there after work to cook, how people from the West of the country explain to ones of the East what’s the difference between the dialects. And the best part when every three hours the anthem is sang by everyone. It inspires more than any speech of an amazing politician because it is real.

“I am not paid to be here” written in the sticker

5. The protest is violent and protesters are aggressive

People gathered on Maidan came from different cities and have their own past and beliefs. There are representatives of the right nationalistic party «Freedom» who are quite aggressive, like their leader. But from the very beginning with the help of social network the information about provocateurs spread very fast and this helped to avoid many fights. The events on Friday night when the Berkut beat protesters were shown in five different ways as each TV-channel has it’s own owner and some of them are politicians. During these two weeks the authorities tried to create the provocations using Berkut and Titushky (widely used term in Ukrainian mass media for street hooligans who are suspected to be sponsored by government). But I am very proud my people because many times I’ve seen that they are not paying attention to any of the provocations. I saw a guy playing the piano in front of the police, girls giving them flowers and women offering them sandwiches. Maidan is full of kind and smart people.

6. There are only nationalists there 

It is hard to say what everyone thinks. The most popular slogan that can be heard everywhere and works like a password: «Glory to Ukraine – glory to heroes» and it is quite controversial if you know Ukrainian history. It is the slogan of Stepan Bandera’s army who collaborated with Nazis during the World War II on the West. They wanted the Independence of Ukraine and fought against the Red Army. The second part of the slogan is «Glory to the nation – death to the enemies» and it is scary to hear that in the crowd of even 100 people. But in my view, the majority doesn’t want to discuss the past as they are focused on the future. That’s why «Glory to Ukraine – glory to heroes» is so popular at Maidan. And if it would be created only now, two weeks ago, no one would say they are nationalists.

7. Goodbye, Lenin ©

The news that Lenin’s statue was demolished appeared everywhere around 6 p.m. BBC.UK reported: “A Statue of Lenin, a symbol of Ukrainian-Russian relations, was pulled down today”. This sentence was everywhere, and I wonder since when was Lenin a symbol of Ukrainian-Russian relations? He is the symbol of revolution, socialism, but not our relations. But if you had no idea about anything which happens in the country what would you think? Those terrible Ukrainian protesters do not respect the common past. In half an hour one of the representatives of «Freedom» party said that it was made by them. It’s not a big surprise as this party always wanted to do that. But what surprised me personally is that no one stopped them. The police were there but they had no reaction. And in the morning everyone was talking about it. Just a strange coincidence to create another issue to discuss and forget about the aim of Maidan, maybe? But it’s only my opinion.

8. Bombs in the metro and panic on Facebook

Coming back to work after the weekend is indeed a strange feeling. I have my ribbon with the Ukrainian flag colours on my bag and in my hair, heard «Slava Ukraini» between my colleagues and was updating the news pages every five to ten minutes. While the main issue was still Lenin’s statue, the pictures of «Berkut’s» buses started to appear on Facebook and it was around midday. Live streams worked very badly till 3 am and then stopped. Pictures with «Berkut» occupying the streets that were blocked by protesters started to appear everywhere. The messages asking women and kids to leave Maidan were terrifying. Three central metro stations were closed due to the anonymous message about bombs. Smart decision from the government’s side as even my colleagues rushed to Maidan to support the protesters. The forces stood there without doing anything and it looked like psychological frightening. Nevertheless, they moved the protesters’ tents from some government’s buildings but didn’t go to Maidan. And during the following days “Berkut” is coming closer and closer to the protesters. I hope that they will remember that we all fight for our future. People are screaming “The police is with the people” and “Do not follow this order” to stop them. Around 500 young girls are still staying on Maidan. Every night is like a nightmare and each morning opening Facebook I pray not to see messages about the victims as this government is ready to do everything.

9. Media about Maidan

Studying public relations and working with journalists has given me some knowledge about the creation of the News. Despite the very fast growth of the official EuroMaidan page, TV still has a huge influence on the older generation. Not only in Ukraine, the News is used to manipulate people and this is especially effective on those who have never been to Maidan. On the 4^th of December I was woken up by my mom’s call telling me that a man died on Maidan because of tuberculosis. «It was shown on the news!» – she claimed. – «Don’t go there!». I decided to check the Internet. The news appeared right on the first page as a banner. And it looked like an advertisement.

I clicked on it and the korrrespondent.net website appeared. Recently it was one of the best media but it was bought by the politician who supports Yanukovich. All the journalists refused to write what they had been told and resigned. Now the whole team is new.

The article’s headline is «The risk of catching tuberculosis on Maidan is very high now!» and the text contained only a few sentences. «The man had tuberculosis in his lungs and he died on Maidan – the police said. UNIAN (Ukrainian paid news agency) reported that he was found dead on Maidan in the morning. The doctors advise against going to Maidan as the virus could still be there.

No links to the source, no names, no pictures. No possibility to comment. But the panic started. I decided to check the profile of the journalist and noticed that she is the top-blogger. Okay, this fact gives some reliability.

Unless she has only two posts and one of them was written on the 20th of July. Definitely, the top blogger. And when I was watching the video about the Russian journalist who got an Oscar for his lie about the events in Ukraine, the banner appeared once again.

One more example. This picture is taken during the protest in Greece.

This is the same picture but with the help of Photoshop it looks like it was taken on Maidan.

P. S. This is probably the best Christmas tree we have ever had!

Written by Annie Smailikova, AEGEE-Kyiv

Whether you watch it with your family, with your friends or with The AEGEEan, it doesn’t matter if some songs are “ unlisteneable” or just awesome, if some performances are genious or lame, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is always a unique experience, that keeps fascinating Europeans year after year, and is always the subject of discussions and emotions. 

Watching ESC with the AEGEEan

There’s no doubt that the Eurovision unites people. That’s why this year the AEGEEan decided to try to watch it with as many people as possible and created a very successful Facebook group. The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most long-lasting television shows. It was launched for the first time in 1956 and every year the competition was a great success, whether you liked the winner or not. The Eurovision has become the symbol of a united Europe, something that goes beyond the border of the European Union as well as a tradition within families or between friends.

Should the Eurovision be free of political statements?
Some things that took place in Malmö touched upon big political discussions, and some of those opinions were shared on our Facebook group as well. One example was the debate following the Finnish kiss: should the Eurovision be free of political statements?

Some of you would says yes, others no. In my personal opinion politics are part of our everyday life, even though we don’t pay attention to it.  Art, and therefore music, is a means of expression, it’s a way to make  your voice heard and if your feelings are about changes in your society, then you are more than empowered to do it. Of course nothing on earth would authorize someone to make an electoral campaign, to insult someone or to support any form of  non-democratic government that harm human rights. Political messages are always incidental to music. ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ by U2, ‘A great day for freedom’ by Pink Floyd, ‘Hammer to fal’l by Queen, ‘London Calling’ by The Clash, ‘Blowin’ in the wind’ by Bob Dylan, and ‘Civil War’ by Guns ‘n Roses are only a few examples.

How about Finland’s performance? I think that it’s more than a political issue;  gay marriage  is a social and natural fact which still has to be legalized in Finland by law.  Miss Siegfrids was only trying to attire the attention upon a social need that hasn’t yet been solved so she was fighting for a cause for all 107.000 Finnish  people that signed the petition in favour of same-sex marriage. The more conservative part of Europe complained about the lesbian kiss, especially Turkey who refused to broadcast the ESC final.

Quotes from the facebook group
“At least Eurovision is being useful to raise awareness!” -Miguel Gallardo Albajar

“By not broadcasting they admit that it is a political statement for them, while it could have been just some people kissing, which their peoples can disapprove of by not voting for them…” – Paul Smits

“The glass box is a political statement”(Azerbaijan). But no one payed attention to that. Was the reference too deep? Or too far?  The answer is up to you.” – Patriks Kiršs

“Belgian heroes: Again a winner without shoes.” #trend – Mathieu Soete

“The eye of sauron watches over Azerbaijan in the back” -Patriks Kiršs

“What is Cristiano Ronaldo doing in Norway?” – Juan Luis Toboso Garcia

“Germans could have given us (The Netherlands, ed.) some points for taking our bikes” – Paul Smits

“Montenegro was the two astronauts rapping on dubstep, right?” – Marije Arentze

“The best comment by the German TV: “This is what we needed, Modern Talking reborn as Earl Dracula” – Stephanie Müller

Thank you for watching ESC with us and we look forward to repeating the experience again next year! 

Written by Cosmina Bisboaca, AEGEE-Torino

Pictures courtesy of FlickR

The existence of Eurosceptical opinions and movements in the European continent is not a big surprise for anyone. And even though last year the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the promotion of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe, still every day some tough opinions are expressed by different officials and activists regarding the future of the EU.

One thing is for sure, conservatism as a European political category could not be considered as a direct threat to any pan-European idea. Even more, through conservatism it is possible to present quite non-conservative approaches and try to bring forward interests of quite big groups.

Simultaneously, it is undeniable that populist forces are on the rise in most European countries – North and South, East and West – and that they resort to anti-EU rhetoric to increase their political and electoral support. The very recent combination of the global financial and economic crises with the particular European sovereign debt crisis, crucial political and economic instability in Greece, Italy and now already in Cyprus, incredibly high rates of unemployment, for example, in Spain, still not so clear internal political and legal developments in Hungary and many other unpleasant processes for the EU as a system have only and directly strengthened the conservative, Eurosceptical and populist trends within the EU. It is also equally undeniable that the mainstream parties all over EU now embrace some elements of that rhetoric  to achieve more local goals. The UK example could be considered the best one, which shows how it is easily possible to earn local benefits through developing an anti-EU populism. Yes, yes, you are right! I was hinting on the UK Prime Minister H.E. David Cameron for his breathtaking and extremely interesting, speculative and controversial Bloomberg speech of January 24, 2013. Some may argue that about 2 months have already passed since that and several processes and developments have already undergone, but I would still focus on it as it was a totally controversial one. The existence of the Eurosceptical and in some cases even isolationistic approaches in the UK has already become a common thing, but it has been totally new thing for the UK PM officially to promise the EU exit by referendum to the UK citizens.

In my opinion, Mr. Cameron has raised rather crucial questions such as the Eurozone crisis and its future, European competitiveness, place and role of nation states in the EU. I would have to agree with the UK PM on the point that these problems have been around for too long, while the progress in dealing with them is mostly far too slow. But frankly speaking, these are not only the questions or problems which bother the British society, but the communities and public opinion in many other corners of the EU. I don’t think that playing somehow the role of the tough conservative, who also promises to hold a referendum to exit the EU, is the best solution in this regard.

Of course, the rise and decline of populist forces and the spread of Eurosceptical rhetoric have not always gone hand-in-hand. Particularly, as the practice shows, the Nordic states have long experienced recurrent surges of populist parties and lists, usually driven by tax revolts, while being mostly indifferent to the issue of European integration and enlargement. On the contrary, the UK government and politicians who have always expressed their disagreement on the situation in the Union, support any EU integration, enlargement process and even accession of the new members to the EU.

In any circumstance, one thing is clear: conservatism could never be considered a threat to the EU common values unless it gets populist colors. Additionally, as the practice shows, in case the decision makers take into account the positive approaches of the conservatives, the decisions even on the highest level become more comprehensive and express the opinion of the wider segments of society. So, maybe the remedy for the Europe-wide happiness is simple:  “Yes to conservatism, no to populism”.

But as my Grandfather has used to say – let’s live and see!

Written by Armenak Minasyants, AEGEE-Europe CD Assistant/Policy Officer on European Integration

Photos courtesy of Tsoline Aleksanyan, AEGEE-Yerevan

Bread, education, freedom: the three basic human rights according to students who started a rebellion on November 17^th, 1973 in Athens against the dictator, and finally managed to initiate something that would bring dictatorship in my country to an end.

But how different is our government today, especially on the subject of education? My country has been severely damaged by the economic crisis, making it difficult for many to even have food on the table for their family, or even for themselves. Also, freedom of speech has been wiped out by the media that, instead of focusing on the peace demonstrations fighting for our rights or opinions, they prefer to focus on the minority that joined the group and that starts vandalizing the city of Athens, and using it as propaganda and spreading havoc to the rest of the world, eventually creating stereotypes about my country. Freedom of speech is coming to an end, but what about education? In my country, a war has just started last week between the Minister of Education, and professors and students of third level education. But let me start from the beginning and get you to understand this better.

I study Accounting at the Technical Educational Institution (TEI) of Patra. It is, if not the best, one of the best throughout my country when it comes to Accountancy. It is a department within the  Faculty of Management and Economics (FME), where there are three other departments. The TEI of Patra has three faculties, and is one of the oldest TEI in Greece, with at least 25000 students altogether. Throughout the year, I heard that many departments of TEI throughout the country would either be absorbed by other departments, or would be closed down. “This is ridiculous,” was my only thought on the subject, and did not dwell on it more, because it sounded as if people were underestimating the Minister of doing something so stupid and creating rumors.

Thursday, January 31^st, 2013
As everyone knows, amidst exams all students  study and try to pass as many exams as possible, as I was doing as well. I logged on to Facebook to see if there might be anything on my departments group page that might help my studying (like notes), and I saw quite a few comments implying something I never believed I would see, but only telling us to catch the eight o’clock news.

So I did, and heard something unbelievable: out of the many TEI departments playing a dancing game on the map of my country, moving from one city to the other, absorbing into one department all departments throughout the country, was my department and all of FME moving. The TEI of Patra is threatened by the finally announced plans of the minister that it will lose one third of its students. The Accounting department would move to Mesologgi, and become one with the department there. “Has the minister gone nuts?” I was thinking, “Will the value of my diploma be downgraded just because a minister is taking me to Mesologgi in September 2013? Will the minister choose for me what to study, by broadening the subject of my studies in the new department, although I chose what to study myself? I must do something about it.” It seems that online were many students feeling the same, and a few implied that our professors are agreeing with us. We decided to have an FME meeting the next day.

Friday, February 1^st, 2013
What a great way to start your month, by knowing you are a pawn on a chessboard for a minister! What next? Does he want me to tour my country from corner to corner? My exams today were cancelled, because we chose to occupy all FME departments and have the meeting at 1pm, so everyone would be present. After a three hour meeting, because a meeting of 7000 students is difficult to manage, we decided upon two routes for our peace demonstration in the city center, on two separate dates: Saturday and Monday.

Saturday, February 2^nd, 2013
So our gathering today was at 12pm at Georgiou Square, in the center of Patra. Today our goal was to raise awareness of the people of Patra that they were losing 7000 students, and show them that this isn’t acceptable, even for their own community’s economy. Patra is a student city, and mainly depends on them. So by raising awareness of the population and permanent residents, we may be able to pressure the Minister himself! I mean, we are not the only city having students on the streets protesting! “You, staring at us walking on the street! Come and join our cause and help us stay in Patra!” was one of our cries while our peace demonstration on the streets. We walked for five kilometers, and by the time we finished our demonstration, all professors from FME had joined us! We were back at the square again, shouting for help and awareness of our cause.

Monday, February 4^th, 2013
Our meeting today was at 10am, and started from the one end of Patra, all the way to the center, walking once again five kilometers, to reach the mayor this time. Our professors had a meeting today at the TEI figuring out other proposals to negotiate with the Minister. When we started blocking the road to start our demonstration, the police arrived, only to tell us that they support our cause and would like to accompany us of the minimal possibility of anyone getting hurt. Of course no one got hurt, but it was nice that the police did not stop us and showed people in the cars behind us that they supported us. Our cry out of the many today was “We want diplomas of value, not passports to unemployment!”

So we reached the mayor after two hours of walking, and we spoke to him. After speaking with him, he said that he was on our side, and to make it official he would, that very day, declare it in the press and on the local channel. The channels that were there, not only invited the mayor for a live interview during the lunch news, but also students to go and speak on television about their cause and problems.

At 6.30pm, we went to the Responsible of the Western Region of Greece. There, came all representatives of all TEI of Western Greece (Arta, Mesologgi, Nafpaktos, Agrinio, Patra, Amaliada, Aigio, Pirgos, Kefallonia, Zakinthos), since they were facing similar problems as well. In a nutshell, Mesologgi will lose many departments that will move to Agrinio. Arta, Nafpaktos, Amaliada, Aigio, Kefallonia, Zakinthos and Pirgos will seize to exist in September of 2013, and Patra will lose one of it’s three pillars which will move to Mesologgi. After the two hour meeting, the Responsible of Western Greece gave a chance to us students that were attend the meeting in the same room, to speak about our problems to him. Finally, the outcome was that on the 18^th of February, another meeting would be scheduled to negotiate on proposals, and to send them to the Minister himself.

To be continued? Surely yes, but hoping the Minister of Greece takes back his future educational plan, and all of us would be able to say that this was only just a dream, but I may be dreaming myself for a day like this to come! I won’t leave Patra on their terms, especially for something like this, and for someone to downgrade my diploma!

Written by John Eikosidekas, AEGEE-Patra

“Do the textbooks we learn from in school reveal and shape national attitudes?” This was the title for the first online thematic discussion of the renewed Culture Working Group (CWG) that was held in early December 2012. Even though it was a rather cold evening, there we were ten enthusiast members to discuss the power of textbooks and to influence one another from a cultural and national point of view.

So, why focusing on such a topic? After all, textbooks are the first books that children have in their hands and that somehow shape their first perceptions of the world. Their contents are mostly decided upon by governments, who might use their influence to introduce a rather nationalistic component. As the discussion went further, we realized that this was more complicated than it seemed.

West vs. East: Do we as Europeans learn the same?

One of the things that shocked most of us immediately was that, whereas most of the Central and Eastern European countries have a wider overview on Europe’s history, Western European students tend to focus more on their area and simply forget about the East. “We only learn about the USSR, the fall of the Soviet Union, and not much more”, most of them recalled.

All the members agreed that, as Europeisation is going further, it is essential to learn more about our neighbours and try avoiding such Western-centrism. Kristóf Papp, from AEGEE-Budapest, mentioned this point as a key to strengthening a European identity. Guillermo García Tabarés, from AEGEE-Barcelona and CWG speaker, suggested that maybe “we shouldn’t go so deep into local level history, because it can promote nationalism without any based root, and go a bit more international to be able to understand our neighbours and accept them not as the traditional enemies”.

However, it’s true that it would be hard for most European countries to have the same attitude towards wars or some other recent events in our history, as Ola Zalecka, from AEGEE-Toruń, mentioned. Sebastian Hitz, from AEGEE-Heidelberg, added that “history teaching is not only about facts, but about analysis and interpretation” and that “nationalisms are shaped when history is taught in such a judging way”.

So, should we learn regional, state or international level?

In this sense, there is a strong division among countries. On the one hand, the Spanish and Italian participants that were at the discussion agreed that regional history, language and literature have a strong presence in textbooks’ contents. This can lead sometimes to a political confrontation between the centrist and nationalist parties ruling their country.

On the other hand, we learnt that other countries, such as Poland or Hungary, don’t pay extra attention to regions as much as national and international history. But we could observe some differences even in the same country, like in Italy. Alessio Caddeo from AEGEE-Venezia and Claudia Maria Scampinato from AEGEE-Catania exposed their views: whereas in Sardinia the content is more focused on Italian history, students in Sicily tend to learn more on their regional history.

With this in mind, the discussion led to two other questions. The first one was: Should Europeans learn about history focused more in a regional, national or international level, or even creating an European textbook? Even though we aim to create a European identity, we agreed that we shouldn’t keep our nations or regions aside, as Europe is based on its diversity.

We also discussed about the periods of history we should learn about. Should we focus on recent history rather than ancient one, in order to understand better our current situation? This led to a strong debate. Whereas some thought that we should indeed give more importance to contemporary history, others argued that we can learn a lot from the past, and that we often “have to go one step back in history to understand people’s behaviour”.

What can AEGEE do? 

However, we agreed that there’s still a long way to go to increase our awareness. Fortunately, we could count on some proposals for projects that could be developed within the CWG by our active members, and this was indeed very encouraging. After two hours and a half discussing we reached to the conclusion that AEGEE, as an organization concerned about European cultural awareness, plays an important and successful role.

We are on the right track since we have noticed that many of the Westerners have known and understood better the Eastern European history through other AEGEE members and the other way round.

Do you want to know more about textbooks? The following links will provide you with more information on the topic:

The Economist

CDSEE.org 

A textbook for Europe? 

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona and member of the Culture Working Group

“If blue helmeted UN peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, RUN.”

Andrew Thomson, Emergency Sex

Few days ago in the evening I was doing my usual stuff on the internet: surfing, surfing and again surfing internet news channels and Facebook/Twitter, when suddenly I noticed this controversial photo which at least for me was both too funny and a real cold shower late at night.

Yes, the photo maybe is too sarcastic but it has many things inside to say to the whole humankind. The UN peacekeeper with his blue helmet just standing nearby the banner of the UN with motto “Involved in Peace”. George W. Bush once made a great statement which I usually use a lot “The World has changed after September 11!”

As much as time is passing from 9/11, as much I understand that Mr. President was totally right. The new grasp of changes is spreading all over the world: political regimes which have been in charge for decades are tumbling down, new political elites are being formed, but just another question is being raised after all this: what will be the next? What shall we expect from the world order which is somewhat becoming something like a global chaos?

In the above-mentioned context the “Syria Case” is the one which shows best how modern international politics work out these days. No, I am absolutely not a pessimist nor a anti-globalization activist, far from it. I am always supporting any globalization initiative as in my personal perception it might be the real key to sustainable development and peace building in the world, but the situation that we see today in international politics mostly looks more like a global chaos, than like sustainable development; Syria is just a good example of that.

Already for 16 months Syria has been involved in civil war and what has been the reaction of global powers? Just meaningless resolutions and statements which in any case could not stop the war, the slaughterous fratricidal war between the Syrian current authorities and rebels. As a result, what do we see? Thousands of Syrians running from their homes to Jordan and Lebanon, big refugee camps on the Syrian-Turkish border, useless diplomatic missions of the Arab League and other international institutions.

In this regard I would like to pay special attention to the position which right now hold the United Nations, as the organization which is responsible for maintaining peace all over the world. During the last decades and particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Empire many researchers and experts of international politics have expressed positions that the UN should be reformed in order to meet the requirements of the world of the 21^st Century, but nobody could have imagined that this powerful, most important international institution may get into such a useless situation as the one it is in at the moment.

Sad to say, but the word “useless” for this moment totally describes the present situation, as one may easily check that even according to Wikipedia “The United Nations (abbreviated UN in English, and ONU in French and Spanish), is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security,economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.”

Enough of Wikipedia, let’s get back to business: so where are international law, security,  economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace in Syria? A minute of break for thinking…

In the beginning of the 1990s there were big hopes that the end of US-Soviet rivalry, which in the past had paralyzed the Security Council of the UN, would mostly free the UN to become more effective. But these kind of hopes have soon been abandoned as during that period humankind experienced the horrible acts of genocide in Rwanda and massacres and genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia during which the blue helmeted UN peacekeepers were only following everything as observers and did not even raise a finger to stop the violence.

And another even more ironic fact is just coming to depress me even more: entering the official webpage of the United Nations Organization (http://www.un.org/), you see the following statement while picking the webpage’s language – United Nations: It’s your world!

Taking into account the latest developments in Syria and all over the Arab states during the last year and half, as well as the dark stories of the 1990’s, I do not know how the UN officials think about it, but I totally do not want to have such a world! A world filled with inequality and double standards, a world in which only the strongest states are bringing forward their political goals and interests, a world in which there is no security, no possibilities for guaranteeing economic development and social progress, a world in which human rights and peace are just some things which can easily be put on the negotiations table and could be exchanged for a barrel of oil! That is whole story of present international politics.

Usually in international affairs and politics, each time period has its name (Cold War, Versailles-Washington and etc.), so after making so many remarks and conclusions I have started to think about how the present time period will be called in the future.

Definitely in my opinion it should be called the age of  UNINVOLVEMENT in PEACE, as for a common observer it is obvious that neither the UN, nor any other power wants to dirty their hands with blood. It’s really high time for just RUNNING when we see blue helmeted peacekeepers somewhere in the world.

Written by Armenak Minasyants, AEGEE-Yerevan & Speaker of International Politics WG

“Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.”

Abrahah J. Heschel (Jewish theologian and philosopher, 1907-1972)

For a long time before starting this article, I was thinking about how to start it, and at last I have not found anything better than to just take a quote of Abraham Heschel, who was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century. In his quote, dating back to the 1950s, he managed to describe perfectly the modern concept of racism. Racism is not something new or unknown to mankind; it has been developing alongside with humankind. According to Wikipedia, racism refers to the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination.

Personally I do not like speaking on some theoretical issues and problems in international politics, as in my opinion such issues are a result of uncertain and different approach of individuals to some existing issues, but during the last few months I guess many of us have witnessed numerous unknown and unheard of things, for example in sports.

Liverpool and Chelsea football teams’ star players Luis Suarez and John Terry, and the professional boxing superstar Floyd Money Mayweather Jr. have two things in common, and the first one is their recent involvement in racial scandals.

The first two racially abused their opponents during their respective football matches, and were banned from the field for several months by England’s Professional Footballers’ Association.

In his turn, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who in my opinion is really one of the best pound-for-pound boxer in history, after the New York Knicks’ basketball match, wrote down on his Twitter page, which has 2.5 million followers, the following tweet about one of the Asian basketball players: “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”

Why have I taken these examples? The thing is that all the aforementioned sport figures have another thing in common: they are super popular, and today the interpretation and concept of racism could really have an awful impact on everyday activities of many modern civil societies, of which they are an integral part. You may immediately argue with me that today there is no such state in the world where racism is officially promoted, and it is very common that individuals get involved in such scandals. Yes, God bless all of us, we have managed to successfully overcome those times when it was not possible to imagine that black and white children would be sitting in the same classroom or that black citizens would not get problems while getting citizenship of their respective states.

But the thing is that in today’s reality even a little racism abuse may bury anybody’s career and everything. In this simple, and very obvious truth on first sight, lies the whole concept of modern racism.

Of course, these racial scandals in my opinion shall not have much impact on popularity or career of people mentioned; in fact, I guess it may even get bigger. But surely after such accidents they would be under much more pressure from society and it may have an impact on their working/playing abilities. Simultaneously, it is really interesting to know their motivation or ideas by which they were guided while making such harassing comments or offenses. The answer is again very simple; as practice shows, they are really doing it intentionally, as none of them is denying their fault after, and some are even making excuses, but they also do not think to what consequences it may lead.

Nobody shall exclude the possibility that the victims of these scandals (Patrice Evra, Anton Ferdinand, Jeremy Lin) may have done something which compelled our “heroes” to make such abuses, but in my opinion, a strong-minded and composed person, especially when he/she is also very famous, shall not allow himself/herself to do such things.

Simultaneously, I could not mention another thing on this topic; such racial scandals, taking place on the football pitch, were really unknown thing for the British society, as well as to the international football community, and the replies to them were too critical and radical, but racial incidents are a very common thing in the USA and I may even agree with Mayweather Jr. that if some black player played as Jeremy Lin maybe he would not get such fame in the USA just because of his skin colour.

With no debate, we just shall state that today the interpretation of racism is much more different than it was some decades ago. The equality of the individuals and social justice in civil societies shall not recognize any racial arguments or grounds. Only when the rights and freedoms of an individual will be respected by the others, humankind will be able to fulfill the dreams of Dr. Luther King and Mr. Mandela, and as long we do not have that respect, we shall continue living while bearing in our minds the simple truth which is expressed in the starting quote of this article.

Written by Armenak Minasyants, AEGEE-Yerevan & Speaker of International Politics WG

I am writing this article as a simple Business student, proud member of a European Student Organization and critic young Spanish “Indignado”. My trips abroad and my post as Erasmus responsible in Santander, Spain, get me in contact with young students from all over Europe. I wish to share with you one of my and most young people’s biggest concerns: we do not feel represented by our political class in our home country, left alone in Europe.

I hear far too much on the news how politician is the least valued profession in Spain and a low valued profession in other countries in Europe as well. One of the major issues for the population is the outrageous widespread corruption.  Young people in Spain, as my international friends feel with their own governments, consider that a change of government only changes “who” will steal public funds and “how much” they will get a hand of. Is the population starting to consider this inherent to our system or are we forgetting that this should not even happen?!

It is sad to say that the European Union, as it is often seen as an artificial and complex structure that tries to tie together countries too far apart, does not get a better opinion. Voting for the European Parliaments is not even conceived between young students! Europe is seen to be directed by Germany and France anyway, so what would be the use? People do not notice the changes these functionaries bring and do not understand the complicated structure of parliaments, councils, delegates, commissions, etc.

In an experiment set to our Erasmus students in Santander, we found out that hardly anybody was able to name European Parliament members, and only recalled names of few tip-top post European politicians.  Most of them though, could not even explain what they were responsible for. Our surprise was to learn that most did not even care. “We didn’t vote for them!” But politicians can create a government over 27 governments and do not even have to ask us. “Why would they? They don’t even do it “at home” was a usual answer.

To put the matters even worse, young people do not feel represented because it is almost impossible to name one European or national politician younger than 40. It seems that we must accept that young politicians can only aspire to become responsible for minor secondary posts and ministries. This current is surely changing but it is too slow to perceive. If nobody defends our point of view in the government, why would we believe in their promises?

We have examples of these problems bringing us visible trouble. We are in the middle of a huge crisis in Europe. The solution is financial and has to do with these invisible, fast-moving, ruthless markets we hear about on the news. Politicians and bankers try to convince these nameless investors and private rating companies that Europe will grow and prosper.

But how are they going to believe our leaders when not even we do? We are lied to once and again that this year the economic growth will appear, on the number of jobs predicted to be created, on the ability to reach settlement of the debt, etc. We are promised heaven by the politicians, and once voted, we see how they skip and cancel, one after another, promises they have made!

Living a life surrounded by young Europeans, in a country that is in the eye of the storm, I can assure nobody even starts to believe what our politicians say. It is the reason why Spain is so pessimistic about its own recovery and the population, independent of what the government promises, just gets ready for a new bigger down-turn of social care, employment and stabilization. If the whole population does not believe in the economic revival how are “the markets” going to?

As anybody who is critical, and therefore is seeking to point out a problem, I cannot finish this article without offering my opinion on what the solution could look like. My frustration and criticism look like hatred towards the European institutions, but that is very far from the truth. As a business student I have learnt that critical insight and changes  are a way of making things more efficient and cost-worthy, and must be seen as a blessing, not a curse.

An old Chinese proverb signs out that a crisis is the combination of a problem with an opportunity. We have a major problem, let us use this opportunity to change things to the better! I would try to promote the following ideas for the future:

Firstly, politicians at the national and the European level cannot lie in an impervious way! We, the people, have decency and cannot be handled with a carrot in front of our heads to lead the way. I strongly support a 15-M initiative in which politicians can be sewed for promising something and doing the opposite. What would happen if you work for Audi and you promise keeping the number of employments and kick out half of the workers once put into office? Just like any job in the world, lying bluntly cannot go without sanction.

Secondly, Europe as an institution should cease to be seen as  an intricate ghost structure imposed on us. I am sure that measures are being taken in this direction, but they are unnoticeable . Studying Europe as a structure and institution at schools, high schools and university should be necessary. Not only law scholars should know how Europe works as a whole.

Thirdly, I know myself that young politicians are being encouraged by European institutions because I have visited them in Brussels. I find it a reasonable, logic and intelligent decision, principally because we represent the future and should help decide about the world we want to live in. This does not happen at the national level. I think Europe should not impose numbers on member countries in this matter but should encourage it through political activist associations for young people and formal recommendations.

Written by Rafael Van Oppen Ardanaz, AEGEE-Santander