Issue1 europeandignities april2014

I’M NEITHER TURKISH NOR GERMAN: I’M A TRANSNATIONAL WOMAN Editorial- Europe and Dignity join together South Caucasus Union

“NUMBER 1 - YEAR 0NE APRIL 2014”

•Editorial • “Europe and Dignity Join Together” WRITTEN BY: DRAGOȘ ANDREI PREUTESCU DIRECTOR (IAȘI, ROMANIA) - EUROPEAN DIGNITIES JOURNAL TEXT TRANSLATION BY: RAMONA IZABELA DUMINICĂ

European Dignities Journal idea emerged as desideratum for a communication channel in Europe, that young can use in order to transmit best practices (in volunteering, in civic participation, in development of participatory democracy concept, in solving problems of certain community and how to valorise our capacities in order to create jobs and all these in a changing socio-political context. Our idea is based on two important pillars-Comparison and Visualization.

Comparison is considered for the purpose of identifying together how needs arise in a community, social group, minority, society as a whole and how to “respond” to these needs through involvement and personal example. It is well known that the word “participation” has started to become increasingly used in Europeans’ vocabulary, but we also identified other correspondents in this purpose: the dimensions of values and identities we have towards people, state, society; models of integration by using sense of understanding social realities for no further conflicts, distortions in a profound manner; our contribution to a number of issues that we might be aware of but not know how to act to.

Visualization comes as a way to show the important initiatives that young people take across the European continent.

How can we do that? Using writing, taking pictures and expressing ourselves via videos, drawings, paintings.

Through an interdisciplinary and creative approach we try to create connections and to value our skills, to measure the results and their impact and especially communication with important public actors (politicians, leaders, journalists, intellectuals).

The two pillars seek to complete a number of gaps and incoherent facts among young people, and thus it can

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

lead to: a more detailed and conscious knowledge, new information from those directly involved or those who are close to them; promoting ideas and events noticed by young in everyday life and around the places where they spend time; human capital development and innovative and creative system promotion in any field.

For all these reasons and others too, that we will present over time, we decided that creation of a magazine can connect all elements in a symbolic, aesthetic, coherent and reliable context of in extenso approach. We took into account the idea of Europe and a principle that can help strengthen democracy, peace assurance, identities respect - DIGNITY. Firstly we must ensure that what we do is worthy and contributes to accomplish the morality in communication, integration and respect.

Then we want to show that it is worthy to appreciate, to thank, to simultaneously encourage and recognize the best initiatives. Worthy to understand the model of active citizenship marked by our rights and obligations under a European, national and regional construct and also to initiate a culture of individual liberty placed in the center of the concept of human dignity. A Romanian writer noted very well this aspect, “dignity is the good use of freedom” (Andrei Pleşu).

Merging historic traditional memorial and visionary European side with a cult of dignity, we will be able to provide an enhanced environment of recognized moral values by the spirit of independence. If a Romanian philosopher (Constantin Noica - European cultural model) is talking about “culture morphology” referring to the European one, we would like to address dignity “morphology” through Europe. Going on with the same philosopher ideas, we are informed that “without identifying realities, it’s hard to believe you can handle and reach a form of civilization, without naming them, you cannot reach the culture.” We will try to name them through the pages of European Dignities Journal.

•Editorial Board•

EUROPEAN DIGNITIES JOURNAL DIRECTOR - Dragoș-Andrei Preutescu (Iasi, Romania)

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BIANCA AELENEI: “CREATIVITY GIVES US WINGS”

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF - Mihaela Diana Podariu (Targu-Frumos, Romania) CREATIVE DIRECTOR - Chevuk Kelevra (Mexico) PROOFREADING - Ramona Izabela Duminică (Iasi, Romania) - Antonia Amarandei (Iasi, Romania) SECRETARIAT - Bianca Aelenei (Pascani, Romania) TRANSLATION - Ramona Izabela Duminică - Andi Valentin Sâsâiac (Targu-Frumos, Romania) - Antonia Amarandei

“THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN FUNDED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. THIS PUBLICATION REFLECTS THE VIEWS ONLY OF THE AUTHOR, AND THE COMMISSION CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USE WHICH MAY BE MADE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN”.

PHOTOGRAPHY - Alexandra Muscalu – TEAM COORDINATOR (Pașcani, Romania) - Bogdan Frențescu (Huși, Romania) - Sebastian Gabor (Pașcani, Romania) - Josipa Uzelac (Zagreb, Croatia) - Ciprian Pleșca (Iași, Romania) DRAWINGS - Doleanu Brîndușa Cornelia – TEAM COORDINATOR (Targu-Frumos, Romania) - Miron Sorina (Targu-Frumos, Romania) - Moisii Constantin (Targu-Frumos, Romania) - Denisa Agache (Targu-Frumos, Romania)

SECTIONS DRAWINGS - Nadia Elena Spulber (Iasi, Romania) - Carmen Ciobanu (Botoșani, Romania) CONTRIBUTORS - Ipek Bogatur (Berlin, Germany) - Vasile Brașovanu (Iași, Romania) - Victoria Baltag (London, UK) - Elsa Bernevic (Iasi, Romania) - Daniela Borontiș (Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania) - Andreea Raluca (Iași, România) - Andreea Crețu (Târgu Frumos, România) - Aby Perkovic

Your opinion is very important for us, share it! e-mail: european.dignities@gmail.com http://asirys.blogspot.com https://twitter.com/AsociatiaAsirys https://www.facebook.com/europeandignities

•Index•

• High Education •

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Multilingualism in the European Education Systems. A Romanian View. P. 06 • In Community • “Rightly said: my household is my Universe”. P. 14 Historical and Cultural Background of Roma in Romania. P. 17 • Diplomacy & Culture • Youth

governing and active involvement. P. 24

“Everything is evanescent, and nothing truly established, nothing sustainable” P. 32 I’m neither Turkish nor German: I’m a transnational woman. P. 35

• Profile Hunters •

Interview of Super Young ASIRYS Association (Bianca Aelenei) Paşcani workshop “Atelierul de creaţie” (Mihaela and Marius Olariu). P. 106 Interview with Rareş Tiron P. 112 A Living Legend – D. Grumăzescu P. 116 • Urban Legends • 26 Facts about Germany P. 118 • Know How • Voting for Europe: The European Elections 2014. P. 122 • Search Research • p. 128

South Caucasus Union P. 44

• What’s in the next issues... •

• Liberal Arts •

July 2014 - Words of Folk Wisdom p. 134

Aesthetics of ugliness P. 50 Strategies in making documentary films. P. 54 • Troubleshooters • Young European “Trouble Shooters” p. 64 Lilli’s Day “A little Roma Girl’s Tale” p. 85 Between Black and White p. 92 Christoph Maximilian Krause p. 98

September 2014 - European Youth Capital 2015 - Cluj-Napoca p. 135 NEXT ISSUE COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY:

Josipa Uzelac, “TRY THE CRAZIEST THINGS IN LIFE FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE”

Hig h E d uca tio n

Multilingualism in the European Education Systems. A Romanian View WRITTEN BY: ANDI VALENTIN SÂSÂIAC (TÎRGU FRUMOS, ROMANIA)

In the circumstances of many religious or philosophical disputes, culture represents the factor enabling the development of arts, economy and institutions that gained Europe its primacy in the world. Among these institutions, school represents “one of the secrets of Europe’s vitality, a premise for the fulfilment of its complete unity and a significant presence in the European city center” The unity we speak about, not as complete as expected, is nowadays featured by a series of rights and liberties that make multilingualism a necessity. The necessity transposed, of course, in the curricula of all the European schools in a manner which is, however, heterogeneous.

For a long time, classical languages have been the cultural and linguistic dominant in the European educational systems. It was only in the 18th century that foreign language teaching made its way into the Western secondary education. From that point, different reforms in the education systems and foreign language didactics

6

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

have been implemented. From these reforms, mention should be made of General Land Schul Reglement für Preußen (1763) and Schulordnung für die bürgerlische der Stadt und Landschulen in Bayern (1778). These reforms introduced foreign languages in the German schools’ curriculum.

“The functioning of the European education systems suffered major transformations, in respect to the new world order from the 1950s”.

The systematic teaching of foreign languages only started in the 19th century. For instance, the year 1845 coincides with the implementation of a general curriculum which stated the compulsoriness of foreign language teaching. The evolution within the European curricula is explainable through the increasing need of communication, determined by the industrial revolution and the development of international trade.

The countries with an acknowledged tradition in international trade were the first to confront the need of cross-border communication. Perhaps the best example in this respect is that of the Netherlands, where English, German and French are compulsory in secondary education since the 19th century.

The functioning of the European education systems suffered major transformations, in respect to the new world order from the 1950s. In this period, Russian had gained an extremely solid position in Eastern Europe, being often regarded as the only foreign language worth learning. In Romania, situations in which the attributions of the school inspectors for Russian teachers well surpassed the Russian language, also comprising ‘marginal’ disciplines such as music or drawing, were not few.

In the Nordic countries, English imposed itself in the curricula even before the above mentioned period. Denmark, for instance, has a long tradition in this respect, as English has been taught in the lower secondary education from the beginning of the 20th century. In 1958, all Danish students started to learn their first foreign language (usually English or German) in their 6th year of study. In 1970, English has become compulsory starting with the 5th year of study, while learning German would start in the 7th year. In 1975, a third foreign language (usually French) would become an optional course. In Sweden,

7

students started to learn English and German at the age of 13-14 no later than the first half of the 20th century. Starting with 1994, Swedish students had the option to choose, at the age of 13, between French, German and Spanish for their second foreign language.

Greece introduced English in their curricula in 1955, French being before that the only foreign language to be taught in secondary education.

The curriculum reform in 1992 introduced the compulsoriness of English from primary school. In Cyprus, the dominance of English is explainable due to English colonialism. Thus, English was used as a working language in schools since 1878 and it is still taught at primary school, while French is likely to start at a secondary level.

In Central and Eastern Europe, western languages regained the position they lost in favor of Russian in the past 40 years. In Romania, a distinctive component of the school reform consists in the introduction of bilingual programmes in secondary education. The last few decades represented a productive period for structural reforms with significant repercussions within the sphere of foreign languages. The envisaged aspects refer to the status of languages in compulsory (primary and lower secondary) education, their position within the curriculum, didactics, foreign language teachers’ training, the use of IT&C in teaching and the number of hours

8

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BIANCA AELENEI, “TREE OF DEVELOPING”

In the Mediterranean area, the compulsoriness of foreign language learning in primary and lower secondary education is fairly recent (1980s-1990s).

Its absence from the Spanish national curriculum was compensated through founding, in 1911, of the Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, the first public institutions dealing exclusively with foreign language learning. At the time, this type of parallel education represented a unique innovation in Europe. The number of such institutions has increased in the 1980s and 1990s and they are nowadays by no means uncommon in Spain.

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

granted. Most of the E.U. members have only implemented reforms that led to the compulsoriness of foreign language teaching at primary level in the 1980s and 1990s.

Austria (1983), the Netherlands (1985) and Portugal (1989) have introduced foreign languages in their compulsory curriculum. Efforts have been made in order to offer a wide variety of foreign languages. For instance, in Romania, Russian started to be counterbalanced in 1965 by French, German, English, Italian or Spanish. Nowadays, English is the most widely studied foreign language (95% of students), followed by French (86%), German (11%), Spanish and Russian (2%). The evolution of English as a lingua franca is also observed in school programmes, as it is the first compulsory foreign language in 13 E.U. countries. In Romania, starting with 2013, the first foreign language is studied starting with the age of 6 (prep school), the same as in many (if not most) European countries. 7% of European students are multilingual, mainly because they belong to national minorities, who speak a different language at home than the school working language.

In Romanian schools, there are 2 weekly hours granted for each foreign language, with the exception of secondary schools specializing in intensive/bilingual philology.

One more hour may be added through the curriculum at school’s decision (CDS).

Unfortunately enough, the CDS is limited in Romania to a maximum of 20% of the curriculum.

A sensibly improved situation can be found in Sweden, where students start their second foreign language at 11, while at the age of 14, they can choose a third language.

In Germany, English has been compulsory for secondary school students since the 1960s. Most of the federal states impose the study of a foreign language in primary school (at the age of 8 or earlier).

European educational authorities also tackled foreign language didactics. Mention should be made of the year 1971, when the Council of Europe commissioned a group of experts to draw up a homogeneous European system that would comprise the linguistic competences necessary in the process of learning. The results influenced the curricula and textbooks of different European countries, which adopted the image image image image

“a” “b” “c” “d”

by: by: by: by:

http://www.1zoom.net/big2/691/329086-alexfas01.jpg http://e-frag.net/euchamp/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/flag4.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s_bLBLF1vmc/UCXvJdxz7fI/AAAAAAAACa8/_wRz_Cxnxjg/s1600/german_flag.jpg http://www.itsmilkandhoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ws_British_Flag_1920x1200.jpg

9

communicative approach. For instance, in 1981, Greek curricula of English and French were focusing on the comprehension of oral messages, the same as Poland did in 1986. The Great Britain introduced, in 1998, the General Certificate for Secondary Education (GSCE) in which the linguistic competences of students were assessed, mainly focusing on authentic situations and materials. Later on, the intercultural component made its way in foreign language curricula. In 1994, Germany started to focus on the importance of learning a foreign language within the context of a united Europe.

Moreover, participative methods have been sought, methods through which didactic games would be used in order to contribute to the students’ personal development, thus encouraging individual progress and avoiding traditional assessment methods.

In the same way, Greece attempted at implementing, both at primary and secondary level, the method of personal (empirical) experience in the process of learning. In Lithuania, between 1993 and 1996, the curricula have been reformed in order to focus on the acquisition of practical and functional competences. It was for the first time that the methodology valued the target culture and society, with stress on democratic values.

Foreign language didactics has been subjected, during time, to many experiments meant to test the applicability of different approaches, before they became the norm. For instance, Germany experimented in primary schools, in 1970, the principle of imitation, thus creating in the classroom authentic situations, seeking the development of elementary oral and written skills. As for pre-school education (kindergartens, nursery schools), experiments are more recent and involve not so many children. 30% of Austrian preschoolers (3-5 years old) start to learn the basic elements of English, since 1995. In Romania, English is usually taught in kindergartens in big city private schools.

As it can be seen, the policies of European states aiming at cultivating multilingualism in school, although having many common aspects, are implemented mostly differently, being, of course, subjected to national sovereignty. At the moment, one cannot speak of a common European policy of school multilingualism, although the E.U. founded different instruments and institutions meant to coordinate policies in the field and the objectives assumed by the member states, thus impacting on school curricula.

Perhaps the most important instrument in this respect is the Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages (CEF). It was coined by the Council of Europe between

10

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

1989 and 1996, as a part of the Learning languages for European citizenship project.

Its main purpose is to provide methods for teaching, learning and (especially) assessment, applicable to all member states. In November 2001, the Council of the European Union recommended that the CEF be used as a system of language competence acknowledgement. The six reference levels (varying from A1 to C2) have become the European standard of language assessment. An intergovernmental symposium held in Switzerland in 1991 sustained the necessity of a reference framework that would help teachers Europe-wide. Thus, the CEF is the closest thing to a European acquit in the field, as most of the E.U. members have adopted it with reference to their curricula. For instance, in Romania, at the end of 8th grade (14 years old, roughly the 4th year of foreign language study), students should reach the A2 level (to be able to comprehend frequent phrases of immediate relevance – personal

and family information, shopping, local geography, work; to communicate in order to solve routine tasks; to offer concise details about self, activity and issues of immediate necessity) .

At the end of 10th grade (16 years old, roughly the 6th year of foreign language study), the fulfilment of the students’ tasks should enable them reach the B1 level (thus to be capable of comprehending the main aspects of issues frequently used at school, work etc., to deal with most situations that may intervene during travel, to produce simple discourse on familiar topics, to describe experience and events, to concisely defend one’s opinion). Finally, at the end of secondary school (high school), students should reach the B2 level: to comprehend the main ideas of a complex text on concrete or abstract topics, including technical, to interact with fluency and spontaneity that

11

makes communication with native speakers possible, without considerable efforts from either part, to produce clear, detailed discourse, on a wide range of topics, to explain a viewpoint.

As it can be seen, the Romanian curricula do not envisage the situation in which, at the end of secondary school, students reach advanced levels such as C1-C2.

This is explainable if we compare these objectives to the estimations made by Deutsche Welle, the international broadcast station financed by the German Federal

Government, who claims that 150 study/teaching hours are necessary for someone to reach the A2 level, which in Romania is expected to be reached after 4 years of study. Given the fact that foreign languages usually take 2 hours a week in school, while a school year usually has 35 weeks, the 225 resulting hours would take a bit more than 3 school years. Of course, the estimations provided

by Deutsche Welle are purely technical, inflexible to factors such as age particularity or outside school exposure to the target language.

Consequently, the one and a half year difference that resulted from the comparison is not exaggerated. We can make a step further, saying that even the 150 hours are not enough if the student lacks exposure to authentic/multimedia sources in the target languages.

According to the same source, the B2 level which is expected by the Romanian curriculum at the end of secondary cycle (roughly the 8th year of study), can be reached after 400 learning/teaching hours. The same account would divide the 400 hours in approximately 6 school years. Thus, the difference remains proportional. However, the University of Cambridge estimates a higher number of necessary hours: 200 for A2 and 600 for B2.

12

In the end, we can draw two conclusions. First, there is a necessity for a better image of the European citizens’ linguistic competence that could be based on formal assessment. In schools, this could be achieved by testing, experimentally and using sample target groups, centralizing and interpreting all language skills according to the CEF Europe-wide, using IT&C. Moreover, there is a need for more foreign language classes in national curricula, within the context of the objectives that the E.U. assumed in its EU2020 strategy. As the mere increase of the number of hours in the curricula is not really feasible, optional courses can be introduced, with focus on authentic, life-like communication situations that would appeal both to students and their parents.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “ESTABLISH FOR YOURSELF HIGH GOALS”

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

“We can make a step further, saying that even the 150 hours are not enough if the student lacks exposure to authentic/ multimedia sources in the target languages”.

13

In C o m mu nit y

“Rightly said: my household is my Universe” WRITTEN BY: ANDREEA RALUCA (IAȘI, ROMÂNIA) TEXT TRANSLATION BY: ANDI VALENTIN SÂSÂIAC

In Targu Frumos, there are probably many beautiful and wise people, but I do believe I had the luck to encounter one of the most exquisite. The first days that I spent here led me to the Pieptanari Street. Willing and in need to explore, I might well say that she was the most valuable discovery. Mrs. Claudia. Having impeccable morals, being dedicated to her family like few people are, having respect for people and for what makes her mornings happy. She’s the lady I recently met who would certainly impress whoever crosses her doorstep, a doorstep to her world. Her household seems to me the cradle of her feelings for her children and husband and at the same time, for this absolute power that is leading her in every step, as she suggests somehow through everything she does.

In an increasingly alert world whose rhythm often makes us forget how to breath the surrounding ravishment (once we are ready to see it), Claudia lives her own time. A time that she adjusts to her family model herself, with a gentleness one could notice on her face whenever her children show up. She knows how to say ‘yes’ whenever

14

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ANDREEA RACLES

her children ask for understanding and tolerance, and ‘no’ whenever her morality requires her to guide her children towards righteousness in the way her wisdom dictates. She is a strong woman and she is determined both in everything she does, and in what she expects others to do. She represents an authority full of patience and kindness, which emerges from the modesty she speaks with of her life experience. She is Roma.

But this only tells me that her ethnicity is a feature that she respectably assumes, as she understands that the essence of an individual consists in his values and aspirations. It does not consist in stereotypes that so often affect the normal development of the human being and impacts on the trust that everyone could surpass his condition through work and good will. More than this, I think she possesses the consciousness of

her spiritual fortune. She is an intelligent woman and her housewife position does not limit her, nor does it make her subordinate.

It rather creates the context in which she manifests her worthiness through the order that she keeps in her family, household and community. One could sympathetically and trustfully enter the room that she keeps for the guests, a room that couldn’t reflect but care for her close ones: husband, children, friends, brothers and sisters from everywhere.

It is no wonder that her husband’s eyes smile at her sight and his soul seems to be filled with her words. I am sure that the harmony of this family, constituted in time and emerged from difficult living, is mostly due to this intelligent, patient woman who believes that her light will surpass the walls that rise up from time to time.

15

“She possesses the consciousness of her spiritual fortune. She is an intelligent woman and her housewife position does not limit her”.

16

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ANDREEA RACLES

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Historical and Cultural Background of Roma in Romania WRITTEN BY: VICTORIA BALTAG (LONDON, UK)

I will start introducing in my topic showing off the historical and cultural background of Roma in Romania. Saying so, I consider the history and culture of Roma significant for understanding the educational involvement that they occur in the host society where they live, specifically here, Romania.

The first documentary evidence of a Roma population on Romanian territory was in 1385, when voivod (warlord) Dan Voda donated to a monastery 40 Gypsy families (Cherata, 2010). Based on the information at the Historical Romanian Archive (1867) the historian N. Iorga mentioned that Gypsies first arrived in Romanian territories with the Mongolian (Tartar) invasion at the half of the 13th century (Iorga, 1931). On the other hand, in 1348 at the South of Danube, the Serbian king, Dusan, presented a number (unknown) of Gypsies as a gift to the Romanian Prince (Cherata, 2010).

Even the origins of the Roma people are controversial, as although in Romania there is a certain amount of political interest in stating that there were Gypsies in Romania from the beginning of the Romanian nation, the two historical documents cited above provide strong evidence that Gypsies came into the Romanian territories from the east, alongside the Tartar invasion, and from the south, through nomadic migration. There is another supposition (The early migration, 2013) which says that Gypsies were taken from North India to Persia by the Persian Emperor, then some of these were taken by the Turkish Sultan, and from Turkey they were brought to the Romanian territories with the Ottoman invasion, between the 14th and 15th century.

17

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ALEXANDRA MUSCALU, “EVERY HUMAN BEING IS SPECIAL IN A WAY THAT CHANGE PEOPLE AROUND HIM�

As at that time, each citizen had to pay a tribute of money and goods to the warlord, which some Gypsies could not afford, they soon became slaves on the warlord’s land. In the North of Romania (Moldova), they were received into houses and become the house-owners’ property. Gypsies had to work the land and do craft work, taking care of the gardens and flowers, making bricks, chopping wood, and making furniture, buckets, pots, tableware, etc. (Beck, 1989). They were treated as their goods belonging to their owners, with no right to travel or to study, being bought, sold, or given as gifts. It was not only Gypsies that were slaves at that time: Any person unable to pay the annual tax would become a slave and work for their landlord.

Nevertheless, non-Gypsy slaves had a higher status than Gypsies, and were called iobagi (poor peasants, who, though working for their landlord, nevertheless had a houses and families of their own, and whom the landlord was not entitled to sell). Slavery lasted until 1856 (Petcut, 2008) when it was abolished. During that time, Gypsies were not allowed to enrol in schools and so, for more than 500 years, their main way of acquiring knowledge was through informal education. There is no document to show any desire on the part of the Gypsies to study in schools, but this may be because, with their being slaves at that time, their voices were not heard. After the abolition of slavery, with no goods, money or property, Gypsies were forced to travel from place to place. For Gypsies in Romania travel was not a pleasure but a necessity, as with no land they were repeatedly expelled from wherever they settled. In 1864 all Romanian people without property (Gypsies and nonGypsies) received land on which to grow crops or to build houses (Sandu, 2008).

The craftsmen developed as a higher category in Gypsy society, compared with the land workers, but still, Gypsies remained a marginalized social category, generally poor and living on the peripheries of towns or villages (Sandu, 2008). After 1918 (when the First World War ended and the URSS and Austro-Hungarian Imperium collapsed), the opportunity arose for the Romanian regions (Basarabia, Bucovina, Transilvania, Banatul, Crişana, Maramureş) to join with România. In Greater Romania, all the citizens could travel freely from one region to another, could sell and buy, and could develop barter businesses. Along with this

economic growth, the population of minority groups has also increased. In the census in 1930, there were registered 262,501 Roma people, which works out at 1.5% of the total population (Sandu, 2008).

The Interwar period was a prolific time for Gypsies. Once they had land, they could become small farmers. They were also often the people who were best able to repair agricultural tools, many of them being blacksmiths or craftworkers, since during slavery Gypsies had been required to do take on such labours, and the skills were passed on from father to son. Nevertheless, some remained poor and marginalized.

On the other hand, there was now a new Roma social elite, composed of intellectuals, artists, publishers, retailers, and musicians, who discard let away their origins and began the movement for the emancipation of the Roma minority (Sandu, 2008).

Following the model of other populations in the kingdom, Roma people established social, professional, cultural, and even political organizations: Junimea Muzicala (Musical Youth, 1925); Infratirea Neorustica (Neorustic Twinning), with the main purpose of enhancing the economic and cultural Roma Society (1926); Neamul Tiganesc (The Gypsy Race Newspaper,1926); Asociaţia Generala a Ţiganilor din România (The General Gypsy Association in Romania, which planned to promote Roma literacy, to produce books about Roma history, to build a museum of Gypsy villagers, to create a Gypsy university, to organize guilds of Gypsy workers, and to set up an office of elders to solve the Gypsies’ conflicts, 1933).

I should mention that all these organizations were using the Romanian language.

Most literate Gypsies ‘became’ Romanians, respecting Romanian traditions, meeting with Romanian friends, and marrying Romanian partners, while still remaining Gypsies and developing an elevated Gypsy society. Fiddlers laid the foundation of professional societies in many parts of the country at that period. There were Roma theatres, museums, societies, and even a political form. School attendance was free for Roma pupils and they were assiduously encouraged to take part in the lessons. Many Roma students became intellectuals, politicians, teachers, doctors, poets, or journalists between 1920 and 1933 (Sandu, 2008). Yet, they represented only a small portion of the whole Gypsy PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ALEXANDRA MUSCALU, “ROMÂNIA”

community. The rest of the Gypsies were poor, had no goods and were unemployed, and were often known as burglars or robbers (Sandu, 2008).

From 1933, the Nazi doctrine of ‘clean’ blood and racial ‘purity’ promoted by Adolf Hitler in his ‘Mein Kampf’ (1925) began to contribute to a strong national policy of keeping the Romanian ‘race’ ‘clean’. The Romanians trace their descent from Dacian and Roman ancestors, two historically powerful peoples. Gypsies were not Romanians; they did not have Dacian or Roman blood in their veins, and so they were considered unappropriated by the Romanian country and labelled ‘intruders’. It was so easy to distinguish a Romanian person (white skin, light eyes, brown hear, medium and tall height) and a Gypsy one (dark coloured skin, dark colored eyes, black hair, medium and short height). In this way, the Roma were discriminated against, and became portrayed as a plague in society (Sandu, 2008). Roma people became a big problem in Romania (for the politicians and for the ordinary people as well) - as many of them did not have jobs or homes, and were stealing and fighting. It was feared that in the mixing of Roma and Romanians, the racial ‘purity’ of the latter would be ‘polluted’. Politicians sought to solve this issue and the Second World War provided them with a good opportunity. Following the ‘ethnic purification’ policy, Marshal Ion Antonescu decided to initiate genocide against Roma, on 1st of June 1942, when more than 36,000 Roma were deported to Transnistria. Many died. Gypsies were killed not because what they had done, but because of whom they were (Sandu, 2008).

Some Romanian families hid gypsies inside their homes or protested against the genocide (Sandu, 2008).

After the Second World War, the survivors from Transnistria were able to return to Romania to their families. During the Communist period (1945-1989), Roma were

“During the Communist period (19451989), Roma were faced with the Communist ‘unique people’ theory”.

20

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: FRENTESCU BOGDAN, “MAN & ENVIRONMENT”.

Moreover, the Communist regime wanted to erase hostile intellectuals, and those people with high social position and financial power, so they imprisoned them all. They then gave high work positions to people with little or no schooling. Any citizen from a poor family, with no political influence and no education, was considered to be of ‘healthy origin’. As Gypsies had a ‘healthy origin’ in this sense (they had no power, no political influence, and were poor and unschooled) they were the perfect candidates to be influenced, and as a result some of them attained high positions in the militia (police), party, security services or army. When the Communist party decided to imprison thousands of intellectuals, rich people, students, managers and politicians – most of those people died in prison because of the harsh treatment some of gypsies – now on top positions – had on those people (ex. : starvations, beating ups, coldness, exhaustive work, psychological and verbal abuse) – (The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile).

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC.

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

faced with the Communist ‘unique people’ theory. This meant that being in Romania, all citizens were required to disavow their ethnicity and declare themselves Romanian – even those who were part of a minority. Gypsies were forced to integrate in the modern way of living, from the economic, political, social and educational points of view.

21

In other words, during Communist rule, Roma people were under the assimilation policy, which entailed: 1. The forced settling of nomadic people in the period 19581965, when ‘all were fixed in settlements and houses’, though with the right to represent their ethnic minority and free to promote their own cultural traditions.

2. The educational policy: ‘Roma families are forced to send their children to school’.

This gave Roma children the same opportunities as others but they still could not have any positions they wanted as jobs. To be a Gypsy (after the harsh Holocaust) was, to some, shameful. Some declared themselves to be Romanians instead, and so gained easier access to high class society.

Still, transcripts and records have been found showing that in some schools Roma pupils did give their ethnicity as ‘Gypsy’.

Naming the Roma population was a controversial dispute, following the linguistic term used for them in the counties where they live. Saying so, in the UK, they are known as ‘Gypsies’ or ‘Travellers’; in France they are called ‘Gitans’; in Spain: ‘Gitanos’; in Italy: ‘Zingaros’, in Greece: ‘Gýftos’, in Rusia: ‘Tsygansky’, in Romania:’Tsygani’, in Poland: ‘Cyganie’, in Turkey: ‘Çingeneler’, in Hungary: ‘Cigányok’, in Slovakia: ‘Cigáni’, in Macedonia ‘Cigani’, in Portugal: ‘Cigani’, in Norway: ‘Sigøynere’, in Germany: ‘Zigeuner’, in Croatia: ‘Cigani’, in Bulgaria: ‘Tsigani’, in Serbia: ‘Cigani’, etc. From 1993, the European Council (Word Press, 2009) proposed the term ‘Rom’ instead of ‘Gpsy’. Although, in this paper I will use the terms Roma, Gypsy, and tigani (the latter being the Romanian term for Roma people) since members of the community where I will do my field work may self-identifiy using any of these three terms.

In Romania there is currently a big dispute over the new term for Gypsies, ‘Roma’, especially because of the potential confusion between ‘Roma’ (Gypsy) and Romanians. Similarly, there is also potential for confusion of the terms ‘Roma’ (the gypsy citizen) and Roman (Romanian). Some Romanians claim that this terminological confusion means they are stigmatized due to their association with negative behaviours associated with Gypsies (such as begging, stealing, etc.) and also that people from abroad think that the Romanian population is comprised of Gypsies (Roma people), rather than Romanians.

22

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC. “SPREAD YOUR LOVE TO YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, EMBRACE THE JOY AND HAPPINESS WITH THEM”.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- SAMER, H. (2002, 10). EARLY MIGRATION: PERSIA. RETRIEVED 12 03, 2013, FROM ROMBASE. HISTORY AND POLITICS : FROM INDIA TO EUROPE : PERSIA: HTTP://LING.UNI-GRAZ.AT/~ROMBASE/CGI-BIN/ART.CGI?SRC=DATA/ HIST/ORIGIN/PERSIA.EN.XML

- SAMER, H. (2002, 10). EARLY MIGRATION: PERSIA. RETRIEVED 12 03, 2013, FROM ROMBASE. HISTORY AND POLITICS : FROM INDIA TO EUROPE : PERSIA: HTTP://LING.UNI-GRAZ.AT/~ROMBASE/CGI-BIN/ART.CGI?SRC=DATA/ HIST/ORIGIN/PERSIA.EN.XML

- SARAU, G. (2008). RROMII. INCURSIUNE IN ISTORIA SI LIMBA LOR. BUCHAREST: SIGMA.

- SANDU, I. (2008), ORIGINEA ROMILOR IN SARAU, G., (208) RROMII. INCURSIUNE IN ISTORIA SI LIMBA LOR. BUCHAREST: SIGMA, PP. 3-7.

- SILVERMAN, C. (2012). ROMANI ROUTES: CULTURAL POLITICS AND BALKAN MUSIC IN DIASPORA. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

- SILVERMAN, C. (2012). ROMANI ROUTES: CULTURAL POLITICS AND BALKAN MUSIC IN DIASPORA. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

- SPINDLER. D. GEORGE, (1997). EDUCATION AND CULTURE. ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES. NEW YORK: STANFORD UNIVERISTY

- STEWART, M. , (1997). THE TIME OF THE GYPSIES. COLORADO: WESTVIEW PRESS.

- STRATHERN, A. , (1979). ‘GENDER, IDEOLOGY AND MONEY IN MOUNT HAGEN’. IN MAN (NS). 14 (3), PP 530-540.

23

Diplo m a cy & C u lt u re

“Youth Governing and Active Involment” WRITTEN BY: VASILE BRAȘOVANU (IAȘI, ROMÂNIA)

TEXT TRANSLATION BY: ANDI VALENTIN SÂSÂIAC

Through this article, I intend to identify the main methods of youth involvement in the decision making process at a community level, explaining, in the same time, what should be understood by active citizenship or European citizenship among young people. For a start, I will answer four questions, after which I will present a report that has been requested by the European Youth Politics Information Centre (EKCYP). In the end, I will debate upon the way in which de idea of citizenship is regarded and what does it require.

Since even the title speaks of active citizenship, I believe it is important to know what the elements of young people’s involvement are. Among the most important elements are: a legal framework able to certify young people’s involvement in public affairs and the decision making process; a high interest of young people regarding the electoral process and the existence of a community willing to encourage civic involvement.

24

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

The next question would consider how we should describe active citizenship, European citizenship. As Tommaso Padoa, President of the Notre Europe Organization states, active citizenship begins by simply reading the morning papers and trying to distinguish what is real from what is not. I personally believe that active citizenship requires direct involvement in the problems with which the community deals, drawing up a moral code, a sense of community membership based on loyalty, on knowing and fighting for one’s rights and interests, assuming the work within the community and the efforts for equality between men and women in terms of rights.

European citizenship is probably mainly concerned with the right to vote in European elections. In the same time, as European citizens, we benefit from the protection offered by diplomatic and consular authorities of other EU member states, from the right to petitions and the right to address the European mediator (the Advocate of People is the Romanian correspondent institution). Besides all of these, the European citizen can benefit from double citizenship, national and European, he has the right of free movement and labor, the right to reside in the European community states. One should not forget that when we speak of rights, we also speak of duties and responsibilities. As European citizens, we are due to know both our rights and our obligations.

We have seen what it means to be an active European citizen.

However, the next question is what are the rights and responsibilities of young Europeans? We have already mentioned some of them above, yet some others could be added, such as the right to be active within the framework of the Youth Forum, through the 99 national youth councils and international NGOs; the right to be a member of the Youth Parliament, which was founded as early as 1987. In terms of responsibilities, we could mention the moral obligation of active membership within civil society through adhering to NGOs, political parties, foundations; the

25

responsibility of supervising the government act at local, national or European levels through active watch. Young Europeans also have the right to benefit from programmes that facilitate cultural exchange or educational exchange, such as Erasmus+.

One last question that I want to tackle is how the European Union helps us in our everyday lives. By being a customs, economic and political union, the EU offers us access to different services and products, through the financing provided by different projects (Youth in Action, POSDRU), scholarships, encouraging excellency and innovation in education, access to information concerning community events (at least this is what Presseurope used to do); The European Union supports the youth by working for the youth.

As we previously said, I will present a report showing the situation of 35 European countries in what concerns your involvement. Starting from the analysis of the most recent socio-political youth manifestations worldwide (such as the protest of Muslim and black immigrants in the outskirts of Paris in 2008, when a young immigrant died from electrocution while being chased by the police), the author who analyses the report, Manfred Zetner, asks himself whether young people are more and more likely to refuse classical forms of participating in democracy.

The report consists in three parts. The first part deals with the analysis of the legislation concerning youth involvement. Thus, one notices that many European countries have laws that assure and sustain the youth involvement in public affairs. There are 13 states where there is legislation that guarantees youth involvement in national decision making: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta and Norway. Croatia and Spain also have laws which encourage involvement, but only at a regional level, while PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BIANCA AELENEI, “SILENCE! FACE THE REALITY�

26

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Greece and Ukraine have laws that regulate local youth involvement.

One of the most widely spread forms that assure youth involvement is represented by the Youth Councils (in Romania, there is The Romanian Youth Council – CTR), youth parliaments, students councils and committees (in Romania, there is a Students’ Council in every school, a District Students Council and the National Students Council). All of these forms of involvement mainly feature two functions: that of providing information for young people and consulting them in making political decisions.

The second part of the Report analyses the way in which young people involve themselves in the representative democratic system, the stress being on the involvement of young people within the electoral process (the vote – one of the oldest forms of public involvement, which started in the 5th century in Greece). Manfred Zetner notices that, in the majority of European states, the minimum age required to vote is 18 (the same as in the case of Romania), with some exceptions: in Austria, the minimum age is 16, the same as in some German lands, Swiss cantons; at the other end, in the Italian Senate elections, the minimum age for voting is 25).

Using the data provided by the European social survey for the period 2006-2008, the above mentioned author shows that the involvement of citizens under the age of 30 is between 26% and 90%, Romania having a rate of involvement of 50,3%. The author’s conclusion is that young people are not very interested in politics, the main obstacle being the lack of understanding of the phenomenon.

Nevertheless, the above mentioned data could not lead us to the conclusion that young people are not interested in politics. Why do I say this? The supporters of deliberative PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BIANCA AELENEI, “SILENCE! FACE THE REALITY”

27

“Participating in NGO activities is another way of being actively involved as a young European.� democracy (who find more and more followers among young people) claim that young people and citizens in general, being disappointed by the political class, find new forms of political involvement and participation: petition signing, public debates, protesting, manifesting social dissatisfaction through art, online mobilizing (social media) and new media. Participating in NGO activities is another way of being actively involved as a young European. This form of participation differs from one country to another (33% in Poland, 72% in the Netherlands, according to the Youth on the Move Eurobarometer, 2011).

The third part of this report presents the methods through which young Europeans learn how to participate in public affairs. The stress is on the school curricula, where they have to find information about electoral systems, constitutional and legislative provisions, political institutions and examples of good practice in participating in the community life. Besides the knowledge that it provides to young people, school also has the feature of having the students practice and develop participative skills and attitudes through organizing debates, elections for the class representatives and for the Student Council, meetings with political personalities, study visits in the local (and why not national) institutions: Town hall, District council, Parliament.

A responsible young European citizen, who knows his rights and obligations and who is actively involved in the community is interested in the political and administrative system and process, being oriented both towards the input aspects (social demands, complaints, public policy suggestions) and towards the output aspects of the political system (youth policies, laws, projects etc.).

28

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BIANCA AELENEI, “SILENCE! FACE THE REALITY”

29

In order to speak of young citizens’ involvement in governing, there is need for honesty, trust and respect for the laws. “It is said that the citizens of a civic community are honest with each other and expect the same attitude from the others. They expect governing to adhere to higher standards and to deliberately respect the rules that they themselves have stated” (Putnam, 2000, 126). In the same manner, we can go on and claim that active European citizens know that freedom can be expressed only in relation with responsibility.

“Citizens couldn’t and wouldn’t run away from responsibility, as they understand that freedom is a consequence of their involvement in decision making and in the actions that emerge from these decisions” (Barber, 1984, 179).

In a civic community, the quality of being a young citizen requires, at first, active involvement in public affairs.

“The interest in public affairs constitutes the basic feature of civic virtue” (Walzer, 1980, 64)”. In a civic community, the quality of being a citizen requires legal rights and obligations for everybody. The inherent cohesion of such a community is assured by horizontal reciprocity and cooperation relations, and not by vertical authority and dependence relations.

Citizens interact from equal positions, not like the boss and his clients or the governors and petitioners. Both absolute power and the absence of power can corrupt, as they both involve a certain lack of responsibility. The more politics get closed to the ideal of political equality among citizens who respect the norms of reciprocity and involve themselves in self-governing, the more civic can the respective community be considered (Putnam, 2000, 104).

30

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

The citizens of a civic community, young citizens in our case, are in many respects more than just active or interested in the public welfare and equal. They are being useful, are respectful and trust one another, although they have different opinion in serious matters. The civic community does not lack conflict, as its citizens have strong viewpoints in terms of public affairs, but they are tolerant with their opponents (Putnam, 2000, 104). Trust among people is one of the most important virtues, it is the moral feature that we all need in a democratic regime.

The effects of a well-established civic community among young people are the refusal of mistrust, of the feeling of isolation. In this case, young people will not feel isolated and very suspicious of collective action.

I will conclude by saying that it is necessary for young people to possess a solid political culture in order to participate in governing through their quality of citizens.

This translates as a “set of political beliefs, feelings and values that prevail for a nation at a given moment in time” (Dogan and Pelassy, 1993, 34).

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

- BARBER, BENJAMIN, STRONG DEMOCRACY: PARTICIPATORY POLITICS FOR A NEW AGE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, BERKELEY, 1984;

- DOGAN, MATEI, PELASSY, DOMONIQUE, CUM SĂ COMPARĂM NAȚIUNILE, EDITURA ALTERNATIVE, BUCUREȘTI, 1993:

- PUTNAM, ROBERT D., CUM FUNCȚIONEAZĂ DEMOCRAȚIA, EDITURA POLIROM, IAȘI, 2001;

- WALZER, MICHAEL, CIVILITY AND CIVIC VIRTUE IN CONTEMPORANY AMERICA, ÎN “RADICAL PRINCIPLES”, BASIC BOOKS, NEW YORK, 1980.

31

“Everything is evanescent, and nothing truly established, nothing sustainable” WRITTEN BY: ANDREEA CREȚU (TÂRGU FRUMOS, ROMÂNIA)

TEXT TRANSLATION BY: ANDI VALENTIN SÂSÂIAC

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “HAPPY NO MATTER HOW OLD WE ARE”

“This world so much resembles a vast fair in which everything is improvised, everything is evanescent, and nothing truly established, nothing sustainable”. Romanian playwright I.L. Caragiale stated this in an article published in 1896. It is as if we are starting to identify ourselves more and more with the world created by the writer.

This is because we live in a world which is dead and alive at the same time…historically dead, alive as an artistic universe. Who is Caragiale, one could ask. His full name is Ion Luca Caragiale, born on the 11th February 1852 in the district of Dâmboviţa and deceased on the 9th June 1912 in Berlin. He was a Romanian (of Greek descent) playwright, novella and pamphlet writer, theatre manager, political analyst and journalist. Caragiale is considered to be the greatest Romanian playwright and one of the most important

32

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Romanian writers. He was awarded a post-mortem membership of the Romanian Academy. Since childhood, he made a play for drama and wanted to become an actor, yet he became a playwright.

Unlike other playwrights, Caragiale has a different trajectory due to the fact that he was familiar with scenic movement; he knew what it takes for an actor to be loved and, above all, that the public’s attitude is essential in receiving the play. The truth is that his most striking feature is the attention that he offered to the readership.

Generally speaking, comedies depend on the public’s reaction, on the relationship between actors and spectators, having laughing as a result.

The magic found on Caragiale’s stage is the result of a procedure, of a series of acts. If the play is no more than a mere composition, scenic reality is nothing but a sentence, a mystification.

In Caragiale’s world, people talk very much, every character talks in order to stay alive. With or without anything to do, Caragiale’s people can hardly wait to start a discussion, thus having only situational friends, by no means a true friend. They talk a lot, but they say practically nothing, they do not transmit meanings, they only fundament on form. We hear the same “fundament less” political discourse every day. Demagogy becomes more and more a feature of the country’s personalities. The same as the people from Caragiale’s world, if silenced, all their power fades, as there are no facts, only meaningless words. We talk when we go to school.

We talk when we go out. We speak on the telephone. We talk on the street. The problem emerges when we realize that we don’t communicate. We realize that we are too busy with future problems and we totally forget the present. Running away from reality, taking refuge in one’s own corner, seeking someone to spend time with when not having anything left to say, one gives up living. In doing so, you give up being yourself and becoming more than a picture in the life-album of those around you. Your world, the same as Caragiale’s, became a bazaar world, where there is never-ending toand-fro and where discord never ceases.

There is a long time since one observed that, in Caragiale’s works, whoever does not lie, steal or bribe dies. Dissimulation generalizes, thus becoming a modus vivendi. Being honest is no longer profitable.

You then ask yourself, what is the use of the “soul’s nurture” in a world in which, if you are not “one of them”, you get to be devoured.

Only then you realize that you prefer to lock everything in a corner

33

“This world so much resembles a vast fair in which everything is improvised, everything is evanescent, and nothing truly established, nothing sustainable”. within the soul, thus making room for the regrets of tomorrow. But who would you be without them? At the same time all regrets are a learned lesson or maybe an impulse so that next time you will do things right.

Caragiale’s text should not be regarded as a mere photograph of the 1900s, as they are not a historical representation. Caragiale’s intention is to generate a picture of the Romanian, Bucharestian soul, ideological scenery. Consequently, while reading his works, one gets to believe that that was the world in which he used to live together with his characters. We find Caragiale actual because he is authentic, he is a good writer who reflects national specificity and aims at generating, through his work, an image of “Romanianism”.

In this respect, the 19th century represents the period when Romanians started to question their identity.

In Caragiale’s world, the opponent must not be defeated, but compromised. It is the main rule, a rule which has been respected in every battle. Todays, we notice the exact opposite…the first step is verbal depreciation; the second is crashing the opponent.

The battle for supremacy becomes harsher when the power of money interferes. We get carried away by details and forget that we are humans. Or maybe some have never been humans, but only candidates running for the “position of an individual”.

We slowly notice that we are living in a world in which everybody considers everybody stupid and everybody acts as such. One no longer knows if the surrounding people are what they look like, or they pretend in an extremely dexterous manner. This ambiguity generates a world in which, in order to survive, it is ever necessary to act stupid, to join the uniform and noisy chorus of the great bafflegab and to be as such. In short, to forget being YOURSELF!

34

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

I´m neither Turkish nor German: I’M A TRANSNATIONAL WOMAN WRITTEN BY: IPEK BOGATUR (BERLIN, GERMANY)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “INTERRCULTURALITY MAKES YOUR MIND OPEN”

35

Fifty years ago an endless story has begun. The first Turkish guestworker, the mute, uneducated, “non-western” figure came to Germany from rural areas of Turkey to work and make a better future in the homeland. They were mostly unable to integrate because of many reasons, such as lack of education or inadequate language. Additionally, attitudes of German society, however, are far away from getting this adaptation process easier for Turkish guestworkers.

The Turkish guestworkers, as an ethnic minority are often imagined as outsiders on a subnational level. They have become indispensable for many Western people to have the urge to defend Western civilization against this ‘enemy within’, who is culturally and religiously dissimilar to the ‘civilized’ western subject. Turkish women in Germany, in particular, have often been subject ‘double othering’ because of their oppressive and patriarchal culture of origin. Today, Turkish origin people compose the biggest minority in Germany. No one speaks of guestworkers anymore. Therefore, I wanted to have a look at the grand child of victimised Turkish women of 50 years ago. I have interviewed with three Turkish origin German citizen women to speak them out and hear from the real actors. While doing this, one has to face with a contemporary concept: “transnationalism”!

It has been more than fifty years since the guest worker agreement was signed between Turkey and Germany on 30 October 1961. While Germany was in urgent need of workers as a result of hectic pace of growth in German Federal Republic after 2nd World War; the economic, social and political situation of Turkey was in trouble so that hundreds of thousands of Turks started to migrate through Germany and they were not aware of the fact that an endless story has started.

The majority of Turkish “Guestworkers” came from rural and economically underdeveloped regions. Those from urban working-class backgrounds (one third) had only recently migrated from the countryside and did not have an established history of urban integration before leaving Turkey.

(Kursat-Ahlers 1996: 118).

The first generation, the “typical” Guestworker, had very little education, didn’t have a specific profession, was classified as being labourers and spoke a rather poor German. Naturally, their social involvement to the German community was limited.

After they stepped in an “another” world with that limited social contribution in consequence of lack of education, inadequate language, coming from mostly small villages which were quite rural; inherently, imagining a smooth integration to a modern society would not be more than a chimera.

36

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

However, even if the first generation “Guestworker” couldn’t mostly integrate into German society and there had always been a coming back aim to the homeland, it never really occurred. There are various factors, included making more savings and have a better life in the homeland for the future, second generations’ education which had already started in Germany and the troublous political, social and economic situation in Turkey.

If one looks from the side of German Society, it could not be seen a case to have not well – integrated “Guestworkers” as far as they would have worked for only one year as dealt by the initial contracts. As a fresh power, making Federal Germany’s development faster to provide better facilities for the country, having “Guestworker” was even a pleasure for the German Society. However, when they had started to turn into a permanent layer of the society, from my point of view the problems have started to arise. When those “non-western others” had become not a temporary worker who had been living in the “heim” (dormitories for the workers) anymore but a townsman who set their lives in Germany and appearance in German Public Area, they have become indispensable for many Western people to have the urge to defend Western civilization against this ‘enemy within’, who is culturally and religiously dissimilar to the ‘civilized’ western subject.

Under these circumstances, adaptation turns out to be a struggle to exist in a new community.

Attitudes of German society, however, are far away from getting this adaptation process easier for Turkish guestworkers. Majority of German people do not want to contact with and rent their homes to Turks.

(The results of an opinion poll in 1982 revealed that only 8% of German community evaluated Turks positively and 48% negatively (AbadanUnat 1985).

ETKA

As Clifford rightly states, those migrant and / or minority groups who are alienated by the system, and are swept up in a destiny dominated by the capitalist West, no longer invent local futures. What is different about them remains tied to traditional pasts (Clifford 1988: 5).

First generation Turkish workers have preferred to restrict the communication with German Society as much as possible. It was a path to diminish the connection with German Society for reducing

37

the tension of integration. First generation Turkish workers have composed their own “ghetto” against the challenging holes of integration. Ghettos with shared houses, neighbourhood, closeknit relations, traditional markets, shops, social areas have been a secure world to forget the culture of the host society, which they cannot cope with.

Apart from first generations’ integration issues, it came up for the guest workers to worry about their Germany born children. In spite of the fact that they were born in heterogeneous milieu as ghettos and they were somehow conserved from the host culture, the schooling system altered the life for both first and second generations. The things got more complicated when the children touched with the host community. Needless to say that, with the education, the second generation stepped into the host culture.

As a case in point, this dualism was summed up in an exhibition title of those years: “Morgens Deutschland – Abends Türkei / Germany in the morning – Turkey at night”. (Fröhlich and Kaufmann, 1981) The second and following generations in Germany have mostly had more than one milieu as the exhibition’s name clearly tells us.

Nevertheless, in literature, members of the second and following generations especially till 90s, framed as “lost generations”.

Therefore, “cultural conflict,” “culture shock,” “acculturation,” “inbetweenness,” and “identity crisis” for which are the keywords for “lost generations” are without a doubt framed in the concept of nationalist approach. (Kaya, 2007: 2) As Yoonmi Lee describes nationalism, “a person’s identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one’s citizenship status. Yoonmi Lee sees national identity in psychological terms as “an awareness of difference” - “a feeling and recognition of ‘we’ and ‘they’. (Yi, 2000: 29). This approach highlights the triangle among “traditional culture” which comes from the elder, the host culture they live in especially at the school, and the real or imagined discriminative approach of German society, pushing them to be lost between two worlds.

Apart from being stereotyped as a “problematic identity” that mentioned above, Turkish Woman in Germany, in particular, have often been subject to “double othering”. They are assumed to find

38

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

a voice and space, which is supposedly denied to them in their oppressive patriarchal culture of origin.

The critical interest devoted to them often serves to confirm hypocritical narratives of rescue, liberation and Westernisation. (Göktürk, 2000: 66) Is it possible to broaden the mind and make a reversal of victimized Turkish woman? Beginning from second generation, how have identities affected by growing up with two cultures? Have globalization affected the nationalist approach and the identities?

Beyond national identity borders: Transnationalism, FIGEN transnational space, transnational identity Today’s Germany is no longer conceivable without the German-Turkish subsistence. No one speaks of “guest workers” any more. Nor are Turks classic immigrants eager to melt in with a host culture. In close touch with both countries, German Turks are a part of the recent phenomenon of transnational space. In reversal of the American immigrant parlance (European Americans, Asian Americans) they are fittingly hyphenated as Deutsch-Türken or German-Turks in a distinct transnational space. Transnational space, contrary to nationalism, assimilation, holistic culture, belongs to a framed concept, creates transnational space which is comprised of different cultures on a bridge, and rejects to be fit in borders. It covers more than routes and destinations between, or beyond, territorial nation-states. It covers a wider spectrum of social, cultural, political, and economic transactions among transnational subjects, families, institutions, corporations, networks, images, figures, languages, discourses, arts, rituals, cuisines and symbols. (Kaya, 2007: 1) Globalization, which has increasingly risen by the overwhelming speed of transportation, technology and electronic communications, facilitates easy cheap and fast contacts across national borders. At present, one can be in contact with almost all the world in very fast and cheap opportunities thanks to global developments.

It isn’t be exaggerated if the globalism is seen the main actors of “transnational space” its actors “transnationalism/transnational space/ transnational identities”. A transnational identity can develop only among those who not only master both languages (host and origin), but also come into contact and have the social skills to establish connections with people and communities from both the host and origin country. (Bradatan, Cristina,

39

A. Popan, R. Melton, 2010: 8) Many migrants are no longer physically detached from their countries of origin. Globalism makes it much easier for contemporary migrants to travel back and forth physically and symbolically between their countries of origin and destination.

All these can give the opportunity of more than having one national culture, but instead of feeling “in between”, the one can enjoy the pleasures of flying in the transnational space.

Nina Schiller, Linda Basch, and Christina Blanc-Szanton define the transformation of migrant and also define the transnationalism as a new concept: “our earlier conceptions of immigrant and migrant no longer suffice. The word immigrant evokes images of permanent rupture, of the uprooted, the abandonment of old patterns and the painful learning of a new language and culture. Now a new kind of migrating population is emerging, composed of those whose networks, activities, and patterns of life encompass both their host and home societies…We call this new conceptualization “transnationalism” and describe the new type of migrants as “transmigrants”. (Schiller, Basch, and Blanc-Szanton, 2004) So far, it has been told about Turkish – German diaspora history, transnational space and identities. Additionally, wouldn’t it better to let the real actors speak out instead of considering the literature itself?

I have interviewed with three amazing Turkish Origin – German Citizen transnational woman. It is impossible not to amaze by that “richness”. All of their grandparents came as the guestworkers from Turkey to Germany. They seem glad to grow up in two cultures and enjoy the pleasures of walking on the transnational space. However, the common issue of Turkish origin woman in Germany who I have spoken is that, still being reflected on media as the first “guestworker” woman who mostly came from rural areas, uneducated, oppressed by their patriarchal fathers, brothers or husbands.

1. Do you feel yourself as German or Turkish?

Etka (22, University student): None of them. I don’t think I have enough “specificity „to be fit myself in one of them.

Figen (30, Executive assistant): Both of them.

Zeynep (22, University student): In my opinion, this is a really bulky question to answer to me. I can identify myself with both cultures but to be honest I feel more comfortable to be the

40

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

‘German’ one. This is because I was born and raised in Germany and thus my knowledge about the German language, German history, German culture and so is shaped up better than my Turkish identity.

Nevertheless I would not see myself as German; I would rather say I feel more European. But still I grew up with two cultures, two languages, so it is still a mixed identity after all and reflects it to the outside anyway.

2. Could you identify yourself as a transnational who includes both parts inside?

Etka: Yes, absolutely. I don’t think my identity consist in a nationality. Due to growing up between two cultures, a specific identity has been shaped and this identity doesn’t even have two national cultures. Germany is a multinational country and I have lots of friend from the other nationalities that is why, it would be somehow “silly” to fix myself in a nationality and its culture. Hence, I think I’m a transnational identity and this is something I have developed with my life style and experiences as well.

Figen: Yes. I feel myself neither this nor that. I just mix both of them and enjoy with the benefits not to have to limit myself in one nation. This is richness!

Zeynep: Yes I do. People who grow up with two cultures have mostly two identities to me. Exceptions always exist, but I do feel like having both, German and Turkish, identities inside me. It applies to very much because my surrounding was balanced as containing German and Turkish people around me. So I got adapted to this in a very early age and this of course augments through time, and you just know how to behave in a certain situation, in a group and with people, as well. Actually you do not have much choice; it belongs to integrating into one community.

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the national/ transnational identity you feel?

Etka: I don’t feel a national identity inside of me. Due to not to do so, I enjoy the advantages of not to feel any limit and pressure. I don’t believe that anything I do or think doesn’t need to belong to a „side“. This gives me freedom! There is no disadvantage for me.

Figen: The advantage is that I have a chance to compare both cultures and take the good parts from both. I’m glad to grow

41

ZEYNEP

up in Germany so that I have learnt many things. The disadvantage is something, which makes me feel really upset. When I was at the primary school in a very small village in the West Germany, I was the only foreigner child at class and always the outsider as well. They didn’t want to play with me. I was marginalized together with the fat boy and the red haired girl. They were the only friends of mine. I understood the years later that I had been marginalized.

Zeynep: The advantages feeling ‘being Turkish’ is: it is known that the mentality of Turkish people are very warm and host friendly, Turkey is a beautiful country (especially Istanbul) with so much history and different people as well, it is really rich in culture and so colourful. The disadvantages I really could say is that living as a Turkish person in Germany, it can come to some prejudice such as Turkish people are not that well educated because back then 50 years ago people weren’t educated as much as the Europeans and they still think like it which stigmatizes the whole Turkish society living in Germany. Or even if some Turkish people misbehave themselves in the society, it is seen that the whole Turkish people ‘must’ be like that. (This is also true for other nationalities not just Turkish people – mostly the minority living abroad) 4. How do you find the development of Turkish origin woman in Germany from past to present?

Etka: Positive. Turkish woman have learnt not to be dependent and the most importantly, they are now able to arrange a life how they would like. Today, most of Turkish origin woman can choose between making a career and having a family or they can be both religious and make a career.

Not long ago, these were shown like opposite choices. I think that Turkish origin woman go beyond borders.

Figen: From my point of view, the first generation of Turkish origin woman – the guestworker - in Germany was not that conservative. As I save seen around me in the 70s, they were quiet modern. The conservation of Turkish origin woman in Germany has been raised by Islamization of Turkey since 90s by Refah Party coalition.

Zeynep: I think it is improving a lot! And the German government gives these people a lot of chances!

42

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

5. How do you think that German National Media has reflected this development process of Turkish origin woman in Germany? Have they been objective enough?

Etka: No. The first image about Turkish origin woman I perceive from German Media is that Turkish origin woman needs help. For example, the media indicates the Turkish woman who is under the parental patriarchy and violence, pushing to cover her head and suffering from her own culture. However the most important and interesting representation for me is that they would like to live like German woman but cannot, or trying to live like German woman by hiding it from her parents. Briefly, it seems like on German media, if a Turkish origin woman lives like German woman, then she is a good one.

Figen: It depends on the news content but generally there are lots of cliché and stereotype on German media about Turkish origin woman. They don’t reflect the modern Turkish woman at all. The archaic and unable woman in integration takes place on media so that well – integrated, modern Turkish origin woman is not the newsworthy ones for them.

Zeynep: If the Turkish media presents something like this is somewhat okay compared to the German media, because if the Turkish media presents something like that it can have an impact that this suppression against weak women should never occur. But when the German media presents something like this, I think that is out of their business.

In conclusion, in the age of globalism; migration, migrant, society, identities, national spaces and many things changed the form. What about the media? It seems media is a little bit slower than global changings, which strongly affect the identities.

SOURCES

- ABADAN-UNAT, NERMIN (1985). IDENTITY CRISIS OF TURKISH MIGRANTS: FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION. PP. 3-22 IN: İLHAN BAŞGÖZ AND NORMAN FURNISS (EDS.). TURKISHWORKERS IN EUROPE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY. BLOOMINGTON: INDIANA UNIVERSITY TURKISH STUDIES.

- BASSEWITZ, G. ., & KUNSTAMT KREUZBERG. (1981). MORGENS DEUTSCHLAND, ABENDS TÜRKEI. BERLIN: FRÖHLICH UND KAUFMANN.

- BRADATAN, CRISTINA, A. POPAN, R. MELTON. 2010. “TRANS-NATIONALITY AS A FLUID SOCIAL IDENTITY,” SOCIAL IDENTITIES, 16(2):169-178

- ELÇIN – KÜRŞAT AHLERS “THE TURKISH MINORITY IN GERMAN SOCIETY”, HORROCKS, D., & KOLINSKY, E. (1996). TURKISH CULTURE IN GERMAN SOCIETY TODAY. PROVIDENCE, RI: BERGHAHN BOOKS.

- G.KTÜRK, D. (2000), ‘TURKISH WOMEN ON GERMAN STREETS: CLOSURE AND EXPOSURE IN TRANSNATIONAL CINEMA’, IN M. KONSTANTARAKOS (ED.), SPACES IN EUROPEAN CINEMA, EXETER: INTELLECT, PP. 64–76.

- KAYA, A. (JANUARY 01, 2007). GERMAN-TURKISH TRANSNATIONAL SPACE: A SEPARATE SPACE OF THEIR OWN. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW, 30, 483-502.

- LEE, Y. (2000). MODERN EDUCATION, TEXTBOOKS AND THE IMAGE OF THE NATION: POLITICS OF MODERNIZATION AND NATIONALISM IN KOREAN EDUCATION, 1880-1910. NEW YORK: GARLAND.

- NINA GLICK SCHILLER, LINDA BASCH, AND CRISTINA BLANC-SZANTON, “TRANSNATIONALISM: A NEW ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING MIGRATION,” IN: MIGRATION, GLOBALIZATION, AND ETHNIC RELATIONS, M. MOBASHER AND M. SADRI. EDS. (NEW JERSEY: PRENTICE HALL, 2004), 213–27.

43

South Caucasus Union WRITTEN BY: ABY PERKOVIC

“Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise”.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Today, South Caucasus has become the arena for a struggle for spheres of influence of Turkey, Russia, Iran and the West. The Geopolitical, geoeconomical and geophilosophical factors of this rather contrasted region automatically puts the people of the South Caucasus on the edge of the sword between war and peace.

In this conflict-favored situation Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (hereafter, AAG) are trying to create new regional alliances as well as to establish international cooperation with other players (China, India, etc.) to dominate in the region. Starting from the 10th century the entire South Caucasus, or some portions of it, has been alternately or simultaneously part of Iran, Turkey or Russia, which still regard these territories as traditionally theirs. Thus Turkey sees a substantial part of the South Caucasus as a part of an extensive Turkic state, Turan. Iran on the other hand, sees the future of some Caucasian countries in an alliance including Iran itself and certain Central Asian republics. Russia desires to restore its influence in the region, backing to USSR or Russian Empire, and, eventually, to control Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.

Thus the region remains one of the most complicated in the post-Soviet area, and comprises three heavily disputed areas – Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Several wars, including the 2008 South Ossetia war, Ossetian-Georgian conflict, and the Nagorno-Karabakh war have been waged in this region.

Early pacification of the divided South Caucasus is most unlikely,

44

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

given this distribution of forces in obvious conflict. In regards of the prospect of future state and legal relations between AAG, the way forward seems to be within the framework of a South Caucasus Union.

Not long before the break-up of the USSR the eminent sovietologist A. Avtorkhanov gave the following warning: Caucasians must understand that if they fight among themselves they will never be either free or independent. In the eyes of the outside world such a region does not deserve freedom, but should be permanently occupied by a strong state and its armed forces.

The region was unified as a single political entity twice – during the Russian Civil War (Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic) from 9 April 1918 to 26 May 1918, and under the Soviet rule (Transcaucasian SFSR) from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936.

Both unions were disadvantageous for the region’s main players.

In the first case, Turkey directly contributed to eliminate potential strength rival. In the second case, Stalin reversed the policy of “korenizatsiya” (indigenization), which aimed to promote harmony amongst the many different ethnic groups of the country, and was ruthlessly enforcing processes of Russification by 1937.

Over the past two decades intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have become increasingly prominent both in facilitating conflict resolution between states, and also in dealing with intractable conflicts within states. They serve a number of basic functions which enhance the possibility of cooperation. IGOs are an important aspect of public international law. They are established by treaties that act as a charter creating the group. Treaties are formed when lawful representatives (governments) of several states go through a ratification process, providing the IGO with an international legal personality. As a reasonable type of multi-national confederation for United Transcaucasia I see a concept of supranationalism, where

45

negotiated power is delegated to an authority by governments of member states. The concept of supranational union is sometimes used to describe the European Union, as a new type of political entity.

As distinct from the ideas of federation, confederation or customs union the main development in Europe depends on a supranational foundation, as it was enunciated by Robert Schuman in the Europe Declaration:

The principle was at the heart of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the Treaty of Paris (1951), following the „Schuman Declaration� and the later the Treaties of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC). Later both the ECSC and EEC were incorporated into the European Union, except the EAEC, which I supposed to think, is just a matter of time.

For the beginning of South Caucasus Union creation we see the establishment of Free Trade Cities League among member states.

First, each member undertakes to establish that existed two cities inside its borders with the status of Free Cities, which will be governed by one of other two states. After the first six Free Cities

46

HTTP://WWW.FREEIMAGES.COM/PHOTO/1431784

This merging of our interests in coal and steel production and our joint action will make it plain that any war between France and Germany becomes not only unthinkable but materially impossible.

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

establishment each member undertakes to found one Charter City within the territory of each other member. As a result, the region will have 12 developed modern cities and each member will govern two cities in each of other member states, which will make conflicts between states not only useless, but also unnecessary.

In this context Free City is defined as an autonomous territorial and political neutralized and demilitarized formation, the legal status of which is established by tripartite treaties and guaranteed by host states. It is an object of certain international legal personality. The main features of Free Cities are their (i) free economic zone status, (ii) local government’s establishment only by governor state, (iii) common wealth principle, which means that the whole wealth from such cities are divided equally between member states, (iv) common rules principle, which means that the rules are established by tripartite treaties and (v) common secondary and professional education system for all Free Cities.

In this context Charter City is a Free City, which is founded from zero and owned by founder state. First, it is ruled by common rules, as Free Cities, but growing (for example, population reaches over 1 million) it creates its own rules – a charter document, and will be governed also by citizens, because a charter gives a city the flexibility to choose novel types of government structure. Charter cities are similar in administrative structure to special administrative regions.

Historical examples cover a broad range of charter cities, from virtually independent city-states to smaller municipalities which have limited administrative freedom. For example, the Hansa League port city of LĂźbeck, Germany was a chartered city, governed

My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I should reject that patriotism which sought to mount upon the distress or the exploitation of other nationalities.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

47

by an autonomous council of local burgesses. Similarly, the state of Pennsylvania was founded after Charles II granted William Penn a land charter in 1681. Hong Kong and Macau are both current examples of special administrative regions, similar to charter cities, in China.

In the XXI century mankind will become a witness of the foundation of dozens new charter cities, which will contribute to equalize standard of living over the world. Economist Paul Romer proposes the founding of many new charter cities in developing countries (see TED Talks). Romer suggests that a developing country passes a law that sets aside a tract of land for a new charter city. The point of the charter cities idea is to give citizens the choice regarding where they want to live and to provide the basic rules and amenities required for economic growth. Ideally, by establishing a city with highly-developed rules and governance in an underdeveloped region, living and working in a charter city may provide a closer and more attractive alternative of moving far away to more developed countries.

Thus, in order to improve global competitiveness of South Caucasus and cease being an arena for geopolitical games of interests, staying divided by racial, ethnic, religious, national and other conditionalities, South Caucasus nations need to cognize, that first of all, they are humans (only after that they are Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian) and try to consolidate into one team to avoid being played by others and for others’ interests. And finally, South Caucasus nations can drag their unimportant existence or build a miracle.

48

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ALEXANDRA MUSCALU, “CULTURAL DIVERSITY”

49

Libe ra l Arts

Aesthetics of ugliness WRITTEN BY: ELSA BERNEVIC (IAČ˜I, ROMANIA)

The great poet Tudor Arghezi is the one who manages to create a profound reform of the modern poetic parlance by introducing a concept concerning the aesthetics of ugliness, notion adopted from Ch. Baudelaire.

The aesthetics of ugliness are an artistic means which stylizes ugliness, grotesqueness, deformity and disgrace with a certain elaborate subtlety in order to express beauty, balance and last but not least, harmony.

50

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

This concept can be easily noted among the young artists from Iaşi who expressed their wish to no longer be anonymous by supporting beauty and innovation through the help of a few works of art displayed throughout the city. Graffiti is the way that helps them express themselves, a nonconformist method which was frowned upon at first because of the vandalism it implies.

So what is graffiti? It is a way through which adolescents express their feelings and emotions. The current originally dates from the ‘70s and it started in the United States where the youth marked every wall possible with the so called “tags”, establishing a never ending competition. The role of the tag was to state the fact that its author had visited the certain place where it had been drawn and that they wanted to be acknowledged.

The whole city of Iaşi is imprinted by graffiti artists. The walls of various buildings are the silent witnesses of certain stories that depicts each author’s skillfulness: signatures, quotes or anything else the author thought worthy expressing to get them out of anonymousness.

Subsequent to the level of the ordinary tags, organized competitions made their entrance, giving artists of all ages a chance to use their imagination and creativity in order to achieve true works of art. As a result, other smaller projects were established which can be especially admired in the city center.

In the following paragraph, I will describe three of the aforementioned projects. The first one refers to the two portraits found in the Tătăraşi neighborhood created with great skill and patience in order to support

51

the art concerning beauty. They are eloquent examples depicting a free spirited mind of an artist.

The second praise worthy project was made by a young student at the College of Arts, who wanted to contribute to promoting Iaşi as a capital of culture by outlining the portraits of several well known Romanian poets on the kiosks housing the second hand books sold on the street called Lăpuşneanu. The features of Eminescu, Stănescu or Arghezi were executed with refinement and elegance, highlighting once more the aesthetic power which modern art possesses.

The third challenge the artists from Iaşi answered to was the revamp of the gangway near the former Unic store from Piaţa Unirii. This time, the authors were students learning at the Octav Băncilă school and the National College of Iaşi who let their imagination flow and managed to create true art. The final result is indeed admirable both for its abundance of details and for the realism it depicts.

All these are eloquent evidences of the concept stating that one can turn ugliness into beautiful art in a world found under continuous change, adapting to new and innovative ways.

52

53

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Strategies in making documentary films WRITTEN BY: VICTORIA BALTAG (LONDON, UK)

54

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

“Documentary can and should use all the strategies of fictional construction to reach the truth”.

The aim of this essay is to give a slightly perspective on documenting the documentaries: strategies and techniques recommended by this cinematographic genre, which is documentary film. The purpose of this paper is to open new opinion and ideas in depth about the requirements of realizing a documentary and provide a wider knowledge about film genres boundaries. We shall expect other debates and researches on this topic as well.

As Bill Nichols says (1998:11), “documentary calls for specific techniques to give cinematic embodiment to live encounter and historical events, experience and reflection, argumentation and research. Like ethnographic fieldwork, calls for specific ways of being among and apart from those ultimately represented in words or film. It calls for an ethics of responsibility, an aesthetics of film form, and a politics of representation”.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “BRING COLOUR INTO YOUR LIFE”

55

Also, Bill Nichols considers documentary a discipline of visual representation. He argued that a documentary should be done with responsibility, strictness, and professionalism.

About documentarysts, he says that they should follow the tradition of explorers, missionaries, colonialists, tourists; travellers and ethnographers, often choose to live and work among others. If they do not live among the people whom they also film, they “do set out to grasp the issue that confront their social partners in the construction of reality”, Nichols says. Also he argued: “ But whether they come from afar or begin close by (with family and loved ones, long-fought issues or personal struggles), documentary filmmakers then must find ways to represent what they discover, and believe, and want others to discover and believe as a result of their own representations”. Although documentary is in fact a filmmaking practice (1998:12), cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception, it remains a practice without clear boundaries as well. In Documenting the Documentary (1998:11), it is said that documentary is not represented as “different” from fiction.

The reasons can be found in the different ontological status of the documentary image, closer indexical relation to the real, the intimate connection to the real world, the psychical world in which we live.

Documentary appeals to viewer precisely because of the truth that it claims, whether at the level of fact or image. Contrasting, in fiction films, no matter how realistic they may be, some form of “suspension of disbelief” is always operative (1998:20).

Because documentary is the form of cinema that is most closely bound to the real world, to actual personal and collective problems, hopes, and struggles, it is understandable

56

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

The viewer can learn almost nothing of his past, and his lack of knowledge appears necessary to the investigation of the official lies. that concrete issues of ethics, politics, and technology would take precedence over the intangible of aesthetics.

Richard Barsam, in The vision of Robert Flaherty: The Artist as Myth and Filmmaker (1998) argued: “Yet as we increasingly garner our news and information about our world – indeed, our very perception and comprehension of it – from the visual media, it is more important than ever to understand the textual strategies by which individual documentaries are organized”. At the same time, because of its impressive stylistic heterogeneity, it has a place within avant-garde, the category that is usually perceived as in stark opposition to, if not the antithesis of, commercial film.

It can be said that a documentary interrogates the more traditional depiction of the truth as stable, objective, and knowable, even though suggesting that identity itself is shifting and fragmentary.

As William Rothman (1998:23) argues, “by the late of 1970s, the prevailing view within the field was that all fiction films are really documentaries, that all documentary films are fiction, hence that they do not fundamentally differ.

Documentaries and fiction films are equally to be resisted”.

In Representing the reality (Nichols, 1991) and Theorizing the Documentary (Renov, 1993), the dominant view is that although documentaries are not inherently more truthful than fiction films, there are important differences between them. A documentary “is generally regarded as the work from which all subsequent efforts to bring real life to the screen have stemmed (1998:24). The implication is that fiction films are not efforts to bring real life to the screen; here are efforts to bring to the screen the imaginary life of fantasy and myth. William Rothman (1998:24) argues that fictional films do bring real life to the screen but there characters are imaginary, even though the camera’s subject are real. Furthermore, documentaries are steeped in fantasy or/and myth. Finally, he concludes: “ What is fictional about a fiction film resides in its fiction that it is only fiction”. Linda Williams, in Mirrors without Memories (1998:379) underlines the fact that nowadays era, where PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC

57

the electronic and computer world generated images, the camera, the article sensationally proclaims, “can lie”.

In a documentary, like in any cinematographic product, everything is important: technique materials, filming, actors, and the chosen story. “A camera is a physical object; a dog can acknowledge its presence by licking it. But when a camera is filming, it is no ordinary object”, William Rothman says (1998:29). Despite its presence, viewers who are absent are also magically present through the presence of camera, what is absent and also present, what is present is also absent (idem). Actors are the same important in a documentary. To act as if he/she is the character he/she is playing, an actor must act as if no camera is in his/her presence.

Several documentary films, like The Thin Blue Line (1987), Paris Is Burning (1990), etc., have managed to break through the stranglehold of institutional exhibition practices and attain successful commercial runs. In her analysis, Linda Williams argues that the aim of contemporary documentary filmmakers is to seek the “reverberations and repetitions” that reveal multiple and contingent “truths” rather than a unitary, unproblematic ”truth”.

In 1989, a documentary about an “inept” documentary filmmaker and economic hardship in Flint, Michigan, became the most commercially successful documentary ever made – Roger And Me (1998:19). Even if the more intimate autobiographical mode of documentary is political, at the same it is personal.

Linda Williams argued that we exist in an era in which there is a remarkable hunger for documentary images of the real. Nowadays people are interested into finding out information from around the world. They need to find the real and true information. In the same time, people become interested in news about violence.

“Interestingly, violent trauma has become the emblem of the real in the new verite genre or the independent amateur video…”.

For this analysis, this essay will consider Errol Morris’s film, The Thin Blue Line (1987), about the murder of a police officer and the near execution of the “wrong man”, and Michael Moore’ s film, Roger And Me (1989), about the dire effects of a General Motors plant closing. About Roger And Me, William says that “ coincident with the hunger for documentary truth is the clear sense that this truth is subject to manipulation and construction by docu-auteurs who,

58

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

whether on camera, or behind, are forcefully calling the shots.” This is a paradox of the presumptuous manipulation of documentary truth, allied with serious crusade to reveal some ultimate truth.

The Thin Blue Line is a postmodern documentary approach to the trauma of an inaccessible past because of its impressive success in intervening in the truths known about this past. In 1976, Dallas police officer Robert Wood was murdered, patently by twenty-eight-year old drifter named Randall Adams. Morris’s film was instrumental in absolving a man wrongfully accused of murder. In the film, the “true” story of Randall Adams, the man convicted of the murder of Officer Wood, and his accuser, David Harris, the young hitchhiker whom Adams picked up during the night of the murder, ends with Harris’s cryptic but dramatic confession of the murder on a taped phone conversation with Errol Morris (1989:383). This documentary dig toward an “impossible archaeolog, picking at the scabs of lies which have covered over the inaccessible ordinary event”, Linda William says.

The filmmaker asks question, draws maps, interviews historians, police, witnesses. He seeks to uncover a past, which will produce new truths of guilt and innocence in the present. Accused of murder, Randall Adams is free now, taking into account Morris’s film as well. Williams (1989:383) agrees that The Thin Blue Line was stylistically talking, remarked upon for its film-noirish beauty, its apparent abandonment of cinema verite realism for studied, often slow-motion, and highly expressionistic re-enactments of different witnesses’ version of the murder, all to the tune of Philip Glass’ s hypnotic score. Like many recent documentaries obsessed with traumatic events of the past, The Thin Blue Line is self-reflexive.

As in Roger And Me, the documentarian’s role in constructing and staging these competing narratives thus becomes paramount. In place of the self-obscuring voyeur of verity realism, it encounters a new presence in the persona of the documentarian (1989:383).

In The Thin Blue Line, Moriss achieves something more useful to the production of truth. His interviews get the interested parties talking in a special way. In a key statement in defense of his intrusive, self-reflexive style, Moriss has attacked the hallowed tradition of cinema verite, like Williams dispute about: ”There is no reason why documentaries can’t be as personal as fiction filmmaking and bear the imprint of those who made them. Truth isn’t guaranteed PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC

59

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ALEXANDRA MUSCALU, “CREATIVITY KEEPS YOUR HEART ALIVE”

“documentary calls for specific techniques to give cinematic embodiment to live encounter and historical events, experience and reflection, argumentation and research”.

60

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

by style or expression. It isn’t guaranteed by anything”. Morris gives to the viewer some truths and withholds others. His approach to truth is altogether strategic. Truth exists for Morris because lies exist. If lies are to be exposed, truths should be strategically line up against them. The man found innocent by the film remains a code. The viewer can learn almost nothing of his past, and his lack of knowledge appears necessary to the investigation of the official lies. Moriss scrupulously sticks to stylize and silent docudrama re-enactment that show only what each witness claims happened. On the other hand, he creates a documentary form that now falls shy of verite as a style, conventionalizes his hypothetical re-enactment and never offers any of them as an image of what actually happened. As does his crosscutting among different “witnesses” to the crime who contradict each other, in the thin Blue Line, Morris’s constant re-enactment of the crime “reminds us of how every documentary constructs the evidentiary reference points it requires” (Nichols, 1991).

Roger And Me present a real story in Moore’s eyes. In fact the film chronology was a little bit changed. Also, Moore’s documentation of the decline of the city of Flint in the wake of the plant closing entailed an obligation to represent events in the sequence in which they actually occurred. Harlan Jacobs (1989:388) argues that Moore betrays his journalist/documentarian’s commitment to the objective portrayal of historical fact when he implies that events that occurred prior to the major layoffs at the plant were the effect of these layoffs. Moore gives some responses to this attack. He says that he has a place in the film and should not attempt to play the role of objective observer but of partisan investigator. The argument between Moore and Jacobs seems to be about where documentarians should draw the line in manipulating the historical sequence of their material. In fact, this is a question of a commitment to objectivity versus a commitment to fiction.

Moore argues that his first commitment is to entertain and that this entertainment is faithful to the essence of the history. Mattew Bernstein, in Documentaphobia and Mixed Modes (1985:399) explain that in this way, Moore betrays the cause and effect reverberation between events by this reordering. “The real lesson of this debate would seem to be that Moore did not trust his audience to learn about the past in any other way than through the verite capture of” (1998:389). Moore assumed that if he did not have footage from the historical period prior to his filming in Flint he couldn’t show it. About Moore’s film, Linda Williams says that “the choice needn’t be between boring, laborious fact and and entertaining fiction true to the essence, but not detail, of historical events”. This opposition poses a false contrast between a naïve faith in the documentary truth of images and the despairing comprehension of fictional manipulation.

61

Paul Arthur‘s affirmation (in Documenting the Documentary, 1989:410) is very persuasive: ” …it is precisely Moore’s confection of an ineffectual, uncertain, journalistic self that lends an Everyman quality to his social analysis”. In Roger And Me, the truth is not guaranteed and cannot be transparently reflected by a mirror with a memory, although some kinds of partial and contingent truths are nevertheless the alwaysreceding goal of the documentary tradition. As Matthew Bernstein says (1998:410), the improvisational nature of the film is superficial and Moore’s everyman status is an improbable posture.

In conclusion, even documentary can and should use all the strategies of fictional construction to find truth, most of documentarians create a different reality with their film.

It can be said that the reality of the viewer’s eyes is the reality of the documentary, and this reality can be a little or more different from the real truth. This is the distinctive postmodern feature of documentarians.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: CIPRIAN PLEȘCA, “ÎN UMBRĂ”

In the discussion surrounding the truth claims of many contemporary documentaries, attention has centred upon the self-reflexive challenge to once hallowed techniques of verite. It has become an axiom of the new documentary that films cannot reveal the truth of events, but only the ideologies and consciousnesses that construct competing truth – the fictional master narratives by which we make sense of events (1989:386). For current documentaries, the validity of events is the truth from the documentary. It creates a new reality, and that reality is the truth for the documentary.

For in revealing the fabrications, the myths, the frequent moments of scapegoating when easy fictional explanation of trauma, violence, crime and disillusions were substituted for more difficult ones, these documentaries do not simply play off truth against lie, nor do they play off one fabrication against another. In reality, they show how lies function as partial truths to both the agents and witnesses of history’s trauma (1989: 387).

62

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

-ARTHUR, PAUL. 1993, “JARGONS OF AUTHENTICITY (THREE AMERICAN MOMENTS)” IN THEORIZING THE DOCUMENTARY, ED. MICHAEL RENOV, ROUTLEDGE, NEW YORK. -BARSAM, RICHARD. 1988, THE VISION OF ROBERT FLAHERTY: THE ARTIST AS MYTH AND FILMMAKER, INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, BLOOMINGTON.

-BERNSTEIN, MATTHEW. 1998, “DOCUMENTAPHOBIA AND MIXED MODES” IN DOCUMENTING THE DOCUMENTARY (CHAPTER 24), WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, DETROIT.

-GRANT, KEITH BARRY AND SLONIOWSKI, JEANNETTE. 1998, DOCUMENTING THE DOCUMENTARY, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, DETROIT, PP. 379 – 417.

-RENOV, MICHAEL. 1993, ED. THEORIZING DOCUMENTARY, ROUTLEDGE, LONDON AND NEW YORK.

-ROTHMAN, WILLIAM. 1998, “THE FILMMAKER AS HUNTER “IN DOCUMENTING THE DOCUMENTARY (CHAPTER ONE), WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, DETROIT.

-MOORE, MICHAEL. 1989, “ MICHAEL AND ME”, INTERVIEW WITH HARLAN JACOBSON. FILM COMMENT 25,NO.6.

-NICHOLS, BILL. 1991, REPRESENTING REALITY: ISSUES AND CONCEPTS IN DOCUMENTARY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, BLOOMINGTON, PP. 22-34.

-WILLIAMS, LINDA. 1998. “MIRRORS WITHOUT MEMORIES” IN DOCUMENTING THE DOCUMENTARY (CHAPTER 23), WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, DETROIT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC

63

Tro ubleSho o te rs

Young European “Trouble Shooters” WRITTEN BY: MIHAELA DIANA PODARIU (ROMANIA)

64

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Introduction:

Young European Trouble Shooters it is a participatory democracy project, developed in partnership by ASIRYS with 5 organizations from Germany, Romania and Turkey. The project involves 3 steps: research & active participation, an international youth exchange and the „European Dignities” magazine.

Between 7-13 April, ASIRYS organized in Tîrgu Frumos, the youth exchange Young European TroubleShooters. During the exchange, we launched and experienced an innovative and complex nonformal project method called TroubleShooters! We want to share our experience in order to be adapted and used by other organizations and youth workers, in more communities.

Objectives of TroubleShooters method are:

• Reflect on democratic processes and become active citizens trough media tools.

• Actively engage in discussions on political or social issues, and to make our voices heard, in a positive way.

• Provide the context to try out ways of influencing the reality the youth live in and to make a specific community, a better place.

65

Skills, knowledge, attitude achieved:

•Intercultural knowledge

•Photo-video abilities

•Knowledge about participatory democracy

•Different perspectives of how photography and video can reflect a community

•Exchange of cultural, social and political experiences

•Creativity, entrepreneurship, self-confidence

•Ability to use several media instruments as participatory tools.

Methodology

1. Teambuilding – postcard activity (Day 1)

2. Learn more about photography and video-making (Day 2)

3. Understand the local context – map activity (Day 2 + 3)

4. Prepare your voice (photo-reports, videos, map)! (Day 4)

5. Present your ideas to the decision makers (Day 5)

6. Future projects together (Day 6)

7. Create photo & video reports about the community and share!

+ Evaluation (Day 7 + long term)

Step 1: Post-Cards Activity – Teambuilding

• 4 multicultural teams

• Draft: 8 general stories about Tîrgu Frumos

• Task: Create a new story and make a suggestive image for it.

• Recommendations: Use the resources that you have, been creative!

Choose your target group!

The postcards were really interesting and appreciated by the community. We posted all of them to the page of Tîrgu Frumos city, asking for feedback from the citizens. The participants received these stories: Tirgu Frumos Tirgul Frumos in English can be called Beautiful Town. His story begins in the 14th century when the ruler (king) of this region – Moldavia, passing by through here and stopping to rest at the local inn met a beautiful girl. Till then it was a village without a certain name. The daughter of the hosteler was famous in the region for her beauty.

Stephan the Great felt in love with her and tried to have her as his mistress. The girl didn’t accept because the ruler was married and she could have been dishonored. In her memory and for her beauty Stephan the Great called this place The Village of the Beauty.

66

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Jew cemetery During the Second World War, in the 29 of June 1941 in Iasi the Hebrew community was captured by the Nazi, many of them were killed, those who survive were to be transported in Calarasi and Constanta by train, so 2530 of Jews were put in the first goods train. The Jews were supposed to be transported in the South, from where they were to be sent in an internment or extinction camp. In wagons were 100-150 people, and the temperature past 40 degrees. Many of them didn’t survive. The first stop was in Tirgu Frumos.

Here 640 corpses were disembarked and carried to a common grave. The gipsy community completed this task, as they were promised not to share the same fate as the Hebrews.

The house of Garabet Ibraileanu Garabet Ibraileanu is a famous literary historiographer, essayist, critic, and many others. He was born in Tîrgu Frumos in 1871, in a modest but lettered family. His house became during the communism a school and most of his characteristics changed. Exist even today at the bifurcation of Paşcani and Roman.

Alecsandri Inn Vasile Alecsandri was an important figure of the 1848th Revolution and one of the most important Romanian poets. After being exiled for his implication in the revolution, he traveled in Germany and France hopping to return home. In 1855 he return and passing through Tîrgu Frumos he stays at a Inn the bifurcation of Paşcani and Roman – in the same yard with Garabet Ibrăileanu’s house, where he saw Paulina, the hosteler’s daughter. She was only 16 and of a rare beauty, he felt in love instantly and accepted to remain in Tîrgu Frumos and to court her till she was 21 when she gave birth to Maria and they return to his domain in Mirceşti.

Adâncata The hills in Tîrgu Frumos have a long history with the wars. Since ancient times they were the guardsmen of this region. Adâncata is one of the hills, an important battle occurred in this place and it is studied today at Oxford University. Between 6th April and 7th May 1944 the German army having as allies the Romanian army confronted the Red Army (Russian) in Tîrgu Frumos on Adâncata Hill. The battle is famous for it’s complicated strategy. If Russian were occupying Tîrgu Frumos, they would have an open passage through all important cities from Romania.

67

Dealul Buznei Buznea Hill is also an important battle field, since Stephan the Great disputed many wars with the Huns and the Turks on that hill and in a place nearby called Războieni. The position of these hills was an important factor for Romanians as they were like some walls that protected the region. The time marked them and they lost the high and the figure of the past.

The Inn/ Stephan the Great fountain Stephan the Great was as you can see the most famous leader of the region. He ruled in Moldavia for almost 50 years, and he built over 47 monasteries and 7 fortresses. He had numerous mistresses and 3 wives.

He used to stay at the local Inn and had amorous meetings at a fountain in front of the inn where now are the artesian wells. Răreşoaia is one of the most known mistresses since she was a married aristocrat and she gave birth to an illegitimate boy who later became the ruler of Moldavia.

The Oldest Church from Tîrgu Frumos The church “Saint Parascheva” in Beautiful Town (Tîrgu Frumos) is an Orthodox church built by Prince Petru Rareş in 1541 near the city of Tîrgu Beautiful (Iaşi County). Although it is considered to be from the 13th century as the archeologists found traces of an older one church.

The legend says that the old church was a monk monastery that burned before 1400.

The result of the Jew cemetery story: Directed at a general audience, familiar with art: Referring to what has happened to the Jews of Iasi, who have been deported by the Germans on June 29th of 1941, and those 640 who died on their way to the extermination camps and are buried here in Tirgu Frumos: The central fountain, where this picture was taken is supposed to show the local connection of the events of 1941 and the city. In addition the old nozzles of the cascade represent the mechanic, planned and executed mass murder of millions of Jews during WWII. At the same time, the “dead” hand holds a burned pieces of paper which says “´n”, the Hebrew expression for “life”, representing the momentum of hope even in the darkest hours. Story and photo by Vitali Trocin, Baran Koç, Fedo Hge, Daniela Roman.

68

69

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Tîrgu Frumos story For our little friends: Once upon a time, there was in a little village without a name in the wonderful east of Romania. There was a beautiful girl who lived in the place without a name. She was so beautiful that even the rich mayor Stephan heard from her and decides to meet her. Unfortunately she can´t love him, because she was already married. Even though their love could not happen, Stephan the generous decided to name the city “Tîrgu Frumos” – the village of the beautiful. THE END. Story and photo

by Vitali Trocin, Baran Koç, Fedo Hge, Daniela Roman.

2. Learn more about photography and videomaking (Day 2) We presented to the participants, the basic rules in doing a good photography. Afterward they worked in multicultural teams, they had as tasks: to make portraits of themselves and a short photo-session in a school for children with mental disabilities (our project partners).

70

71

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Photo-session in Trinitas School 3. Understand the local context – map method (Day 2 + 3) Mapping community’s needs and potential.

Social/participatory cartography.

Origins of the method (social mapping, community mapping etc) Historically, the cartography used to be the tool of the power holders (e.g. the colonisers) who were aiming at controlling lands/ territories and at expansion.

It started to be a method once indigenous people or other marginalised communities realised they were excluded from decisional processes concerning the use of land in Latin America.

Uses: • Planning the local use of lands • Conservation and exploitations of natural resources in certain areas • Claims for the land rights (forests, other natural resources) • The planning and organisation of local resources However, the fact that participatory cartography emerged from indigenous settings has a great historical importance, and it gives value to the method.

What does the method supposes?

As an investigative endeavour, social/participatory cartography becomes: • Tool which provides the context for the communities to articulate and express colective identities, giving thus voice to vulnerable and marginalised communities • The maps drawn my local people are not divorced at all from the social context; they become “visual histories” about their space and culture.

It’s a method which has the aptitude to bring together communities, activists, scholars, local authorities and decision makers.

72

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

It has been developed as a tool oriented towards outside, for exterior or local reading – offering an integrated view of the participants on the issues they are concerned with.

How are we going to engage with this method?

• Participatory endeavour to identify and map the needs of Tîrgu Frumos as a community, according to our (your) own standards and perceptions.

• To identify the potential of development` of Tîrgu Frumos (in accordance to those needs, but not only).

How shall we do that?

Step 1: IN THE FIELD Getting to know the community in 4 groups (itinerary and map) – mapping needs and strengths on individual maps.

73

Step 2: DRAWING Mapping needs and strengths on group maps (4) Step 3: PRESENTING TO THE OTHERS THE FINDING Presenting, reflecting and discussing on those two maps Step 4: TAKING A BIT OF MORE ACTION :=) Dialogue with the local authorities on the base of the 4 final maps presenting the maps.

Principles of the method

• 4, 4 itineraries, 1 community - a collaborative engagement

• It fosters a participatory approach on community mapping (participatory democracy – taking into consideration that we try to approach the decision making actors)

• It provides space for multidimensional dialogue: between us, between us and local authorities, between the community and the local authorities/us

• It entails both an investigative process and one focused on intervention and participation

• It hopes to identify not only the needs, but also the community’s potential

***The finality: presenting the map to representatives of local authorities together with propositions of feasible activities aimed to take action upon those needs, and thus improving the identified issues the community is confronted with Keep in mind the objectives:

• To identify the community’s needs and its potential (!that’s the challenge) according to your own views

• To map those needs and potential

• To propose feasible activities aimed to take action upon those needs (reflecting certain problems existent in the community).

74

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Areas Zona 1. Han, Adancata, comercial area, Aurora, Russian quartier (str. Cucuteni) Zona 2. The market (farmers), Buznea hill, II commercial area Zona 3. Hebrew/Romanian grave, House of Alcsandri/Ibraileanu, Rroma quartier Zona 4. Esplanada, Moldova, Disco – pull.

4. Prepare your voice! (Day 4) Before the project, ASIRYS, as organizers, established local partnerships with more than 15 institutions /organisations/informal groups ( schools, library, local autorities, artistic bands etc.), inviting them to present their best practices in a common event to the House of Culture. The participants of Young European TroubleShooters had the responsibility to do pictures, short movies, speak with the people in order to develop photo-video reports about the community. The event was organized on the spot, we didn’t invest a lot of time to organize it before, we just gave freedom to the local partners and to the volunteers to be self-organized and responsible. The event was better than we ever expect, many different youth, citizens get involved, inclusive the mass-media!.

Moments

75

76

77

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

5. Present your ideas to the decision makers (Day 5) Four international teams presented their ideas to the vice-mayor of TĂŽrgu Frumos.

Zone 2. The market (farmers), Buznea hill, area
Results.

1. The market

78

II commercial

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Our solution Status Quo • Market is a big asset to the community • Fresh products from regional farmers • Problem: Smoke and dust from the close main street.

• Speed limits • Speed control • More overpasses • Traffic lights.

3. The main street

Our vision

Status quo

• Close the market into direction to the street • Air-condition • Cooling system.

• A place you use to come somewhere • traffic • dust • noise • smoke

2. The traffic

Our Vision Status Quo • Traffic makes city centre an unattractive and unhealthy place • Noise, dust, smoke • Dangerous for children and elderly people

• Main Street as a place to stay • Promotion of more entrapreneurship regarding • shops, cafes, art galeries • Parks, benches, playgrounds • Sidewalks also for biking

79

4. The River Status quo • Nature is one of the greatest assets of a city • Areas with water are usualy places of pleasure and relexation • Problem: Dirt and pollution makes the river area unattractive Our Vision • Stricter rules and control of this rules for farmers and companies who pollute the river • Self responsibility needs to be promoted • Small parks, benches, a sidewalk for running and biking, a sports ground etc. helps to bring the river area back to the people 5. The Hill Satus quo The hill is a big asset for the town • Problem: Visitors also create pollution • Problem: not accessible for everyone.

Our vision • Garbage bins • Fixed walk to the hill • Platform on the hill benches • Social media campaigns.

80

ABANDON JEWISH CEMETERY


Zona 3. Hebrew/Romanian grave, House of Alecsandri/ Ibraileanu, Rroma quartier Developing Perspectives in the cultural field for Tirgu-Frumos.

JEWISH MASS GRAVE

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Cultural Perspectives

81

Cucuten Artefakts

82

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Lili’s Home

83

Proposals

• Be aware of the cultural Potential of the City!

• Favor locals to engage!

• Rise private and public funds!

• See the great perspective of Targu Frumos as the cultural Center of the region!

• Local authority more of a mediator then a “cash cow” What to do? (Small Steps)

• When it comes to the Jewish cemetery: Contact the Romanian Jewish community, the embassy of Israel or one of the big American Jewish Funds (e.g JFNA)

• Invite Archeologists both national and international

• Start an initiative to finance a local digging for Cucuteni artifacts

• Take advantage of the assets available

• E.g found something like a public private company such as “Cultural Initiative Tîrgu Frumos” – apply at a local and national level

• Having a “private” component allows easier access to EU Funds such as EFRE ESF.

• Promote private initiatives to these issues!

To be continued...

The exchange generated a huge quantity of ideas, photography, films and new volunteers. It is unbelievable how much can be created in one week in an international environment. So for the next numbers of our magazine, we will continue to share our results.

84

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Lilli´s Day A little Roma girl´s tale WRITTEN BY: KUBAT FEDO HAGGE (GERMANY)

The day starts early for Lilli...

85

The way to school is long...


School sucks...

86

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

1 p.m. schools out – time to head home...

Silvano! He caught a lizard… The sun is shining again.

87

Home! Lunch!

Fun, Play, Joy! Afternoon...

88

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Friends.

Early Evening, Work.

89

Detail of Work.

Lilli. Working.

90

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

End of work. Late night. Dreams – good dreams!

91

Between Black and White WRITTEN BY: LARISA ZUGRAVU (ROMANIA) PHOTOGRAPHY BY: VITALI TROCIN

92

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

My name is 33 and I come from Tirgu Frumos. They call us in numbers because for them the children from “Trinitas Highschool” (33) are all the same, deficient, with all sorts of handicaps, without any kind of economical possibilities, raised in unhealthy environment, with an alcoholic parent, or worse - orphans. Some people see the world in pink, most of them in colors, the lucky ones can even choose their color, I was educated in my family to see the world in black and white.

93

On the street you point me with your finger, you look at me with disdain and stick a label to my forehead that you forget it in two minutes, disabled, handicapped, 33. Thirty three is a number that any ignorant can say it in the name of the democracy and abusing of the common sense.

94

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

I have a life that I wouldn’t want it even for the verbicides that are verbalizing when I pass among them, a name that my mother never said it because she died before I took my first steps, seven years at home based on the whims of an alcoholic father, with permission of a moth- rheumatic grandmother and an schizophrenic aunt whose verbal violence was beyond imagination. When you want to lift your finger to categorize me think that for you this was the only activity that you had for that day, I came from home, where I worked on the field to give money for the bills to my grandparents. The school is a kind of shelter for others are like me, between us the 33 debilitated jokes have no longer a purpose, you have simplified it, we’ve reduced what utter concept because you’re afraid to admit: you don’t know what it means. Let me help you, SAM Special Trinitas Children is a really special school. For children with behavior disorders, a drunken adventure to people who are parents only in papers that lead lives behind bars and they abandon us into orphanages.

Children with autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, a deficiency of nature which can not take any culpability. For students with intellectual deficiencies caused by the fact that they come from disadvantaged or dysfunctional families that were not able to have a normal education. Therefore appeared abandonment and the school failure.

But I have a dream, to paint light in the hearts of the others, I enjoy using the colors and my eyes glitter when I see the water colors. For the others this seems like a joke but when my mates are drawing also, we create a special place where nothing can touch us, a world of ours in which we are just CHILDREN.

95

96

97

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Christoph Maximilian Krause - MAX from Germany

When Fedo, a friend of mine, first proposed the idea of traveling to a seminar in Romania, I started realizing that had absolutely no idea of Romania. I knew that it had been close to the Soviet Union and that it had recently become a member of the European Union. Beyond that, I only had a general image about the east of Europe, which wasn’t too positive. The general Stereotypes consisted of a postsocialist run down country into which lots of old german cars wander of. So this is a story of how I l got an image of Romania in my head. Its told in very different kind of pictures, that together are part of perception of Romania.

The photos maybe don’t paint the brightest picture, but sometimes the real thing is much more than the big picture.

Sometimes the charm lies in the small, often overlooked details. But as we all know, pictures show us the reality in a very different way and give us some perspective.

98

99

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

100

101

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

102

103

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

104

105

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Pro file Hu n te rs

INTERVIEW of Super Young ASIRYS Association (Bianca Aelenei) - Paşcani workshop “Atelierul de creaţie” (Mihaela and Marius Olariu) WRITTEN BY: BIANCA AELENEI TEXT TRANSLATION BY: RAMONA IZABELA DUMINICĂ

“There has been some time since a shop, a workshop actually, opened in Paşcani city and it seems to be quite tempting for local children and youth”.

106

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: SEBASTIAN GABOR, “HOT SUMMER IN PASCANI”

I’ve always had a great appreciation for those who recycle, realize handmade products or organize various activities to promote things like these. Performing any of the above mentioned activities, you feel that you are part of a special community and because there are few who have this kind of occupation, when you find someone with you share with the same thoughts and ideas, you feel different from others around you and you take courage to do more and to confidently transmit to others what you think. It wasn’t easy for me to figure out what the handmade activity could mean for a young living in a closed environment, such as the one in Paşcani city, but once I started working it became clear to me the immediate and continuing impact of my work has on myself, patience, creativity, entrepreneurship, appreciation of beauty and simple things are few of the skills developed over time.

There has been some time since a shop, a workshop actually, opened in Paşcani city and it seems to be quite tempting for local children and youth. After several discussions with Mihaela and Marius I figured out that their idea is placed right above the stage of the small workshop business and what they want is to revive among citizens the cultural and social values which are being forgotten lately. According to them, the impact that occurred was not the expected one, though we hope that a slow change means a definite one!

Below you can read an interview of those with daring spirit, who decided to begin the process of changing mentalities, attitudes and wrong behaviors.

107

What do you think about the community of Paşcani?

It is a small community where young people want to escape from.

How do you find the citizens?

Because of the daily worries and efforts to ensure a decent living for their families, people of our time have forgotten to make time to enjoy the simple things and the beauty. Unfortunately, it is an encountered problem in our city.

The idea to open the workshop called „Atelierul de creație”, how did it occur?

Opening the store came from a desire to do something new for our city to have a place where you can find all the products you usually order online and fail to properly appreciate them, but also from a need to provide children the possibility to spend their time in a creative way. We ourselves have a 4 year old child who is always seeking to get him involved in activities and crafts putting to test our imagination.

What products can be found at the workshop, raw materials or manufactured products too?

The products you can find at „Atelierul de creație” workshop are both materials that our customers can use for painting (canvas, acrylic colours, oil colours, etc.) and various handmade techniques (Napkin technique, quilling, modelling with polymer plasticine, jewellery creation) - raw materials, and ready-made objects (jewelry, decorated boxes, decorations, etc..).

108

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

I heard that people can come to the workshop and attend classes in order to learn how to work. How is this course going? Are there any participants?.

The store hosts craft workshops for children aged from 4 to 10 years old - for socialization and development of creativity and dexterity.

We also organize a workshop for children aged over 10 years old and adults - they can choose from activities such as quilling, modelling, jewellery or decoration making.

What is the predominant age group attending the workshop the most often?

Workshop activities were more popular among parents with little children.

The customers - in small number - of all ages are generally people who have discovered the handmade work and spend their free time in a pleasant and helpful manner (some of them create objects they offer to friends or even commercialize).

What is your opinion about the youth of today?

The majority of young people today seek carefully their models in life no longer. Most of them indulge in phrases such as “it is not possible “, “anyone does help,” “anyone does give anything” and sadly, they are also lacking real support and guidance of their parents who are “ lifted up “ of their daily worries and forget that the young needs more than the latest smartphones, gadgets and clothing collections.

Do you consider that handmade can help the youth in any way? How? Handmade activities are undoubtedly an alternative leisure for young people. It gives them the opportunity to develop a taste for what is nice, to meet new people with the same passions to create objects and gifts where to put a part of their soul in, to discover the sentimental value of things and why not, bases entrepreneurship education – you can work and easily sell to colleagues on the Internet.

If you would have the opportunity to change something in Paşcani, in order for the young people to develop through other means, apart from school, what would you change, what means do you think would be most suitable?

What about at the national level?

The city does not have a cultural community to show the young people what beautiful means - theater, classical music concert and cinema. Young people do not know how to behave when they go into an auditorium. Not long ago I was in a play during which the audience - mostly students, ate chips, seeds and popcorn. It is necessary to organize cultural manifestation for the young to take part in, in order to achieve a proper behaviour for specific events.

109

Are there some ways through which young people can be drawn to handmade? If yes, can you give us an example of such methods?

We believe that the easiest way to draw youngsters to handmade is by inviting them to attend craft fairs or exhibitions sales so they can benefit from the opportunity to sell their creations.

At the community level is there interest shown towards art or handmade? What about at the national level?

At the community level the interest in art and handmade is relatively low, and we observed it in a small number of people who deals with such activities.

At the national level we have noticed a higher interest, particularly in the western part of the country, where there are many workshops like the one we own and where we “stole� the idea from.

In your opinion what is the situation in other countries?

In other countries the handmade items are greatly appreciated and there is a growing interest in artistic activities. We believe this happens due to the relaxed attitude that people have thanks to the economic situation.

What is your vision about art and handmade in general?

Although we do not believe ourselves artists, we like to do good things that we put in some of our imagination and creativity. We try to enjoy daily of what is beautiful, and the art is.

Until now has the business reached your expectations?

No, so far the business is not at the level we wanted. We expect that young people will be more receptive and open to learn how to create handmade objects so they can find a way to impress acquaintances with interesting gifts made actually with little money.

Our association aims to develop a social enterprise where young people can create handicrafts, traditional objects etc. Would you be interested in a possible collaboration? If so, how do you see this collaboration?

We are open to any kind of creative collaboration and youth related activities.

110

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

What is your advice for us concerning this initiative?

We are happy there are such initiatives in our small town and we are confident that together we can attract more young people, today and tomorrow, to rediscover the traditional values and more.

Would you like to send a message to our association?

We wish to the association to initiate interesting and successful projects. To the association members we wish them patience and perseverance in the work of educating and changing the mindset of a generation.

Do you have any additions or interesting things you desire to share?

For the future we have several projects where we want to combine the activities we already developed with the psychological side of our existence. Since my professional training (Mihaela’s) is a psychologist we are trying to focus on the psychological benefits of the activities they carry out - especially for children, but soon we will organize a support group where young people can come to discuss the problems they are facing with.

111

Interview with Rareş Tiron WRITTEN BY: BOGDAN FRENŢESCU TEXT TRANSLATION BY: RAMONA IZABELA DUMINICĂ

F.B: Tell us something about yourself. What defines you?

R.T.: My name is Rareş Tiron. I am a XIth grade high school student, in the department of Philology at “Cuza Voda” National College in Huşi. Usually I do not make often references about myself, since I am rather a man of facts. What defines me? I have the obsession of the well done things, always as a profession of faith, for me.

F.B.: Where do you think your passion for literature comes from?

R.T.: It comes from a great deal of reading. This, undoubtedly, is the main trigger, because, after all, the books are born of books, are they not? Not to mention the considerable surplus of imagination too. But the most important mention is the strong desire to say so many things which would not have the same significance through oral language, than they have once written on paper. The truth is that I express myself better in writing.

F.B.: When did you discovered you have this beautiful passion?

R.T.: I did it when I fell in love for the first time. And I’m not kidding. I started writing, like many others, by having a muse. After that, I taught myself to be my own muse. Indeed, this is the way the things are in the literature that is meant to be literature: you cannot always expect the inspiration (muse) to come to you, you have to run after it with a bat and to catch it! And do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today. A real writer is the one who writes every single day!

F.B.: I found out recently (in November 2013, to be specific) that you have written and you’ve published a book, Unhealthy stories for happiness. Tell us something, please, about this achievement.

R.T.: It is my greatest achievement on intellectual approach that I came out with so far. I do not think I acquired it thanks to a superior intelligence, but rather only thanks to hard work and self-imposed discipline. And this can be considered whenever a possible key to success. For me, at least, it worked flawlessly. As for the book itself, is a volume of prose, which includes ten stories, plus preface (Theodor Codreanu) and afterword (Luminiţa Săndulache).

112

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BOGDAN FRENŢESCU

F.B.: What does it mean to you to be the author of a book?

R.T.: Honestly, I find (maybe I’m wrong?) that it has increased the number of curious glances fixing me on street. And if we think of it, it is not an advantage at all. Now I have to be much more careful with my external image, my posture, my language, in one word, with all appearances. You can realize I cannot say now even a curse, without being judged harshly by those who, before the releasing of the book, in the same circumstances would not have at least taken me into account?

113

“Since writing is part of impressive realistic current, reality itself inspired me almost completely”.

114

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BOGDAN FRENŢESCU

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

F.B.: Where does your inspiration come from?

R.T.: Since writing is part of impressive realistic current, reality itself inspired me almost completely. Most of the stories in the book take place in the small provincial town where I was born and where I live in - Huşi. I did nothing more than observing people around me and their problems, including my problems, then transposing them on paper in an artistic manner so that renders reading enjoyable.

F.B.: What does the girls say about the book you have published?

R.T.: Since I brought out a book, girls started to read.

F.B.: We would be delighted to know that in the future, you are considering a new project. Could you tell us something about it?

R.T.: I’ve said it elsewhere: in the future, I have lots of plans! All I can say for now is that most certainly, I’m restless with only the first book published! To be more specific, yes, I am currently working on a novel, inside my mind. I do not have the necessary time to put it on paper during high school, but it will precisely take precise contours in college, there is no doubt. For now on there is no way back. My passion pushes me forward day and night. Only by working this way I feel that I can find a place in the world. I have this virus!

The die was cast!

F.B.: Can you describe in a few words, the place where you were born?

R.T.: Yes, I can. I was born, as it emerged from the above in Huşi. And it is not called “the city of the living” for nothing. My Husi it’s like Rome in miniature: located among hills ... it inspired me a lot.

F.B.: But over the years, have you not you considered to leave abroad too like so many others youth and reach performance there?

R.T.: On one hand, I understand very well the Romanian youth, for who once opportunity seized, buy their one way ticket. But that’s not valid for me. Because there is no greater pleasure for me than writing literature in Romanian! Note this.

F.B.: What is your main support in life?

R.T.: God, ambition and Brancusi’s words: to create like a god, to command like a king and work like a slave!

115

“A Living Legend” Dumitru Grumăzescu WRITTEN BY: ELSA BERNEVIC (IAȘI, ROMANIA) TEXT TRANSLATION BY: ANDI VALENTIN SÂSÂIAC

“So fresh and frail you are, my love, You seem a snow-white cherry-flower And like an angel from above You cross my life’s course at this hour.

You, happy dream bestowed on us - Among the fairest brides a star You should not smile! For smiling thus You only show how sweet you are”.

With these lyrics of the great work of Mihai Eminescu, the renowned antiquary Dumitru Grumazescu met me on the Lapusneanu Street, in the heart of the old bazaar of Iaşi. With a smile on his face, Dumitru Grumazescu explained that the charm of this small street is due to the atmosphere reminding of the old times that one encounters from the first steps, as the street remains a proof of the spirit and history of Iasi, from the times when personalities such as Prince Cuza, poet Eminescu, Prime Minister Kogalniceanu, writer Creangă or Mayor Pogor used to walk there.

In this emblematic space for the spiritual life of Iaşi dwells an old little man aged 70, who only shows how old he is when he is heavy-heartedly telling his life story to whoever seems interested.

Mr. Grumazescu starts by exposing his extraordinary treasure hidden behind the shop windows, namely more than 7000 objects related to the life of Mihai Eminescu. He is the only person to possess the most important collection from the world, which is dedicated to the great Romantic poet. It seems that everything started in childhood, when, at the age of 13, he had a look into a very old book of poems. From the very beginning, he was fascinated by reading which gradually absorbed

116

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

him. It was coincidental that, two years later, he found the book on the shelves of a bookshop and discovered that what fascinated him not too long before was Eminescu’s Lucifer. With eyes full of pathos, Mr. Grumazescu tells that he then swore to collect whatever he will find concerning Eminescu.

“Eminescu is one with my own existence” – I admit that this statement might have surprised me at first, but afterwards I realized that, after a 40 years “career”, Mr. Grumazescu managed to collect more than 7000 original objects, from the journal in which he made his debut to the visit card that he used to keep in his wallet. Moreover, he possesses the second largest collection concerning writers in the world, in terms of quantity, after an American antiquary’s collection dealing with Shakespeare.

However, these records are by no means singular. Mr. Grumazescu has the most numerous Lilliput books (very small editions) in Romania, among which he has Eminescu’s Lucifer in an issue of 3mm/3mm, the smallest book to be maneuvered using a pinch, only readable through a microscope.

Even the anthumous collection of Jules Verne stands among Mr. Grumazescu’s possessions (one of the writer’s great-grandsons, who once visited Grumazescu, actually lacks one of the books). Nevertheless, he himself is the greatest treasure!

I may well state that it has been an honour meeting such a personality, who is more than happy to receive guests and to surprise them by telling tasteful stories with a big smile on his face. His narrative talent is more prominent than that of Ion Creangă’s, which makes Mr. Grumazescu a fascinating figure through his elegance, refinement and the exquisite words that he introduces in his permanent dialogue with the art lovers.

Once you hear this Eminescu loving antiquary, you slowly fall in love again with fine, beautiful, truly important things that fill your soul with joy: poetry, art, pleasure of reading, right intonation, savour of almost forgotten stories, enchantment of meaningful dialogue, the flame in one’s eye, the nostalgia of remembrance.

117

Urba n Leg e nds

26 facts about Germany WRITTEN BY: DANIELA BORONTIȘ (DROBETA TURNU SEVERIN, ROMANIA)

I have to say, from the very beginning, that “facts” is a little too much to say about the things I am about to write. This is my experience so far, after living almost one year in Germany (added with the period I spent here in 2009), and these are things I have noticed. By no means do I want to say that everywhere in Germany it happens the same, nor that it is always happening like this. So please don’t generalize – even if it may sound that I have had…

118

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

1. The German keyboard has the letters “Z” and “Y” reversed. God knows why.

2. In order to say a number between 20 and 100 in German, you begin from the end. Meaning, twenty two is actually “two and twenty”. I still didn’t get accustomed to this, and I am having problems when I have to pay for something, for example. I always take some moments to think about the number that the seller told me (and my heart skips a heartbeat when I hear him/her saying a number that starts with a digit bigger than 1 – so basically every time). However, I think it’s easier to call numbers like this when you have to do basic computations – because anyhow you add first the digits at the end of the numbers. But I still don’t like it.

3. The grades that pupils can have are between 1 and 6. 1 being the best.

4. All buses have a schedule that you can see on the station, and they usually come in time.

5. Buses don’t always come in time in Germany. I wanted to re-state this, because it’s a common belief (false) outside this country. Moreover, the Germans many times have complains about buses and trains being late (indeed, some time they are – even one hour late. But this doesn’t happen a lot).

6. When answering to their home phone, the first thing Germans say is their family name. So, imagine you are Marie Ludmauer, and your phone rings.

You pick it up and say “Ludmauer” (not “Hallo”, “Yes”, “No”, “What?!” etc.). Of course, this does not hold true if you already know who is calling, and he/ she is a friend. But most of the times you don’t know who’s at the other end of the line.

7. When meeting with someone for the first time, as subject for a conversation, they will ask you what your hobbies are. So prepare yourself!

8. Making plans is important. I have friends who refused my invitations many times, because they had “other plans”. Then I learned I have to tell them at least a few days in advance, if I want to make sure we’ll actually meet.

9. There are bakeries everywhere. And they are also really good! with a wide variety of delicious bread, coffee, teas, etc. The first shops that open are the bakeries, at 6 a.m. The supermarkets open at 8 or 9 a.m.

119

10. On Sundays, you can hardly find a shop that is opened. So if you are hungry on Sunday, most probably you’ll go eat a döner at the many Turkish restaurants which are open. No, false. The restaurants are open on Sundays. But if you woke up on Sunday morning and found out that all your clothes mysteriously vanished, and all your food was eaten by fairies over night, then you’d be naked until Monday, and starving.

11. Many Germans are practicing a sport. Meaning, weekly meetings with some people to play football, for example.

12. If the train is leaving at 3:04 p.m, and you arrive at 3:03 p.m and press the button in order to get into the train – the doors will remain closed. And the train will leave in one minute.

13. The children have a special way of learning how to ride a bicycle. As they are very little, they are riding some sort of bicycle without paddles, and use their feet to move it and keep balance. It’s a sort of micro-scooter with seat.

Afterwards, it’s pretty easy to switch to a normal bike, because the children already know how to keep balance.

14. Things are fixed before they get broken. Really. For example, the roads are having some reparations nowadays, although there was nothing wrong with them. They just wanted to make sure nothing will be wrong on the long term, also.

15. You don’t really say “I love you” unless you mean it. For example, “yeah, I love you too” – told in an ironic way, doesn’t quite work.

16. All the time I get in a bus, there must be at least one person with a baby in a trolley. This shows that people make love here (hehe) and also that they are welcome to use the public transportation in order to go from place to place.

17. The milk is cheaper here than it is in Romania.

18. The internet companies proudly advertise speeds of 100 MBit/s. Just so that you can see why I think this is weird: in Romania, they advertise Internet speed of 1000 MBit/s.

19. There is no speed limit on the German highways.

120

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

20. It is legal to drink in the streets/parks/etc.

21. The movies are doubled in German. Meaning, if you go to the cinema and are eager to hear George Clooney’s sexy voice... – you won’t. On one side, this is good, because subtitles somehow are distractive. But on the other side, that Oscar which George Clooney received (if he did, I have no idea) was also due to his voice’s inflexions. And even though the German language is so similar to English, there are many (young) people who don’t speak English. You would be surprised. I would say there are more people here with an advanced level of English than in Romania, but still not as many as one would expect.

22. It’s quite common to re-use old factories, buildings that belong to the government. Many times, they are transformed in creative places – exhibition halls, concerts venue, clubs, etc.

23. When you use the bathroom (even inside the restaurant, or club), you should leave a small tip – about 20 to 40 cents. No matter if you are a customer. I never did that, maybe I should start doing it.

24. If you want to eat some cooked food, most probably you’ll end up in a Turkish restaurant (or Indian, etc).

25. However, German cuisine is very delicious. I really like the way they are preparing food – using little oil/fat, making lots of salads (no matter if it’s winter or summer).

26. Potatoes are for Germans what bread is for Eastern Europeans (more specifically, Balkan area – where Romania is encompassed as well).

Meaning, a default.

121

Kn o w Ho w

Voting for Europe The European Elections 2014 WRITTEN BY: ANTONIA ALEXANDRA AMARANDEI (IAȘI, ROMANIA)

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

(John Quincy Adams, American 6th US President)

122

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: CIPRIAN PLEȘCA, POZĂ DE COPERTĂ SAU

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Europe is not fond of voting lately Since 1979, when the first elections took place, the European citizens have had the opportunity to express their choices regarding those who would represent them and their interests in the European Parliament.

Although the beginning of the European elections was a shy one (in terms of turnout) the importance of these elections comes from the influence gained by the European Parliament over time: from a consultative assembly with limited powers in 1952 to an important decision factor and an institution with broad powers in 2014.

With every treaty entered into force, the European Union has taken a stronger contour and the European Parliament has become the most important institution, the union’s core and the way through which the citizens can get in touch with their elected officials by filling petitions, launching initiatives for developing new laws, etc.

Nevertheless, it is a well known fact that today’s tendencies regarding European elections in terms of turnout are, at best, worrying due to the fact that, in the last decade, the European citizens have not been too concerned about the European elections and so, it begs the question: will this year’s elections be different compared to the 2009 European elections?

The 2014 European elections are expected to be different for many reasons: first of all, the structure of the Parliament will change starting with these elections, from 766 members since the last state, Croatia, joined the European Union to 751 members, in accordance with the Treaty of Lisbon. So the future 751 members of the European Parliament will have the huge responsibility of representing over 500 million people from 28 member states and for the next five years they will be the direct link between the people and the European institutions.

Second of all, and most important, the European Union seems to be aware of the low turnout rate and on this line, the European Commission and the European Parliament have decided to encourage the European citizens to cast their vote by providing them with a better information about the candidates, the parties positions in the elections and, of course, the main trends regarding the parties with the best chance to win the elections. According to a recent Eurobarometer survey on electoral rights, the lack of information is one of the main reasons for low voter turnout,

123

a problem that could be solved by providing more information about the European Parliament elections, the impact of the E.U on the European citizens daily life and the programs and objectives of candidates and parties in the European Parliament.1 Even if some measures are being taken to improve and encourage people to cast their votes in the Election Day, this issue is not fully solved as long as the parties involved in the electoral battle are not fully promoting their electoral programs and their objectives. This must be incurred at a national level and must involve a constant information process through radio and television, local and national newspapers, etc.

And if all these measures will not be a success, then Europe could come up with some other ideas. Or maybe it could just look around and see that it is in a desperate need of a new better approach.

Somewhere in the north side of Europe, there is a country that has an interesting voting system and thanks to it, the entire population is casting votes without restraint.

In Sweden, people can vote by messenger, an unique procedure which means that another voter takes an individual’s vote to a polling station or to a voting place for advanced voting. This procedure applies to any individual who, because of illness, physical disability or age, cannot personally go to a polling station or voting place may vote by messenger.2 But things get better (if that is even possible), because in another European state called Netherlands, people can use the proxy vote. What on Earth is that? One could wonder. The proxy vote is really just another capital idea of helping the voters to‌.. well, cast their votes. It means that voters can authorize someone else to cast their vote for them. It might sound a little inapposite, but it is actually working, because studies have showed that one in eight voters in the Netherlands prefers this system, especially women and people with no western background.

Netherlands’s neighbor, the powerful Germany, has a similar voting system too, only this time, the population can vote by post.

124

1. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_364_en.pdf 2. Elections in Sweden, http://www.val.se/pdf/electionsinsweden_webb.pdf

The importance of the political parties in Europe. Who, what and how will they win?

As a general rule, an European party is an organization with an established political program, whose members are the national parties and individuals and who is represented in several member states. The importance of the parties is shown by the treaties: the European parties are an important factor regarding the European Union integration and they play a major role in forming the European awareness, besides their important role of expressing the political will of the citizens. In other words, the more important is the role of the European parties, the bigger and bitter the campaign will be. But what can one expect from this election?

The European Green Party is one of the few parties in Europe organizing the so called, green primaries” in order to select the best candidates for the European elections.

This party is known for their engagement to environmental responsibility, individual freedom, gender equality and since the 2004 European elections, they have adopted a Manifesto called, Europe can do better!”, presenting their political program and proposing new ways of reaching prosperity in Europe, protecting democracy, etc.

For this year’s elections, the greens seem to have the same plan but written in other words: they keep supporting the same principles as they did before but this time, they believe that Europe is in need of a Green new deal, which is exactly the title of their Common Manifesto:, Change Europe, Vote Green!”.3

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION BY: CHEVUK KELEVRA ® 2014

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

Clearly, these 3 states know how important the people’s vote is. Maybe that is why they have decided to improve their voting system by making it more accessible, especially for the young. And the results are more than promising.

As interesting as their Common Manifesto would be this year, the European Green Party seems to have made its voce heard only in some parts of Europe. According to the last election results, in 2009, the Greens have had an impact in countries like Denmark (where they have received.

3

http://europeangreens.eu/common-manifesto-2014

125

126

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

15.9% of the votes), France (16.28% of the votes) and Germany (12.1% of the votes) which could mean that the green doctrine is not a concern for countries less influential like Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Ireland or even Poland.4 On the other hand, there are other parties in Europe like the European People’s Party who is likely to receive an important number of votes, duo to, first of all, its influence as one of the oldest founded party (1978) and second of all, its historical framework. And because in this case, size does matter, the E.P.P is the biggest political group in the European Parliament, gathering members from all the member states: 274 members. Also, this political group is the driving force of the European integration and supports values based on human dignity, human rights, rule of law, solidarity and subsidiarity, being favored also by the important members that have supported it in its history: Alcide de Gaspery, Konrad Adenauer and the, father of Europe” Robert Schuman.

No matter how varied the spectrum of problems that Europe is currently facing, an important element that could make the difference within these elections is the jobs growth policy. Therefore, the political programs that will support this element during the campaign could have a significant support from the electorate and especially from the young people whom are affected by this phenomenon every day.

And that is one of the battleground issues that will exist in this year’s elections. Another important issue is the huge Euroscepticism rate among the European citizens who blame the European Union for their economic situation. In terms of polls, this case is very well highlighted, as the polls have shown the existence of a general frustration among Europeans.

Whether this year’s election could bring some answers to these important problems or not, the final score will be decided between 22-25 of May 2014, when the European election will take place all over Europe.

4 http://europeangreens.eu/election-results/latest-eu.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: GOOGLE IMAGES

127

Sea rc h Resea rc h

128

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “FIND A PLACE TO TAKE CONTACT WITH NATURE”

129

130

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ALEXANDRA MUSCALU, “LEARNING BY LOOKING FOR NEW OPPORTUNITIES”

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “FIND YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE AND DO YOUR BEST TO KEEP IT ALIVE”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: SEBASTIAN GABOR, “LOCKED JUST FOR THE EYES (SUHARAU- BOTOSANI)”

131

132

SOFT PEOPLE WITH FRESH IDEAS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC

133

What’s in the Next issues...

July 2014 - Words of folk wisdom There is also an “alternative” education that came through tradition, family and history. It is the education of folk words. We may have heard our grandparents, our parents, we may have read volumes of memoirs, prose, we may have heard stories, legends or fairy tales, that including wisdom words. The second edition of European Dignities Journal aims to discover this form of “folk education”, which few had part of. In every city, region, country, there is a system, acquired through “legacy” of time created by the words of the people, words who appealed to ethics, intelligence, life experiences and rapports with the life of those who saw and heard. Why not we know and discover them? Send us an article, a review, a story, a selection of texts, an interview, which has as central theme words of folk wisdom. They may be related to the place where you were born, where you spent your childhood or you’ve been attached at a time and then you discovered. A place of maturation, of daily life, retrieved in the wise words of olden times.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC

September 2014 – European Youth Capital 2015 - Cluj-Napoca We want to bring in attention intercultural experiences and not only that a city, considered as one of the youth in Europe, proposed a series of events and manifestations of this type for a year. We want to hear details, to discuss about the experiences and programs proposed by the organizers from Cluj-Napoca in 2015. Moreover, we want to connect European youth cities that have gained their status in the past or are willing to acquire it, in order to observe the impact of such a European project. We film, we photograph, we take interviews, we narrate. We wait your experiences in Cluj-Napoca, city designated European Youth Capital for 2015. We also want to know how did take place the cultural events held in the other cities having this status and what preparations do those who will become European Youth Capital city in the coming years.

Your opinion is very important for us, share it! e-mail: european.dignities@gmail.com http://asirys.blogspot.com https://twitter.com/AsociatiaAsirys https://www.facebook.com/europeandignities

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JOSIPA UZELAC, “TRY THE CRAZIEST THINGS IN LIFE FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE”

Words of folk wisdom

“NUMBER 2 - YEAR 0NE JULY 2014”