Kaleidoscope 2

Kaleidoscope ISSUE 2

COMMITTEE UPDATES EURO AFRICAN VILLAGE: A CULINARY ODISSEY TIMELINE OF AFRICAN–EUROPEAN RELATIONS

FIRST

EURO AFRICAN YOUTH BERLIN 2014

PARLIAMENT

Kaleidoscope

EDITORIAL Dear delegates, By now you have had the chance to familiarise yourselves with the session surroundings, get to learn a little bit about one another, taste various treats from the two continents in the Euro-African village and get started with debating your committee topics.

Those debates will form the core of your committee, moulding it and at the same time moulding you through this process of working together – resulting at the end in a resolution, statement of what you as a committee agreed on. The more multiple the voices within the committee, the harder it can sometimes be to come into consensus about the topic: however each of you has something valuable to contribute and can add something more to the end result. Reaching that consensus might take time: the process itself bears a great resemblance to that of building a puzzle, piece by piece. Similar to a puzzle, you won’t see the full beauty of it until it lies finished in front of you, making you realise that each little step was needed to take you where you are now.

Happy consensus building, your editors Harm, Oona and Sebastian

EDITORS Oona Kiiskinen (Finland) Harm van Leeuwen (Netherlands) VIDEO EDITOR Sebastian Hojas (Austria) JOURNALISTS Beatrice Adu (Ghana) Zephyr Brüggen (Netherlands) Valerie Donschachner (Austria) John Essilfie Jnr (Ghana) Emiljo Jazxhi (Albania) Thomas Pappoe (Ghana) Lewin Schmitt (Germany) Portia Solomon (Ghana) 2

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CONTENTS

Time of Euro African relations Euro African Village Mr/Ms X

4–5

6–8

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Update from Mother Earth Committee updates Brazil 2014

10–11

12–13

16–17

The chairs on their topics: ITRE I The weather

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EURO AFRICAN until 15th century

African rulers and merchants establish trade bonds with Mediterranean and West-Asian coasts. Portuguese, British, French and Dutch merchants establish ties with indigenous powers and erect fortresses along African coasts and rivers. The European cloth, iron, copper, alcohol and arms were traded against the African textiles, spices, ivory, gum and African slaves.

Europeans begin to get interested in the African inland as well. David Livingstone draws his famous maps of Congo. Colonisation of Africa by European countries.

Treaty of Rome as a step towards a common European market.

19th century

1910–1990

1865

1945

1807

1963

1957

13th amendment: official abolition of slavery in the United States. However, slavery continues long past this date.

1880–1914

Post-World War II optimism for global co-operation and peacekeeping. Nato is born.

A bill aiming to abolish the slave trade passes Britain’s houses of parliament.

Scramble for Africa. European powers fight over their home affairs by trying to gain the most land in Africa. (See map to right.)

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Constitutive conference by 33 African states: establishment of the Organisation of African Unity

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RELATIONS Abuja treaty. An African common market is created, inspired by the European model.

Third Africa-EU summit at Tripoli

African countries rebel against European oppression and regain their independence.

The African Union is established.

2000

1991

2001

2004

2007

2005

2014

2010

First Africa-EU summit in Cairo.

Maastricht treaty towards more integration. Symbolic birth of the European Union.

Second Africa– EU summit in Lisbon; adoption of the Joint Africa–EU strategy.

Establishment of African Peace Facility using European funds.

Adoption of the EU–Africa Strategy at the European Council.

Berlin 2014

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articipants of the first-ever Euro African Youth Parliament gathered to showcase their different cultures in the forms of food and clothing at the Euro African village. It was a night filled with trans-continental music, food and clothing. Dishes like pizza from Italy as well as yam and fufu from Ghana were all showcased.

Many of the individuals who represented the different countries gathered here at the Euro African village dressed in their local clothing.

Valerie (Journalist, Austria) wore green and red traditionally woven cloth called “Dirndlkleid” or “Dirndl”. It is a kind of traditional dress commonly used in Austria, Bavaria and other

parts of the Eastern Alps. The name is derived from the term “young girl” that is anachronistic everywhere but in Austria and Bavaria - where girls are still called “Dirndln”. The “Dirndlkleidl” or “Dirndlgwandl” used to be the dress that young girls would wear. She explained it was handed over to her by her grandparents.

Beautiful Gbemisola from Nigeria was gorgeously dressed in traditional edo clothing with a necklace made of red beads. She adorned her head with a beautiful head piece made from the same beads. The dress represented a sign of royalty and could also be worn by a bride during her marriage ceremony, a princess or any royal lady.

EURO AFRICAN VILLAGE

by Beatrice Adu (Ghana)

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CULINARY

ODYSSEY HERE we are at the first Euro-African Village, featuring traditional food and drinks as well as indigenous costumes and crafts from more than 50 nations. Some of the dishes are quickly sold out due to high demand. Others struggle to find customers willing to try the extraneous snacks such as fried caterpillar. Keep reading if you are willing to accompany me on this culinary journey, featuring recipes from the brilliant cooking that was exhibited that night.

by Lewin Schmitt (Germany)

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s most good stories, our journey starts at the beginning. Entering the room, we crush into an invisible, yet somehow tangible wall of odours, some bitter, some sweet, all delicious. To our left, participants from Ghana present all kinds of dishes, some spicy, some crispy, again all delicious. Ewurafua Bailey (Organiser, Ghana) is kind enough to reveal some of the secrets and quickly explains the preparation of yam, groundnut soup, garden egg stew and rice balls.

Yam

Peel the yams, slice them, pour salted water on them, boil it, serve it, enjoy it.

Groundnut soup

Mix groundnut (peanut) paste with water, stir it above fire until the oil comes out. Prepare the chicken by steaming it with spices and onions.

Now add dried herring and smoked fish to the groundnut paste. Cook the mixture. After this add the chicken and decorate everything with fresh vegetables (onions, tomatoes, okra, etc.), and enjoy.

Garden egg stew

Ingredients: garden eggs, tomatoes, pepper, onion, spices, salt, dried herring, eggs, palm oil.

Chop the onions and add them into heated oil.

Blend tomatoes and pepper, then add those to the onions. Fry it for a good while, then add the dried herring. Meanwhile, boil the garden eggs separately and then mash them. Before you add the garden eggs, you add fresh eggs to the stew, cook them for some minutes, stir from time to time and when everything looks good, you can add the garden egg.

Rice balls

Break rice into smaller pieces, cook it in salted water. Make sure to add enough water until the rice becomes soft. Add some butter and use a Fufu-Paddle (if available, otherwise a wooden spoon should do fine) to stir it until the rice becomes a smooth mass. Use the Fufu-Paddle to form the balls (if possible, otherwise your hands should do fine) After this tremendous cooking session, we are rather exhausted and move on. Eventually, we meet orange-dressed folks from the Netherlands – Oscar Mensink (AFET), Queenstar Amponsah (AFET) and Parel van Hoboken (ITRE II).

An honourable mention for bringing a portable stove all the way to Werbellinsee just to brighten our evening with freshly prepared pancakes.

A not so honourable mention for using a readymixed batter, though. Anyways, if you are up to preparing fresh pancakes, try this one:

Pancakes

Ingredients (4 servings): 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons unsalted of butter, 1 egg, ½ teaspoons of salt, toppings (butter, honey, jams, Nutella, etc.). Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, butter, and egg. Whisk until the mixture is smooth (do not overdo it - a few small lumps are fine). Heat a large skillet, add some oil, add 2-3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake (you should be able to fit from 2 to 3 into a larger skillet). Cook until bubbles appear on the surface of the batter, only 1-2 minutes. Put on a plate, add desired topping and eat.

After this no-brainer, it is time to get some drinks. The Czech people are a safe bet con- >>>

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cerning beers, so why not visit them? Martin Stocek (ITRE II) and Anna Svecová (ITRE I) are very friendly and supportive when they find out about my desire and will not let me go before we down various glasses. If you want to try how good a cold beer can taste, here is their advice.

Buy beer, drink it.

Beer

Disclaimer: Drinking many glasses for one’s health might actually result in the contrary.

Moving forward, we are greeted by cheerful Italians: Veronica Beretta (ITRE II), Eni Daka (DROI) and Emanuele Cossa (AFCO) didn’t really have a choice but bringing pizza to this gathering.

It is still highly appreciated, especially since we just had a few shots of Ouzo from the Greeks in their neighbouring table. The pizza is delightful, and here is their recipe for making it.

Pizza margherita

Ingredients: flour 00, yeast, salt, olive oil, tomato sauce, garlic, warm water, cheese (mozzarella), basil and lots of love. Stir flour, yeast and salt, pour in 200ml of warm water and a tablespoonful of olive oil. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth. Cover with a towel and set aside. Now to the sauce: chop the garlic, mix it with the tomato sauce, basil and add spices to taste. Roll out the dough: split dough into two balls and roll it out into large rounds on a floured surface. Heat oven to ~220°C. Put tomato sauce onto the rounds, slice the mozzarella and add it on the top. Bake for 8-10 minutes, decorate with a sprinkle of olive oil and some fresh basil.

Eating is important, but let us visit our Czech friends once more. Cheers. Now we are ready to face the biggest challenge for today: an ex-

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cursion to the Zambian table, where Auxiria Mwanza (ITRE II) is waiting for us with a rather unexpected dish: Vukubawa (if the spelling is incorrect, the Czech are to blame!). Basically, it is fried caterpillar. Not everybody is used to this kind of food, and neither am I. Not everybody is enthusiastic about this kind of food, and I am certainly not. Anyway, blindfolded and forced by a bunch of evil chairs, there is no escape. The caterpillar cracks between my jaws. I expect the gag reflex to kick off immediately. Nothing happens. As I open my eyes, I realize how it actually tastes just like ground almonds. Not bad. Still, my mouth is awfully dry. I go back to the Czech, they are being very supportive tonight.

Fried caterpillar

Let the caterpillars boil in hot water for 15 minutes. Fry dry and add salt and onion. Stir until they are golden brown and tasty.

Having survived the caterpillar, I finally feel ready to face the Croatians and their Travarica – or was it Cedevita..? (Those Czechs…). We meet Marko Kolovrat (DROI) and Ivan Stazic Jurisic (CULT) and this is where the story ends.

But later that evening there was quite a party apparently.

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MR/MS X THE FIRST Euro-African Youth Parliament brings together a broad range of the most interesting people, bursting with outstanding diversity, exciting stories and rich cultural backgrounds. Every single one of them is worth writing a book about, but for the sake of saving the planet and not wasting too much paper, we asked Paul the octopus to select one of the Officials. While Paul provided quite a lot of information, he did not bother telling us the name of the person. Will you be able to make sense out of the following description of Mr or Ms X and figure out the name behind all that?

by Lewin Schmitt (Germany)

S

cience is still arguing about the genetic colour code of X. Apparently, not only does it feature all shades of pale, but also the most glaring green that one can imagine. Furthermore, heated discussions have aroused about whether there are some ginger genes included in the DNA capable of providing such human perfection.

Statistics show that X comes from one of those peculiar ten countries represented at the EAYP which still haven’t understood the advantages of righthand traffic. Luckily this is not that much of a problem, since our sought-for does not yet have a driving licence.

Recently ennobled to be considered one of the author’s best friends, it is needless to say that the person we are looking for is always up for some good craic. He or she actually is such a grand chap, that many have struggled to understand how X manages to make those mean and scary faces.

Most of the participants most probably have spotted X for the first time when they were singing that song about Fred the moose. A moose is not quite as cool as a turtle, but X definitely is as cool as German winter might feel for our African guests. Above all, it is his or her outstanding craziness and speciality that immediately makes you feel connected and comfortable with X’s presence. For instance, reports told that there were some occurrences with his or her writing style, culminating in X being raised and flipped around in front of the flipchart. Another example of the respective person’s tremendous idiosyncrasy would not pass the strict censorship of our beloved Editors, so let’s just mention that X has been seen with a turban on during the course of Friday night. Being the most demanded picture companion at the remarkable Euro-African Village, it is not surprising that X also hit the jackpot of joining the most requested Committee of the session, AGRI. Whether this is good or bad for AGRI is another matter, but it is safe to say that Olusola is a lucky lad.

Find out who Mr/Ms X is in issue 3!

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MOTHER EARTH

UPDATE FROM

Politicians are twisting and turning in all the different countries spread on the curving of Mother Earth. We present you an overview – through the eyes of your fellow delegates and officials!

by Zephyr Brüggen (Netherlands)

O

lolade Opadore (AFET) from Nigeria reported to Kaleidoscope about the upcoming elections. It might be the first negative outcome for President Goodluck Jonathan’s Democratic People’s Party, which has been in reign since the military dictatorship ended in 1999, because they have failed to live up to electoral promises to end corruption. Ololade tells us that she finds herself in a maze of candidates and that there is no clarity within the opposition.

Queenstar Amponsah (AFET) and Parel van Hoboken (ITRE II) from the Netherlands are very excited about the visit President Obama paid Amsterdam this week. Especially about the fact that he visited a coffee shop. Parel is annoyed by the fact that rightwing and anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, who recently had his audience scant ‘away with the Moroccan immigrants!’ presents his views to the outside world as if they were representative of what everyone in the Netherlands thinks. In Finland, there seem to be problems with the left wing.

Henriikka Hakala (AFET) from Finland tells us about the Finnish party Left Alliance that is to exit the government because of incompatible views on new budget cuts on child welfare, pensioners and unemployment benefits. The Left Alliance wanted to impose a higher tax on the wealthier class instead. Austerity apparently has hit even the more affluent countries as Finland.

Priscilla Muhanji (ENVI), representing Tanzania, expresses her regret over Tanzanian youths involvement in politics. She says they ‘kind of just go through life’ and that their voice isn’t heard because it does not exist. Anya Kondratyuk and Nataliia Lehka (both DROI) from Ukraine did not even have the choice to be politically involved or not. They have seen their country undergo dramatic changes in the past months. Both were present at the Maidan square, fighting with likeminded, pro-European youngsters against President Yanukovich’s government, which answered to their protests by using brute force.

They are reasonably happy with the interim-government in power now: “At least the trade agreement with the EU has been signed! And our current prime minister even took economy class flight flying to another country.” And what about the Crimea crisis? “The referendum was not completely fair: there were Russian soldiers standing next to you while filling in the voting ballot,” says Anya. “Our university has offered places to all Crimeans who do not want to live in a Russian

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Crimea!” Nataliia adds. On the other side of the table, Alexander Wilming from Germany comments on the issue from his country’s perspective: “Germany has had a period of great scepticism about Europe, with countries like Spain and Portugal failing financially. The crisis in Ukraine, and the desire to add Ukraine to Europe, has sparked pro-European, even European nationalist sentiments.”

Speaking about in- or exclusion: ENVI chair Sophie Duffield is sceptic about the Scottish independence referendum that is scheduled for September 19th 2014. “Of course I, being English, can not completely identify with their desire to be independent. But I do not think it is a good idea, mainly because of the financial issues that they have not really figured out. I think Scotland gets a good deal in the UK at the moment.”

“Nope, we do not have Youtube anymore. Nor Twitter,” Vice-President and DROI chair Irem Tümer from Turkey announces, with an ironically happy voice.

Prime Minister Erdogan banned the social media companies to stop his critics from writing against him on those platforms. “It is kind of shameful to live in a country like that. But even our president twittered about it.”

“Liberia is working on its educational policy at the moment. We want to ensure free primary education for children and girls,” Beyan Flomo Pencec from AFET says. “The main challenge at the moment is to ensure the quality of the education as well.”

In Zambia they are busy with the constitution-making process. The Zambians have drawn up a constitution but the president, Michael Sata, seems reluctant to sign. Unrest is growing in the country, after all the time and money that has been put into this. Another country that is not handled completely according to the will of its citizens is Italy. Matteo Renzi has simply chucked former prime minister Enrico Letta out of office. “Italy lacks a system of direct democracy.

Renzi is the third prime minister in a row that has not been elected democratically,” says Emannuele Cossa. He does however, approve of Renzi’s politics, such as the Jobs Act meant to create more jobs in the country.

This January something shocking happened in Vienna that hardly had any attention in the media, Valerie Donschachner from Austria (journalist for AFCO) reports. At the occasion of a ball hosted by the rightwing party FPÖ (where the same Geert Weelders mentioned earlier was present as well) in a government building the police were incapable of preventing the demolishing of the inner city by the Black Block, an anonymous and apparently violent group, while the peaceful protesters taking part in the same protest organised by another organisation were attacked with batons and teargas.

Yes, many irrational and unjust things are happening on poor Mother Earth.

Fortunately, many beautiful things are born at the same time. And maybe we can help to discourage things like the ones in this article?

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COMMITTEE AFCO ———— Friday, 9.30 am——————————————————————

ITRE II

The first day of teambuilding, and everyone knows each others’ names. Looking good!

———— 3.30 pm——————————————————————————

———— Saturday, 8.30 am————————————————————

For everyone who does not quite believe in his or her ability to sing: Our monster singing Happy Birthday is quite impressive!

We cannot really believe it is only the second day of our stay here and we have already embraced so many cultures.

———— 6.20 pm——————————————————————————

———— 9.16 am——————————————————————————

Rule #4: Keep positive at all times :)

Teresa and Vera want us to start with a second day of Teambuilding. #muchfun

———— Saturday, 11.50 am——————————————————— Another way to solve the Human Knot is dancing, which AFCO seems to be very good at.

———— 2.15 pm—————————————————————————— Starting committee in a massage-circle!

———— 11.15 am—————————————————————————— Things just got slightly more serious; we have to solve conflicts now.

———— 12.42 pm—————————————————————————— Our journalist is posing at top of a tree. Again, what are the tasks of EAYP journalists? #EAYPjournalists #hardlyworking ———— 6.30 pm——————————————————————————

ITRE I

Development agenda, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international stakeholders, governmental influence and so on. T intellectual part comes into play. #CommitteeWork #EAYPdiscussions

———— Saturday, 9.15 am———————————————————— Teambuilding in the morning led by Henry from Zambia put participants in the mood to begin the day’s activities. If you think you have got more team building games you will change your mind once you visit ITRE 1.

———— 11.50 am——————————————————————————

———— Saturday, 9.20 am————————————————————

Energising song could not have been any better, wait until you hear the rap that establishes a summary of what ITRE 1 is all about. C’mon lets rap.

We all met at the gym with AFET Committee, happy to see everyone again and to get to kick off the second day together.

———— 2.15 pm——————————————————————————

———— 9.30 am——————————————————————————

ITRE 1 in the spirit of pragmatism identified words that are key to the topic (industry, technology, research and energy)

The marshmallow game, always mind blowing, everyone enjoyed it.

———— 3.50 pm——————————————————————————

CULT committee got together to play Ninja game, exciting and funny as someone was mistakenly slapped… we all could not stop laughing. Ninja! Ha!

What could be more beneficial than sharing links and information from which the committee can draw conclusions on the topic. Great idea ITRE 1, keep it up.

———— 4.30 pm—————————————————————————— Brainstorming on the type of problems confronting Africa and Europe was quite challenging but ITRE 1 has some of the best delegates together with excellent chairpersons, and in the end we pulled through. Moving to the solutions now, and even if it’s hectic we trust the team to triumph. Yepee!

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CULT

———— 11.30am——————————————————————————

———— 2.00 pm—————————————————————————— After lunch CULT got together again, playing some energiser games and after starting the discussions.

———— 3.00 pm—————————————————————————— The team made progress by suggesting that a lot of cooperation should be encouraged between Africa and Europe, and how governments in these countries should sponsor computer literacy programs and infrastructure.

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UPDATES

AGRI

———— Saturday, 10.00 am———————————————————

DROI

———— Saturday, 2.14 pm———————————————————— Ludwig Ahlqvist and Eni Daka got married!

The committee chairs Megan & Olusola started the day by stating “It’s a beautiful day, great to see all delegates once again”. To which Grace replied: “Yay, already getting in the mood for the General Assembly”.

———— 10.30 am—————————————————————————— The discussions on agriculture and rural affairs began. Zuzanna complimented her fellow delegates on their great deliberations.

Marko Kolovrat: Hahaha, spider-web romance!

Reham Mokbel: Omg! Is this for real?

Eni Daka: Haha no, don’t worry!

———— 11.00 am——————————————————————————

Droi #Ubuntu – it’s our motto. It means ‘togetherness’.

The whole committee went to enjoy coffee break. After the break, Megan & Olusola stated it is time to start brainstorming, which resulted on Edna replying: “that’s my favorite part”.

———— 4.12 pm——————————————————————————

———— 1.00 pm——————————————————————————

Daniel Sebugwawo uploaded a picture. ‘DROI in Berlin with yellow hands! Just pressed those handprints on the canvas!’

Well deserved lunch break ahead of us!

———— 4.10 pm——————————————————————————

Angele Biao: My fingers are still sticky from the marshmallows. What are they making us do here at the EYP? #crazypeeps Marko Kolovrat: The game with the chicken sounds was pretty freeky too...

———— 6.33 pm——————————————————————————

———— 5.00 am—————————————————————————— The chairs led to committee to the lake side.

‘Guys, let us go to the lake side for an outdoor activity, it is so serene there’.

Adlum: “I wish I could swim in the lake.”

Caroline: “That would be fun, but isn’t it too cold?”

Anya Kondratyuk: It’s not about illegal immigrants. It’s about the legal ones.

Nataliia Lehka: It’s not about the money, money money, we don’t need your money, money money, we just wanna make the woooorld dance.

AFET

Fred Katamani: #BrainDrain ———— Friday, 10.00 am————————————————————— Celebrating Pewee’s birthday in so many languages, what a good way to kick off teambuilding with these amazing people ———— 5.00 pm——————————————————————————

ENVI

Quick interference with Franzi and James, always nice to have some small talk.

———— Saturday, 10.30 am———————————————————

Team building. Playing ‘discussion games’.

Mingling with CULT, we feel so educated now.

We might have lost against them at the Swamp, but we surely rocked the Beaver Song!

———— 10.45 am——————————————————————————

———— 12.00 noon————————————————————————

Decorating room with balloons filled with fears and hopes about the upcoming days.

Drawing profile pics of the most beautiful committee fellows #suchtalented #veryartist #muchcreative #sowow

———— Saturday, 10.00 am———————————————————

———— 10.50 am—————————————————————————— Topics are being discussed. Talking about backgrounds of the topics.

———— 5.50 pm—————————————————————————— Playing spider’s web and blind square.

———— 5.00 pm—————————————————————————— Trees are sometimes green, and sometimes they are not. Committee work is always fun, and at all times our journo is hot.

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For those of you who are concerned with the question whether you can witness multinational gatherings of the actual kind sometime soon, fear not. In less than three months, FIFA is bringing together thirty-two nations in Brazil. 2014 FIFA world cup is the 20th FIFA world cup, a global men’s football tournament held every four years since 1930, this time around between 12th of June and 13th of July.

by Emiljo Jazxhi (Albania)

A

s a matter of fact, the Brazilian team is the one and only permanent participant in all of the world cups so far. The match between Brazil and Croatia in Sao Paolo will mark the beginning of this exciting event, followed by a game between Mexico versus Cameroon. While the former has been named the dark horse of this competition, Brazil has the best odds to win in the end.

BRAZIL time. The clock is ticking and the public hopes that Brazil will be ready to welcome them.

On another note, the goal-line technology will be used for the first time during these world cup finals. This will precisely calculate whether the ball has fully crossed the goal line, what will help referees meet more objective decisions based on electronic devices. This sort of device was first used in the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup, when Corinthians made it to the top of the final standings.

Unlike the world cups before, we only have one nation represented for the first time. The Bosnians’ first fixture will be against Argentina, a fairly tough and experienced competitor. 75 days to go until the first whistle blows.

As some of you may also recall, there have been a number of protests in Brazil concerning the enormous expenditure connected with the renewal of infrastructural conditions. The protesters say that this money ought to have been invested in health and education. On the other hand, the belief that the world cup will have a lasting good impact in the society is also present. The boom in tourists, as well as in local sales as a derivative of the former, are potentially going to have a positive influence on the economy, with a possible increase of the GDP. Twelve cities and their respective stadiums will be hosting sixty-four games in total. Yet, it has been reported that some stadiums are not ready, and constructors are fighting against

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last encounter when the Europeans won by a loan goal is enough testimony that Ghana will be turning tables around. Asked who he will put his money on, he said smiling from ear to ear, “definitely Ghana, my heart is in Ghana, I’m a fully blooded Ghanaian”.

2014

Head organizer Maximilian Kiehn (Germany) disagrees with Joojo that Ghana can beat Germany. He described the pairing of the two countries as amusing, at the same time reminiscing fond memories about soccer arguments he and other Ghanaian delegates had during the recent African Youth and Governance conference in Accra. He said although Germany will not have it easy, they will beat the Black Stars because of their good team. Max believes that the very popular Brazilian team will not win the cup even though they will be playing at home. Furthermore, Max predicts a Ghana-Germany final.

Delegates and chairpersons following this year’s world cup in Brazil are optimistic about the success of the event despite challenges with preparation by the host country. In addition to enjoying the tournament, it should provide an opportunity for networking especially for those who will be at the event.

David Plahl, a German delegate, observed that despite the injury worries on the German side, he is sure the players will recover in time to make the team proud. He said the brother duo of Kevin and Jerome Boateng, playing as opponents, will be interesting to watch. David says that the participation of most of the German players in the Champions league will give them an advantage to beat Ghana.

by Thomas Adotei Pappoe (Ghana)

H

rvoje Vampovac (ITRE I) a committee chair from Croatia is considering going to the World Cup and is excited his team will have the opportunity of playing Brazil in the opening match. He said the event will be a great moment in Croatian history since the country played third at the 1998 World Cup in France. Hrvoje believes Bosnia and Herzegovina will do well at the world cup because of the youthful nature of their team. He also thinks that France and especially Germany has a better chance of lifting the world cup trophy.

Joojo Kwofie, a Ghanaian with the organising team, is extremely confident about the chances of his country to proceed to the semi- final stage after the Black-Stars made it to the quarter finals at the last tournament in South Africa.

Joojo is excited Ghana is meeting Germany and even though they have beaten the African side by wider goal margins in previous outings, the

Swiss born delegate Caroline Widmer cannot wait to see her country play Ecuador in their opening match. She was excited Switzerland will now get the services of midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, currently playing professional football in Germany. Integrating him in the team will boost the chances of the team to progress to the finals. Catherine Steiner, another German lady who loves footbal, said Germany will meet either Switzerland or Ghana in the finals.

Georgina Mabezere (ITRE I) from Zambia stated that she is not disappointed Zambia is not in the World Cup, even after they fought so hard to qualify yet could not secure a slot ahead of Ghana. She said football is a game and Zambia has to keep playing. Georgina said she will support Ghana for some special reason she is not prepared to disclose, while letting out a big laughter.

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In the previous issue, we featured all committee chairs except ITRE I’s. Below, you can finally read about Georgina and Hrvoje’s views on the importance of their topic, the impact they hope to have and the advice they give to delegates. Our apologies for the wait.

ITRE I Georgina Mabezere from Zambia & Hrvoje Vampovac from Croatia

Importance

Georgina: “The issue of being afraid to start a business is a stumbling block to most African and European youth. Not getting the right mentors to tell you, you can do it and can do it better is another hindrance.

European and African governments should come up with deliberate solutions to help young people participate and get fully involved in running businesses.”

Hrvoje: “The situation in Africa and Europe is not good especially in youth unemployment and entrepreneurship. One thing I am looking from the delegates is specific ideas and thinking out of the box in order to help young entrepreneurs.”

Impact

Georgina: “We have plenty of opportunities but not every young person gets to benefit from those. What I want to see is that Europe and Africa come together to establish core values based on the entrepreneurial world and coming up with solutions on how to foster ideas for young people to easily get their businesses established in a much competitive way.”

Advice Georgina: “To all the youth that are gathered here, whatever you will learn from here, when you get back home, get started, you don’t need to have lots of people getting an idea implemented, you can start yourself and once people see what you are doing and how lucrative it is they will join in and help you boost your business.”

Hrvoje: “Young people are not ready to take risk and it is about time that mentality is changed because without taking the bold step, there is no winning. Governments too are not helping; NGO’s are also not active enough. We can talk but if we do not present our ideas to the government the youth are going to stay where they are. Government should have agreement with commercial banks to assist young entrepreneurs with capital”.”

Hrvoje: “My greatest hope is for participants here to learn something new, express their ideas even to explore and write a good resolution to change the world.”

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First Euro African Youth Parliament

Issue 2

THE WEATHER

It is always good and in your best interest to check out the weather before setting off for events at the Euro African Youth Parliament.

The European delegates may have already adapted to the weather conditions but for delegates from some parts of Africa, most of you may have your lips cracked with dry skin.

You don’t have to shiver in the cold anymore because we have provided forecast to help you prepare adequately to the weather.

Before that, some tips to protect yourself from the weather.

by Portia Solomon (Ghana)

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Use shea butter, lip gloss or lip balm to prevent your lips from cracking.

Dress in layers. Use many thin, warm layers rather than a few thick layers.

It will insulate better and allow you to take off layers if the temperature rises.

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Wear a good quality coat or jacket.

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Wear gloves or mittens.

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Wear socks. Socks are important in keeping feet dry and warm. You can layer socks, but be careful that your feet are comfortable and the circulation is not shut down.

Delegates enjoying the weather

Berlin 2014

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