Balkan Beats N. 15th - Summer Edition

BALKAN BEATS N:15th SUMMER EDITION

SUMMER RECIPES BALKAN PRIDE

GREEK DESTINATION: CRETE ART &TALENT CORNER

SAIL FOR PINK BALKANIZATER THESS FEST ALEPPO CHILD

BALKAN BEATS

B I M O N T H LY M A G A Z I N E

United Societies of Balkans is a Non Governmental Organization, founded in Thessaloniki in 2008, by a team of active young people.

The organization was created as a response to the pressure of constant changes in the Balkan and Eastern European region and under the need for the creation of a better social environment.

Key areas of the organization’s activities concern the defense of human rights, the organization of youth exchanges and training courses, which will bring young people from Balkans and Europe together, the organization of local educational seminars and multimedia production (web radio, videos, documentaries).

Main goals of the organization -To promote the values of non formal learning, volunteering, active citizenship and democracy for the creation of a better future for European youth.

-To promote human rights, solidarity and respect for diversity.

-To build healthy cooperation bridges between countries of the Balkan area and that of Eastern Europe with the rest of Europe.

-To locate and multiply the special cultural attributes of our societies.

-The break down of prejudices and stereotypes between Balkan countries.

Property of Balkan Beats The United Societies of Balkans, NGO, does not necessarily share the opinions expressed in Balkan Beats. It is illegal to reproduce any part of this publication without referring to the source. This magazine is distributed free of charge.

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CONTENTS REFLECTION CORNER

4 HUMAN RIGHTS WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THESE

ACT REACT

6 “FRIENDS” FOR A GOOD CAUSE

8 BALKAN PRIDE

12 STORY OF A TESTING INTEGRATION

14 VOICE TO VOLUNTEER INTERVIEW OF VOLUNTEERS

POLITICAL & SOCIAL ISSUES

18 INFOSHOT MAY-JUNE JULY-AUGUST

22 ALEPPO CHILD

24 TURKEY COUP ATTEMPT

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OLYMPIC GAMES

FIFTEENTH EDITION M AY - J U N E - J U LY - A U G U S T 2 0 1 6

TRAVEL

CULTURE

30 ART-TALENT CORNER

38 BALKANIZATER:ARMENIA

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THESS FEST OIL WRESTLING SAIL FOR PINK TRAN FESTIVAL

50 MUSIC CORNER HO QUYNH HUONG FAKEAR KINISI FESTIVAL SVET

60 BALKAN BUFFET FANTASTIC VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS SUMMER RECIPES

LEGION

68 ALL AROUND THE WORLD: VIETNAM

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GREEK DESTINATION: CRETE

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UNITED SOCIETIES OF BALKANS, NGO ALAMANAS 9, 55438, AGIOS PAVLOS TEL. / FAX: 0030 2310 215629 WWW.USBNGO.GR

Editors: Ebru Sener Maria Aguilar Lopez

4X4 MUSIC ART MOVIES BOOKS

78 FLASHBACK HARRY POTTER DOLLY THE FIRST CLONE SHEEP GOOGLE+ CURIOSITY ON MARS

80 MIX FIX INDIE MUSIC IN 2010 TURKEY

81

NEW TECHNOLOGIES CHANGING TIME

82 SPORT HRISTO STOICHOV MUHAMMAD ALI

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HOROSCOPE

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REFLECTION CORNER

HUMAN RIGHTS WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THESE

by Domenico di Nuzzo

Since when the two airplanes crashed into the twin towers in Manhattan, our subconscious understood very well that we were born in the generation where dreaming became forbidden. We realized that we had to prepare ourselves to the 3rd world war, made in the Internet Generation and with the new weapon of the Propaganda game: the Mass Media.

We faced the Taliban, after Al-Qaeda, now the ISIS with all the consequences of these challenges.

I never had the chance to bring a bottle of water on the airplane because of my “security”, I ever felt totally protected in a metro of a big city, I was obliged to push myself in order to recognize the Diversity like a matter of an Other culture and non like a danger for my Own culture.

In the previous generations, they had to “Stand up and Fight” against the Nazism, the stigma of the HIV, the Patriarchism.

We are the generation of “Stand Up and Defend!” We mustn’t fight, we are called to Defend.

We must defend Freedom, the Human Rights. We must protect all the Priorities that the previous generation conquered.

We must build Bridges of Peace and we have to export the Diversity like a value! This is the aim of these years.

With the low cost flights, we touched new concepts of living but we are still supporting the “Nationalism” believing that it is “Patriotism”!

‘Till now, I must admit that, in my opinion, the only Aim of Our Generation (because it’s mine as well) is to start to go and become constructors of Intercultural Dialogue, to be a brick of the link between “us” and “them”, in all the meaning that “Them” can have!

Take a step forward; the Democracy can’t be exported by the Army.

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Last tip: don’t forget to bring your Happiness.

REFLECTION CORNER

by Domenico di Nuzzo ©

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ACT REACT

FRIEND FOR A GOO CAUSE

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DS

OD E

ACT REACT

by Benedetta Vassallo

Founded in 1998 – after an unofficial started in 1992 – the “ Association of Friends & Volunteers of the Society for the Protection of Minors in Thessaloniki SFE –EPATH” continues to do the best to help and to protect the minors in the city of Thessaloniki.

The association was founded with the aim to support the “Society for the Protection of Minors (S.P.M.T.)” after long time of volunteerism activities with this society.

Nowadays the Friends & volunteers ran several activities using on the non -formal education through the creative training workshops and after school recreation program.

The creative training workshops change according the needs of the minors and are constantly evaluate and update in order to give to the young social and communicative skills but also free space where they can express themselves freely utilising their special talent, experiences and skills upgrading and exploitation.

The association guarantees education, housing food and psychological support and counselling to youngsters.

The association - in order to include and to promote the social solidarity and human rights, the diversity respect, the youth’s social participation and action, the education and culture and the prevention of Social exclusion - is one of the organisation that are participating in the programme “We are all citizens”.

The Programme – for the Greek NGO in bilateral relations with donor countries- is implemented by the Bodossaki Foundation, in cooperation with the EEA Grants Office.

The aim of this programme is to reduce poverty and social exclusion, to protect the human rights and the rights of the minorities but not less important to combat the hate speech, racism, extremist, homophobia, anti-Semitism, domestic violence and human trafficking.

For more information about the organisation or about the programme or if you want to be volunteer: The website of the organisation is: http://www.sfe-epath.com/ newsite/ The website of the programme: http://www.weareallcitizens. gr/index_en.html You can also read the “The Modern Dream of Themis”, based on a youth program of this organization, in our blog: http://www. usbngo.gr/blog ; an article written by Yesim Bayrak.

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ACT REACT

BALKAN PRIDE

by Burak Dimli

As USB we were invited to meeting of Balkan Pride in Capsis Hotel on 29th June. Mr. Apostolis Karabairis from Thessaloniki Pride welcomed and assisted us during seminars. When we arrived to the meeting there were many happy and smiley faces from all around Balkan countries.

You could easily feel the positive energy in the air. We immediately took our seats and started to listen participants during workshops. They created ice breaking games for explain their problems in public freely.

Some of the main purposes of the meeting were about; supporting/representing community, creating an ability to answer all kind of questions for the society, educational and psychological help for youngsters, setting role models for LGBT community, awareness about media, and social media bullying against LGBT members.

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ACT REACT

We are all connected with just one thing! ‘’Happiness’’ / Balkan Pride During the workshops, they created small groups from different participants from Balkan countries to discuss media problems about LGBT rights. I saw interesting and sincere questions such as “What makes me happy regarding media appearances”, “What annoys LGBT on media?”, “How do we want to be seen in media?” or “What kind of change presence in media can make in my life/our lives?”. Security issues, social media bullying, violent actions against LGBT community still exist, and those topics are extremely important for the community. Members of the community just want to live like a human being, without paranoia, and fear about attacks against their families or friends. Law, religion terms, phobia in society, and discrimination make the situation worse most of the time. LGBT members tired to answer private, and stereotype questions about themselves such as “Are you gay?”, “Are you a girl or boy?”. During the workshop, one participant tried to clear the situation about this problem and said “But we have to reply to those stereotype questions again and again and again… breaking ices among society, clichés had to be answered!”. When she was speaking I saw one poster on the wall, few words were written on it, and this poster completed the topic: BE LIKE ZEN!. One question was turning on my head all the time; how can we be part of the solution? Answer is simple as much as the question: empathy…

I was really happy to see some Turkish participants during this event because coming out and expressing your identity (freely) is very hard thing to do among the society of Turkey, if we compare with other western societies. This year Turkish government banned the pride all around the country because of the fear of terrorism. For my opinion the idea was just a cover… I saw many terrible violent attacks on social media from Police forces in Taksim Square during past years of Pride. Same show, every each year… When Police forces start to attack with water cannons and tear gasses last year, they created a rainbow under the sky and this moment smile appeared on activists faces…

© Burak Dimli

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(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/21._%C4%B0stanbul_Onur_Y%C3%BCr%C3%BCy%C3%BC%C5%9F%C3%BC_Gay_Pride_(37).jpg)

©Burak Dimli

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ACT REACT

When workshops paused for a small lunch break we got chance to make an interview with; Apostolis Karabairis (Thessaloniki Pride, Thessaloniki/Greece), Lejla Jerkovic’ (Visionary Youth LGBT+, Zagreb/ Croatia), Veneta Limberova (Youth LGBT Organization, Sofia/ Bulgaria).

USB: Hello. We are really happy to be here today as USB. We are working on the area of social/cultural awareness as you know. First of all, I want to congratulate you about such a colourful, and courageous event.

My first question is to Apostolis… Can you introduce yourself and the main goals of this event?

Apostolis: Well, building up a regional pride event was a vision of the Thessaloniki Pride long time ago. So we thought that the first step could be build up the capacity around all pride organisers of the cities in the region, and then threw interaction we can agree on setting up this regional pride event named ‘’Balkan Pride’’ in few years’ time let’s say.

This project is a series of 3 capacity building seminars. We worked on a ‘’legal frame’’ work, this seminar about communication and the next seminar will be in Serbia about ‘’Human Resources Management’’. And later in this year in autumn we are meeting in Tirana to agree on what our next steps will be? And our aspiration is to unite all pride organisers in the region in to rotating pride events in the region. For example one year will be in Thessaloniki, next year in Istanbul, third year in Belgrade so on…

USB: How are the percentage of sexual crime in your country if you try to compare with other Balkan countries? Have you ever faced off hate speeches lately or do you think awareness about sexual freedom reaching success because of the globalisation?

Lejla: Hey, I’m Lejla from Croatia. I’m talking from a bit different perspective about the hate crime, and about the law frame that we had in Croatia… Currently we have a long exhibited partnership; we don’t have a law on marriage equality, although the law that was supposed to prevent us having hate crimes on the street is not being implemented well enough. And I think in other countries of this Balkan region is worse, definitely worse. For example in Albania it is really a problem to come out, first step… And in many other countries that are the basic problems so without firstly coming out, we cannot have a community. If we don’t have a community, we cannot define the problems, we cannot make them public and we cannot do any lobbying towards the legal frame.

USB: During Gay pride events in Istanbul, Police forces attacked people in Taksim Square with water cannons and gas bombs. Do you have any message for them or other people who get attacked around the world?

Veneta: We did our campaign, you can see posters around you, and we also prepared video for supporting. We also have one participant who was part of Istanbul Pride. He was detained without any charge after he released early enough to join us.

Apostolis: What is important to Istanbul Pride is one of the oldest pride after Zagreb Pride. There is a strong tradition has been made in Istanbul and it cannot be wiped out like this. Because Balkan 2014, it was a super successful pride with almost 100.000 people. That year back then I visited 7 Pride parades and I experienced in Istanbul were far the most strong because people were enthusiastic, there were many sound systems, good planning and colourful people from around attended and it was the most noisy, excited and great atmosphere.

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ACT REACT

STORY OF A TESTING INTERRGRATION

by Benedetta Vassallo

Okus doma Taste of house ©

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ACT REACT

Okus doma Taste of house ©

At present, the hot topic in our social and political life are the refugees and the immigrants especially in the Balkans countries - crossroads of this wave. When they arrive in Europe nobody cares about their social integration but the only principal issues is where relocate them or how to send them back.

But, here I want to share a good example of integration and social goals.

A story of a testing integration . Why testing?

You will discover it.

Since the beginning…

I had the pleasure to met “Okus Doma- Taste of Home ” in Samobor, a small village in Croatia.

Okus Doma – Taste of Home is a social cooperative run by refugees, migrants and volunteers launching a catering business in Zagreb.This social cooperative narrates a story of migration of food and people…

Yes, because in the course of time the migrations are not related only to the people but also to the food…. In fact, not everyone knows that for example the watermelon- the refreshing fruit that we like to eat during the summer- came in Europe from the Africa thanks to one English explorer or that the potatoes came in Europe around in the end of XVIII century from the Americas. Just to mention two examples…

But, what is in concrete this project?

Taste of Home is a culinary-cultural project that introduces the culture, customs and countries of origin of refugees and migrants by recording their memories of home trough the smells and the tastes of their cuisine.

By preparing the food the refugees are evoking memories and creating new friendships and experiences in their new home. In the same time they are building on skills that will help them in the labour market and to be part integrated in the new society. They promote their project through cookbooks, cooking courses and workshops, public dinners and show cooking in the city of Zagreb and in other cities in Croatia, and also through their catering service for different events (seminars, congress, weddings…)Their dream is a restaurant… and they are working hard to waiting for their dream come true!

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ACT REACT

VOICE TO VOLUNTEER INTERVIEW OF VOLUNTEERS From Canary Islands to Thessaloniki

by Yesim Bayrak

Maybe I should have entitled this interview as The Good People of Spanish Islands in Thessaloniki. Because two beautiful Spanish people allowed me interview them for the new edition of Balkan Beats. And this one is about Narayan who shocked his friends.

Because his hometown, the Canary Islands bewitched his friends during their EVS period. They could not understand why he left his beautiful hometown. I think, this interview can elucidate the issue.’

Narayan arecibia © 14

ACT REACT ‘What people should know about Narayan?

Can you share your EVS’ challenges?

Well, it's a difficult question but if I had to describe myself I would say I'm open minded, hard working and proactive. Indeed, I do love learning from others, especially from their culture and what makes them unique. Personally, I consider I am wanderlust halfway home and halfway somewhere else. In addition to this, I might emphasise how much I love practicing sports regularly, meeting new people and speaking foreign languages. Even a few words spoken in a different language can make my day. I enjoy listening and discovering new artists who light up my soul. Of course, it has to be said how much I love cooking and tasting food from all over the world. But do not forget as I recently heard that the best ingredient of a meal is a good conversation.

There are all kinds of challenge during your EVS period. One of the biggest challenges is to get to know yourself better. It’s not easy but you find the time to listen to yourself. Other issues might come up such as communal living problems or that moment in which you must be very autonomous, implementing your own ideas and developing new projects. Definitely, living abroad for a long period often leads to homesickness despite you share the flat with other seven people. However, all these challenges teach you and help you grow as a human being.

Sometimes we are like the plants growing strong when being watered, in our case our tears make us grow.

How did you decide to participate in an EVS Project?

Traveling back in time, I joined AEGEE (European Students’ Forum) almost six years ago. At that time I barely knew how European projects worked or all the opportunities that were out here waiting for me. However, after a while organising events full time with this organisation I found out the EVS programme. So I decided to start applying for vacancies in UK in order to master English language. Luckily, they rejected me in many projects and other organisations simply did not reply me. So, three years later I gave a second try to go on EVS and after making up my mind, I was selected for short term project in Belvi, Sardinia. In that place I learnt what KINDNESS and HOSPITALITY means with capital letters. When you do a short term EVS project, you have the chance to go on long term EVS project. As you can imagine, I didn't miss the opportunity. Then, I spent two months in the lovely Sardinia and exactly two months later I was flying towards Thessaloniki, the city which would be my home for 9 months. In that city, I fell deeply in love with the city, its people and my beloved fellows who worked and lived with me. I call this stage a pregnancy love because great friends and new aspects of my personalities were born there, in Thessaloniki.

What do you think about your sending and hosting organisations?

In my personal opinion the sending organisation is a support in the distance. On the contrary, your hosting organisation is where you spend most of the time of your EVS. I wouldn’t say that either of the organisations was perfect but I felt like at home and free when I was volunteering at United Societies of Balkans. As they say in Greek “Spiti mou” (My house).

What are your future plans?

Right now, I’m really happy in the Canary Islands. Recently, I have been working as a teacher and I have had the chance to take up surfing. One of those sports which I have been dreaming of since I was a child. My future plans are basically to travel somewhere to learn a new language and live new adventures .

What can you say to the new candidates about the EVS? Go for it, do not look back, and travel as far as you can, for as long as you can and as much as you can. A new family is waiting for you somewhere else, a new culture is knocking softly at your door and a new language is whispering words which will touch your soul.

I could continue writing for hours, maybe days about how good and why to go on EVS, but one thing will last forever, it will be the memories of my EVS: people smiling, sharing with you, getting their feelings naked /baring their feelings. They still do it in my mind. So, my advice, for all of you guys and so for myself, is to start doing what you love most and discover your secret passions. Last tip: do not procrastinate doing the things you love, you cannot buy time in the supermarket.

THANK YOU!

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ACT REACT

VOICE TO VOLUNTEER INTERVIEW OF VOLUNTEERS From Mallorca to Thessaloniki

by Yesim Bayrak

‘Among the Balearic Islands we can find some differences, imagine! I did not go to any Greek Island, because I preferred to visit other places, more different than mine.’, said Aurora, Mallorca Island resident, which was recently awarded by Tripadvisor as the best island in Spain, the second in Europe and the sixth in the planet.

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Aurora has studied Cinema & TV, and during her studies she joined five music bands where she was the singer. She is 28 years old, and she is from Mallorca (Spain) in the Mediterranean Sea, which is a very beautiful and peaceful place.

Aurora is one of the previous EVS’er of United Societies of Balkans. Our conversation starts with her opinion about EVS, due to we know each other through this program, ‘EVS is one of the best options for youngsters, and I think everyone should know about it. Because it is an amazing experience. EVS is a multicultural meeting point.’ Aurora said.

‘Especially the meaning of EVS in United Societies of Balkans is a self-service European volunteering in all aspects. On the other hand, most of the people in Europe, do not know the treasures you can find in the Balkans. After the war of Yugoslavia, people do not want to do tourism in the Balkan Countries. But gently, tourism is growing and tourists can discover the amazing places that has!’

Let’s start our interview!

What do you think about the differences and similarities between Greek and Spanish Islands?

Among the Balearic Islands we can find some differences, imagine! I did not go to any Greek Island, because I preferred to visit other places more different than mine. There are my favourite places in Greece; Xhanti, Meteora, Athens, Edessa. I also visited Pella, Trikkala, Kalabaka, Pereia, Chortiatis.

Which countries have you been during your EVS? I went to FYROM and Bulgaria during the Eastern holidays with some of my EVS mates and when I finished my project I stopped in Italy for a while and one of my Italian partners show me his village.

How did you decide to participate in EVS? I did not know that there is an enormous youth network in Europe, and my creativity was not like now. In my opinion, I know more about people, because I can see if they lie, I can see their intentions, and my creativity is very large. And I am discovering a new world day by day.

ACT REACT

Aurora Real Celia ©

How can you describe yourself after EVS experience?

‘Shortly, personal changes in your life after EVS are usual. Your life changes and more than what you think. After 6 months of my return, I can say that my life still changes thanks to the EVS. I grew up, I opened more my mind, I know other cultures, other languages, other places,... And I have friends around Europe.’

What is your current occupation & your plans for your future?

At this moment I am working as a singer for hotels during the summer season and doing some audiovisual jobs as a freelance (such as videos, photography, etc). My goal is just to be happy and enjoy the life as much as I can. I am working on that. EVS helped me very much. Now my mind is tidier and I can improve myself easier.

What do you want to say to the new EVSers?

For sure you will have moments that you think to give up, this is normal. Enjoy a lot the other opportunities, this is an experience for your life. You will miss the people too much, the city, the culture...If you are doing EVS, do not miss so much your family, you will see them when you come back, you will miss more your EVS mates. This is a unique opportunity once a lifetime before marriage and children.

Aurora Real Celia ©

ENJOY! THANK YOU!!

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POLITICAL SOCIAL

INFOSHOT MAY-JUNE by: Maria Aguilar Lopez

News of the World Germany recognizes the Armenian Genocide The Parliament of Germany has approved this last 2 nd of June by unanimity a resolution that recognizes the Ottoman massacres against the Armenian Christians on 1915 as genocide. This decision will put in trouble the relationships and diplomatic links between Germany and Turkey, as his president Erdogan has said recently. The text approved by the German Parliament accept the term “genocide” for the death of between 800.000 and 1,5 million of Armenians and makes also responsible to Germany of it because of his alliance with Turkey during those years.

Recognition of same-sex unions in Italy On 20 th of May, the president of Italy signed the law that legalized the union between couples of the same sex; measure that took effect on 5 th of June. So Italy became part ofthe twenty-one countries in Europe that recognize the civil union for homosexuals,although they don’t recognize it as a marriage. After the Congress approved this law, apoll showed that the public opinion in this country was in a large majority in favor of civil unions, with a 69%, as well as for same-sex marriage, with a 56%.Source:

Protests in France against the Labour Reform The French population has taken the streets of their main cities from the 9 th of March to show their contempt against the Labour Reform approved by Françoi Hollande’s Government. During the last weeks the tensions between the protesters and the authorities have been increasing because of the celebration of the Eurocup and the strike in the transport section. Students and workers consider that this Labour Reform only benefits to the big companies and it’s unfavorable for the worker’s rights.

The dictator of Chad, sentencedto life imprisonment

© http://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/jornada-de- protestas-enfrancia-contra- una-impopular-reforma-laboral/42010386

Hissène Habré, who was the dictator of Chad during 9 years and known as The African Pinochet, has been found guilty on 30 th of May for crimes against Humanity and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. Hissène Habré has been accused for the murder of more than 400.000 persons and tortures of at least 20.000 persons. This sentence has been executed by an African tribunal in Dakar and it is the first time in the history that an African dictator is judged by a tribunal from another country of the continent.

Resource: swissinfo.ch ©Getty Images.

From: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21698736-criticssay-bill- which-leaves-out-adoption- does-not- go-far- enough-italy- approves

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POLITICAL SOCIAL

July - August

by Benedetta Vassallo

KURDISTAN:

A team of over 100 escaped Yazidi female slaves have created of the Sun Ladies to counterattack ISIS’stronghold in Mosul, and nowadays 500 more Yazidi girls are in training

BRAZIL: In the penitentiary of Pelotas, a country side city in the south of Brazil, the prisoners are building houses for dogs, every three days of work reduces one day of jail time. Since the project started roughly three months ago over 50 houses have been already been built and when the wood and shingle houses are ready, they are placed around the city and dogs can come and go as they please.

YONGYANG: The capital of North Korea

hosted the first beer festival. The festival hosted not only local but also foreign guests to enjoy pretzels, barbecue, patriotic music, and of course, local brew.

The festival is intended to promote North Korea’s flagship Taedonggang beer, named after the river that flows through Pyongyang.

© Yazidi soldiers sourceGetty Images.

PHILIPPINES: One of the school in the country - to prevent unwanted pregnancies among the teenagers – made a headline published on one opposite - sex dating ban. The ban reads: “Love affair will surely destroy the life of a young lady student, therefore, this institution prohibit intimate relationship between a male and female students.

USA: In the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Cleveland it appeared the “The Emperor Has No Balls” statue. The statue represents a naked Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential Nominee for the American election of the 2016. The name is ostensibly a reference to the famous fairytale "The Emperor’s New Clothes," in which a narcissistic emperor gets conned into strolling amongst his people in the nude. The responsible of the “artistic installation” is the anarchist collective INDECLINE.

© credit Guliver Getty Images

© PhotographUriminzokkiriNK News.

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POLITICAL SOCIAL

ALEPPO CHILD

A picture is worth a thousand words

by María Aguilar López

Photographer of the Aleppo child When journalists have to work in difficult situations and extreme locations they often need someone able to protect them somehow, sometimes they need to have trust in people that are not a good example of “fair play” at all.

Such practices are very common in war and dangerous situations, but the question is: Where are the limits of a journalist to get an exclusive, to take some good photos and to do his job?

We truly know that the image of the shocked child Omran will not have a bigger impact than the photo of the child Aylan found almost one year ago dead on one Turkish beach, with his little body being cradled by the waves of the Mediterranean. This new image of the small Syrian boy will continue being the focus of our Media for a couple of weeks more until being finally forgotten. This is one consequence of living in a desensitized society, with Media constantly bombing us with images of the terror lived in some not so far places of the world trying to get some attention, trying to reach some reaction and some actions. The question is: Who can stop it? Or even more: Who will remember it after a few weeks and have the courage of doing something about it?

During the last days we have beheld the face of a little child totally in shock and devastated at the bombardment of his house in Aleppo and after losing his entire family. This is just one of thousands of children and victims in general who are suffering the consequences of the Syria war. However, this image got viral some days ago and it was appearing in every media and social network. The eyes of little Omran Daqneesh – 5 years old – have apparently impressed many people all around the world.

But there’s another hidden question under this image: The photographer.

Mahmoud Raslan is the author of this photography and a good example to discuss where the limits and the ethics of a journalist are. Mahmoud Raslan has been identified in some photos with some members of the Nouriddeen al-Zinki terror group, terrorists considered as “moderate opposition” by the Government of United States.

However, these “moderate” people were in the spotlight of the media and social networks some weeks ago thanks to a video in which they appear with a Palestinian 13 years old child that, seemingly, they beheaded in the city of Aleppo, the same city where the images of little Omran were taken. The photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan has declared that he doesn’t know the people who killed this boy although he also admitted: “I would never work with any group that disagrees with my personal beliefs, but sometimes we have to take pictures with them”. And the truth is that these pictures actually exist.

Although the fact that it is really difficult to work in a scenario like the Syrian war and that sometimes journalists get forced to have “relation” with some non-so trustable people and with principles of questionable value, there are some limits that this profession should never cross.

Is being posing in photos with a group of terrorists and a child with a beltbomb justified by this difficult situation that journalists have to afford in order to survive and do their job? Does being a witness of a situation in which a boy is being used as a suicide bomb makes you totally innocent in this context?

Khalid Albain © Sources: http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950514000325 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqWvzVtWYAAqO53.jpg:large http://www.geopolmonitor.com/aleppo-boy-photographer-responds-to-allegations-of-beheading-involvment/ 20

Mahmoud Raslan ©

POLITICAL SOCIAL

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POLITICAL SOCIAL

TURKEY COUP ATTEMPT

by Ebru Sener

What happened?

I’m in Thessaloniki and tonight we have a tavern night. Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, we all cooked our food for tonight. Around 22.00 I have a call from Istanbul: Hey, I think there is a coup attempt here.

What, what do you mean?

I don’t know too, something happens here. We can’t reach social media, it’s very slow.

Don’t make joke of me.

I am not joking, it’s serious. We heard that there are soldiers at Bosphorus, nothing is clear. Probably military took the government.

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15 JULY

©Getty images.

After phone call I started to read news. According to news everything started around 22.00, fighters started to fly very close around Turkish Grand National Assembly (the Parliament) in Ankara. Advancing time learned that soldiers close the Bosphorus bridge which is connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. Army tanks were all around the streets of Istanbul and capital Ankara. Tanks and soldiers surrounded Taksim square and other centers of city. Soldiers were telling citizens: “It’s a coup, go home.” Istanbul was in a chaos, people were afraid, restaurants and shops started to close and people were running in all directions, most of them rush to go to the markets to buy food to stock. Turkey has a several coups in its history this is the reason for that stocking food reflex. They took control of the Atatürk AirPort which is main airport of Istanbul. At the same time, Sabiha Gökçen AirPort is also taken under control by soldiers. They closed the entrances and exits.

Turkish national TV channel TRT was taken by soldiers and they declared the coup: Speaker read "political administration that has lost all legitimacy has been forced to withdraw." Also military attacked the building of CNN Turk. Jets and F16s were flying on Ankara and Istanbul. Soldiers who are attempt to coup bombed several important places, Turkish General Staff and military centers. They tried to take under control the Turkish General Staff. From the website of Turkish Armed Forces they announced there was a coup.

POLITICAL SOCIAL

All this things happened in around two hours. After two hours, everything became more visible. The coup failed because whole military was not attended. Only a small group attempted to coup. They took hostage the head of the armed forces, higher-up commanders and admirals. They couldn't make them confirm the coup. Police forces were fighting with the soldiers who are attempt to coup. Gunshots crack the night at the presidential complex in Ankara and there were reports of helicopters opening fire at the national intelligence headquarters.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim a statement on NTV TV channel. He said that this was not a coup, this was a coup attempt.

For hours there were no news from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Soldiers attacked the hotel in Marmaris where Erdogan was there for holidays. When the situation got clear, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on CNNTurk via Facetime. Erdogan says that government remains in charge.

Erdogan urges people to take to the streets to stand up to the military faction behind the uprising. "Go to the streets and give them their answer," he says. Saturday, 3:20 a.m.: President Erdogan lands at Istanbul's airport.

After Erdoan’s call civilians who are mostly conservative people. During the night from the mosques announced to people go out and save the democracy and singing prays. During the night clashes continued.

Coup failed, during the coup attempt 62 police officers, 5 soldiers, 173 civilians, totally 240 people dead, expression of local media they are shaheed. 535 people get injured, soldiers who are attempted to coup 24 of them died and 50 of them injured.

After coup attempt 210 polices, 6319 soldiers, 1481 judges and prosecutors, 750 civilians arrested.Erdogan blamed Fethullah Gulen, who is a Turkish cleric lives in exile in Pennsylvania.

©httphaber.sol.org

The Day After After that bloody night people who are partisan of Erdogan were all in the streets to protect Erdogan; according to their discourse to protect the democracy. If we accept that we have a democracy, we protect it with violence, killing others. “Us and them”, this is the biggest problem we have. We are always in one of this groups.

All around there were too many speculations about coup. Biggest one was claiming that coup was a play that Erdogan created. One of the reasons is that after coup attempt he became more powerful. Another reason is that Turkish Armed Forces are very big and powerful, so if there is a real coup there is no possibility to fail. We should accept that he already has a very big power. He has ruled Turkey since 2004 and he find the way to put his enemies into jail. Strictly, he doesn’t need such a game to become powerful. It’s difficult to understand or accept simple things as they are for Turkish people. Always looking for biggest power behind the scene, of course meanwhile no one sees what’s happening in front of our eyes.

Who is Fethullah Gülen?

Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish guru, former imam. He is a very important political figure for Islamic movement. He is the founder of the “Gulen movement”. Once upon a time Erdogan and Gülen were henchman, but now they are enemies. If Gülen was the only person behind coup, Erdogan was the one who gave him a chance to do it. They were allies when Erdogan first elected. Both of them were fighting for Islamic government. Then Erdogan wanted to be one, also their ideas got separated about the foreign policy and how should Government act. For the last 3-4 years conflicts between them continues.

What are waiting to Turkey Erdogan declares three-month state of emergency. Witch hunt started immediately. Up to now 18.044 people are in custody, 9.677 people arrested, 49.21 people’s passport canceled. Some universities and newspapers are closed. Now everyone is afraid of Erdogan after this emergency, because he will use this situation against people who are not in his side. Turkey is a country full of surprises and I believe we don't have enough imagination to guess what will happen.

Sources: http://t24.com.tr/haber/icisleri-bakani-18-bin-kisi-gozaltinda-9-bin-677-kisi-tutuklandi,352520 http://t24.com.tr/haber/darbeye-kalkisan-cemaat-tsk-icinde-nasil-orgutlendi,351676

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POLITICAL SOCIAL

OLYMP GAMES 24

PIC S

POLITICAL SOCIAL

Reward or punishment?

by MarIa Aguilar Lopez

What are the real consequences of Olympic Games? Who wins and who loose in these Games? Most of the times, the real “losers” of these events are not the participants that don’t get any medal, but the citizens forced to pay, in one way or another, the real prize of hosting an Olympic Games on their countries.

Greece. Olympia. 8th century BC. And what would be the most important sport event for the countries all over the world until our days started its history: the Olympic Games. What started as a national sporting event with some disciplines such as combats and chariot races has evolved to our days up to become the most important and popular international event with hundreds of different sport disciplines and thousands of participants from more than two hundred of countries.

However, nowadays the real combat takes place before the celebration of the Olympic Games. The countries tend to fight between them in order to get their countries as the hosts of this event. Having the name of your country after the words “Olympic Games” is considered as an honor especially for the political heads of the Estate at that moment. ©Getty Images - Olympic pool on the premises of the 2004 Summer Olympics

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POLITICAL SOCIAL

Photo 2: ©Getty Images - Athens 2004 sports facilities completely abandone

The promotion and visibility of the hosting city and country itself that an event with these characteristics can give is bigger than any other great advertising campaign. A large number of improvements and works are carried out in the city during the previous years in order to get the city chosen as the hosting and, after being selected, in order to build and improve the facilities where the Olympic Games will take place. And not only the buildings used for sporting events, but also many hotels and other kind of constructions will be raised in order to accommodate the big number of tourists that will arrive at the city for this reason.

Of course, the benefits of hosting the Olympic Games are invaluable. Also the consequences are.

First of all, the cost overrun is a constant in this event. The budget is exceeded in the works for the Olympic Games in 100% of cases, what makes it the most predictable mega project in the world.

In the case of the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 the budget was 11,200 million dollars, twice the originally proposed one. Besides, the economic consequences for Greece were disastrous. Many economical experts affirm that the overrun in the budget of the Athens Olympic Games was the origin of the economic crisis suffered in Greece between 2008 and 2012 and whose effects still persist.

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However, this fact is not clearly certified but, what is totally confirmed is the big impact that the sport event had in the city and country. Greek GDP, for example, shifted from a deficit of 3.7% in 2002 to 7.5% in 2004, rising from 182,000 to 201,000 million euros.

But those overspend and payments weren’t only experienced during the previous years of the Olympic Games, still today Greeks are literally paying the consequences of these Games.

For example, 9.5 million euros for the maintenance of the Olympic Stadium dome designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. What’s more, the bad preservation of the facilities that were built and used for the Olympic Games have made absolutely impossible the subsequent profitability of the works.

But the most recent example of the consequences of Olympic Games right now is Rio 2016 where, without the celebration of the Games yet, we can already see the payments that its citizens have had to pay during the previous works.

Vila Autodromo, a favela in western Rio, has been the icon of the consequences that Brazilians are being forced to live because of Olympic Games. In the year 1993 the Rio de Janeiro’s

POLITICAL SOCIAL

Government handed over the lands where this favela was settled. However, in 2015 the Mayoralty decided that these lands were ground of “public use”, what allowed the evictions of its residents.

Official figures say that since 2009 around 22.000 families (more than 77.000 persons) have been forced to leave their homes, although these numbers are difficult to ensure – as International Amnesty says – because there’s not an exact knowledge of the number of people that were living in Vila Autodromo and other favelas next to the Olympic Park (2).

Only 20 families live in the neighborhood now because they refused to leave. (Photo 3) But the biggest consequence of these Olympic Games is the increase in killings by Brazilian police on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

They were responsible of 1 in 5 homicides in this city during 2015, as International Amnesty says. But not only Amnesty is reporting this fact: United Nations accused to Brazilian police last month of December for the murder of poor black street children in order to “clean the streets” for the Olympic Games (3).

Photo 3: ©Yasuyoshi Chiba (AFP) – Demolition of favelas in Vila Autodromo

In a country that is suffering the worst recession of its economy in 100 years, with hundreds of poor children in the streets and with any kind of school attendance Brazilians are wondering “Olympics for what?”.

On the other hand, we have the example of Barcelona 1992 as a proof of a good subsequent use and profitability of the sport facilities that were built for this event although it was the second most expensive Games in the history of Olympics (11.400 million dollars) and some important buildings were destroyed, as the expert of urbanism Mercé Tatjer said (4).

Apart from this fact, Barcelona Olympic Games created a lot of employment between October of 1986 and August of 1992. Unemployment in Barcelona decreased from 10,9% to 15,5% during this period and most of the buildings that were raised for this event have continued being economically profitable and used.

Now, with the Rio Olympic Games already here, the next step will be watching out the good or bad economic and social profitability of these Games and the possible consequences for Brazilian citizens. Maybe after a couple of years we will know the answer to the question “Olympics for what?”

1-http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2014/08/11/fotos-juegos-atenas-diez-anosdespues_n_5668357.html 2-http://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/rastro-miles-desalojos-precede-rio-2016-video-noticia-1896432 3-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rio-olympics-2016-brazil-crises_us_573b53e7e4b0646cbeeb02c8 4-http://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20120727/54330294870/luces-sombras-herencia-olimpica-barcelona.html

Photo 5: ©Leo Caobelli – Wall built to separate favelas from the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro

Photo 4: ©Tasso Marcelo (AFP) – Brazilian demonstrators against Olympic Games holding a banner with the sentence “Olympics for what?”

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CULTURE

ART TALENT CORNER

by Ebru Sener

THE WIND WILL CARRY US AWAY

Š http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120265/

When you take a tree that is rooted in the ground, and transfer it from one place to another, the tree will no longer bear fruit. And if it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. This is a rule of nature. I think if I had left my country, I would be the same as the tree.

Jean-Luc Godard has said: "Film begins with DW Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami." According to Martin Scorsese, "Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema."

Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran (a city in Iran), in June 22 1940. His first experience on the field of art began with painting. He continued to the paint until his 18-19 years old. He left his home and started to study Fine Arts in Tehran University when he was 18 years old. He studied painting and graphic design at the University. While he was continuing at the University, he worked as a traffic officer. In the 1960s he worked in advertising as a painter, designer and illustrator, designed posters and created commercials.

In the late 1960s, he began creating credit titles for films and illustrating children's books. His relation with cinema started in 1969 with his help to establishing a filmmaking department at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran. The debut production of the department and the first film of the the director was the Nan o Kuche (Bread and Alley) that is a twelve minutes short film about a child encounters with an aggressive dog and it's neorealistic style of movie.

Between 1977 and 1979 the point of view of cinema changed with Khomeini's return to the country and severe restrictions were introduced.

He defended the use of cinema as a political tool and films shown responsible for the evil and corruption in the country. He imposed heavy censorship on films with a pretext to disrupt the mo-

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rality of public. In 1982 all movies and video clips which are debilitating Islamic principles banned with an arrangement made ​​by the Islamic government. Censorship always opens another doors to the directors; symbolism, instead of direct expression they use indirect expression, rather than the big tragic story, small and ordinary stories recorded.

Abbas Kiarostami is particularly important for Iranian cinema to become universal.

Iranian director, recognised worldwide and acclaimed, is screenwriter and producer.

Kiarostami working in this field since 1970, has worked in more than 40 films including short films and documentaries. After the 1979 Islamic revolution Kiarostami was one of the few directors who prefer to stay in Iran in contrast to many producers and directors leave the country and went to western countries. He is also a photographer and poet.

Sources https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/apr/16/art http://bombmagazine.org/article/1832/abbas-kiarostami

CULTURE

THE WIND WILL CARRY US

TASTE OF CHERRY

The wind will carry us directed at 1999. The Wind Will Carry Us nominated for the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival and won the Grand Special Jury Prize (Silver Lion), the FIPRESCI Prize, and the CinemAvvenire award at the festival.

It’s directed at 1997. It was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. It plays major role to world know about Kiarostami.

It's a movie about life and death, men and women. The director Behzad Dorani and his two colleagues from Teheran visit small village in Iranian Kurdistan with their Land Rover. (Cars are always have had an important role in the movies of Kiarostami.) The aim of the visit was to make an observation about death rituals, and there was an old woman who is on the edge of death.

In the movie we don't see men except for some old ones, Behzad meets several women while waiting death of old woman. They represent three different life style of women.

Directors took several calls from his boss to give a report situations. In these phone calls we saw a man who has no control for death.

He has no power to change it. We can call this situation; man has no power to change nature.

Mr. Bedii decides to commit suicide. He starts a journey with his truck to find someone who will help him. He need someone to burry him when he dead.

This is weird claim and no one want to do it. But third person accepts the job because he needs money for his sick child. Mr. Bedii wants to die because he is not happy. But we saw that he is not sure, his idea changes like the landscape. Actually he don't need someone to burry him, he needs someone who can change his mind. During the movie he is always in his car, car is coffin and he can not find any other way to go another coffin.

Kiarostami makes this film after Cioran’s this quote “If there was not a possibility of suicide, I was already killed myself.

Abbas Kiarostami , showed that films the face of everything that will affect society negatively. During Shah Abbas Kiarostami, he has continued to make criticism of the regime and discuss social issues. Films of Kiarostami involves considerable uncertainty. Simplicity and complexity blended by director, and often in the movies which took place in fiction and non-fiction items. He says “We can never approach truth except through lying.” The boundaries between the real is not real has been reduced significantly his movies. In Kiarostami films often seen in a unique style and often uses his own techniques. Kiarostami , in a region characterised by intense social and political turmoil is a major director who has managed to create his own cinematic language.

Movie goes accompanied with poems and by itself movie is another poem waiting for readers, audiences.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209463/mediaviewer/ rm1161165312 ©

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452102/mediaviewer/rm3328213504 ©

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CULTURE

Over The River - Christo and Jeanne-Claude at the Arkansas River Colorado ©

FOR THE ART TO HIDE AS A WAY TO RE-FIND

by Iva Veneva

He created a curtain of a valley. He put 3000 beach umbrellas on 2 continents. He constructed gates in the open spaces of a park. He built the iron curtain from petrol barrels. He wrapped magazines, bicycles, cars, bridge, parliament building, sea coast and even some islands. He loves the freedom of expressing his art so much so his decades-prepared installations last not more than some weeks. His pieces of art are in museums, galleries and collections all around the world. He is a master in the art of covering objects as an instrument to re-find them. His name is…

Christo, Christo of Jeanne-Claude.

The Floating Piers - The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014-16 (3) ©

WHO IS CHRISTO Christo Dimitrov Yavashev was born in the 30s in the town of Gabrovo, Bulgaria. He studied Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in the National Academy of Art in the capital city, Sofia. In 1956 he left Communistic Bulgaria and he went to Czech Republic and later - in Paris. Until the end of 50s he was subsisting with painting portraits. Then Christo was painting a portrait of a wife of one general and he met his daughter Jeanne-Claude 30

The Floating Piers - The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014-16 ©

CULTURE

who was born on the same date as him, June 13, 1935. Maybe this was destiny because 40 years later they are one of the most successful contemporary art tandems - Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Together with his wife Jeanne-Claude, passed away in 2009, in decades Christo covered, wrapped and arranged buildings and all kind of landscapes. Enveloping of a variety of objects in thin fabrics is a trademark and a unique contrivance of Christo. He prefers to leave the interpreting to his audience and not influence them.

BIG PROJECTS The creative talent of Christo was combining well with the organisational skills of JeanneThe Mastaba - The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi (Project for United Arab Emirates) ©

Claude. They designed scale projects as wrapping of a part of a sea front of Australia in 1969, or the giant “Valley Curtain” in Colorado in the beginning of 70s. Christo and Jeanne-Claude even wrap the Reichstag (the building of the German parliament) in 1995. In 2 weeks Berlin was visited by 5 million people, who wanted to see the incredible installation. The vast projects of the two artists usually exist just for a short period. They are open and free for visiting. “This is a part of the esthetic's conception.

In this way they are connected with the freedom. Because the freedom is an enemy of possessing. And possessing means long-lasting in time.”, said Christo in a period of working on Reichstag project.

THE OIL BARRELS The oil barrels are also a trade mark of the artist. They appeared too early in his projects. In 1962 Christo made the first sensation about him by his installation “Wall of Oil Barrels - The Iron Curtain”. Illegally he hedged off Visconti Street in Paris with a wall of 441 oil barrels as an expression of his protest against building of The Berlin Wall.

THE MASTABA As it looks, the last project of Christo will outshine all his other projects. The installation The Mastaba in Abu Dabi’s desert will be bigger than the pyramids in Giza and more expensive than the most expansive installations in the world. Christo thinks to compose one over one 400 000 empty oil barrels, painted in different colours. It is supposed that realisation of the project will cost $340million. It is not a coincidence that somebody calls The Mastaba “the 8th wonder of the world”. And really, with its impressive height of 150m and length of the sites in the base are as follows 225 and 300m, the construction in the desert will be seen for kilometres. Moreover this monument is a personification of the idea that the modern civilisation is what it is thankfully to its petrol industry.

The idea of the Mastaba is not new, it was first seen in 1977 and after the first sketches of the project appeared. In the time of Iran - Ira War the project had been stopped. For now it is not known when the project will continue again, neither when it will be finished. Chr The Pont Neuf_W.Volz ©

thinks it will takes 30 months to be finished. About the financial part of the project Christo does not say more than it is “independently” funded. More precisely, the construction in the Arab Desert will be funded with a money, gained by selling his other projects’ sketches and with a help of other investors.

As much unclear Christo speaks for the Royal family’s role in his project. He says: “We work in a close collaboration with Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is a representative of the heir of the throne.” . And continued: ”All in the the Royal family are amazed by the project”. The artist does not add whether the Royal family is one of the investors of the project. Concerning the money he gains from his projects Christo says: “I pay to myself an year salary of 25 000 Dollars. All the rest goes to my projects.

Just my project “Over the River” will cost 50 millions”.

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OVER THE RIVER

Valley Curtain_W.Folz ©

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are plan- THE LAST PEARL IN THE CROWN - “FLOATING ning his project called “Over the Riv- PIERS” er”. Yes, exactly - they would like to package a whole river or at least a The last realized installation of Christo is called “Floating Piers”. The idea for installation, which makes possible walking on the water, is familiar for Christo 10-kilometres water space of the Ar- from the 70s. In the end he found that Lake of Iseo perfectly suitable for the kanzas River in Colorado to be cov- project. This installation looks like a 3-kilometers floating pathway in the Iseo ered by panels of fabric. For this pur- Lake, connected the town of Sulzano and two islands nearby. pose, it is needed to be placed 7000 Between June, 18 and July, 3 2016 the small town in the North of Italy hostpillars along the train road. Until now ed around 800 000 visitors of this amazing piece of art. “Floating Piers” costs Christo and Jeanne-Claude have about 15 million euros and it is funded by Christo and a profit from the sales of sketches and photos. The Major of Sulzano calls the floating pathway “The been invested 11 million dollars in its Miracle of Christo”.It is with width 16 meters and is constructed from floatthis project. Although Jeanne-Claude ing pontoons, which connected the land with the islands Monte Isola and San is not with him from 2 years, Chris- Paolo. The path replaced temporarily the boat which is the main transport for to always speaks from the name of the 1800 people population of Monte Isola to the town of Sulzano and back. 90 sq. km “gold” covered not just “Floating Piers” but also whole streets in Sulzthem both: “ Yes, this is our project ano and neighbor villages. and it always will stay The giant installation of Christo was not just impressive piece of art, but also ours. We promised to each other a great logistic challenge. “Floating Piers” have been constructed by 220 000 that if something happen to some cubs by polyethylene. When they were assembled, they made 75 sq. m floatof us, the other one will continue the ing bridge. project”.

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Wrapped Cost_Harry Shunk ©

GUINNESS RECORDS In 2000 Christo and Jeanne-Claude became a part of the records of Guinness with the biggest umbrellas in the world, the longest running fence, the heaviest package of the Reichstag and the biggest sculpture without scaffold for his sculpture in Oberhausen.

INTERESTING FACTS The prize “Christo and Jeanne-Claude” is given in the American University of Abu Dabi for the projects in the sphere of visual arts and it is accompanied by 5000 US Dollars.

Christo has more than 40 non-realized projects.

Wrapping of the Reichstag takes to him 24 years, He needed 7 years to organize the project “Umbrellas” and 10 years he needed to plan the packaging of Pont Neuf. He was planning also wrapping of some skyscrapers in New York, but it was not permitted to him.

Jeanne-Claude and Christo had never flown in the same airplane The love between Christo and JeanneClaude is unique and destined. They had been born not made everything together except 3 things. Jeanne-Claude did not draw and Christo had never spoken with their accountant.

AN ARTIST-PACKIGER OR AN ARTIST-SCULPTOR In one interview Christo said that his art is unique with one more not so nice characteristic - it starts to be criticized even before it exists, on the level of planning it. He meant of course a lot of comments of not well informed green or political activists who said that his art is not ecological or is too expansive.

Resources: http://www.dw.com/ ; https://www.24chasa.bg Photos: http://christojeanneclaude.net/ and Wolfgang Volz & André Grossmann & Jean-Dominique Lajoux & Harry Shunk

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CULTURE

Petya Dubarova - A Death As An Artistic Riot In A Times Of Totalitarianism

by Iva Veneva

“Drowned stars are floating on the sea.

Salt burnt the freshness of their colour.

How softly, without taking leave, they lost both light and power.

But I would turn my heart right now into a pyramid, a sell, and it would bring them back alive, ripe in its flesh, like a shell.”

“Drowned stars…”, Petya Dubarova Petya Dubarova is known as one of the greatest talents in the Bulgarian literature.

On 4th of December 1979, Petya killed herself at her home in Burgas, Bulgaria with tranquilizante. She left a note with the following text: “Deceived. Youth. Forgiveness.

Dream. Memory. Behind the walls of the big house. SECRET.” Nobody until now was able to succeed in decoding the meaning of the message from Petya. Neither anyone could say why these fragile, but beautiful and very energetic girl chose to pass away.

Although her life was short, she left about 200 poems, 50-60 pieces of art as a prose, dozens of adaptations and translations of songs of Beatles, Bee Gees, Smokey, Pooh.

This is her story.

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Petya Dubarova ©

Petya Dubarova was born 25th of April 1962 in a seaside town Burgas, Bulgaria. Her mother Maria is a secondary school teacher of literature and her father Stayko is working in a local factory for radiators. She learned the letters at 2.5 years old and at 3.5 y.o. she already started to read. In the first grade she wrote her first poem in two couplets called “Storm in the Sea”.

Maria Dubarova started to send some of Petya’s poems to the youngsters’ newspaper “Septemviriiche”. This is where her first works have been published. They are surprised by the imagery and maturity they were written with, but also by the productivity of the young author - the mother sent 2030 all in once. There were days when Petya wrote 15-20 poems without feeling exhaustion.

In 1976 Petya Dubarova was accepted into English High School of Burgas.

She was with a first score in the list of candidates. She was interested in painting, music, cinema, theatre. Furthermore she was a very good translator from Bulgarian into English. She was participating in many competitions and receive many prizes from them.

In 1978 the director Georgi Dyulgerov directed his movie called “SWAP”. She played herself - a poet who was not understood in her society and something very unfair happened to her. In the original scenario there was no role for

Petya but the director asked a teacher of Petya to send him girls who wrote poems. That’s how he met Petya and became charmed by her works and talent. During the shooting of the movie in Samokov, Bulgaria, in the winter of 1978 Petya met Per - a guy from Sweden. It happened in a bar where Petya was having fun with the team of the production. Per invited Petya on a blues and kissed her. This was her first kiss and first falling in love. After this short date, she would never again see him.

Than they exchanged some letter and after suddenly he stopped writing to her. Petya suffer a lot because of this. She received the last letter in the end of 1978 During the High School Brigade (a compulsory summer working camp for all high school students) she and one of her classmates were chosen as correspondents of a school newspaper. All of this work they accept as an endless party but it is not like this for the brigade leaders. They have been punished for their “too free attitude” and sent in the factory of soft drinks. An incident has happened in the factory with a fatal effect for Petya later. What and how exactly happened the incident is not clear. There are two versions. The first version is that in the night when it was Petya’s shift in the factory, the electricity stopped. She burned a match to see what happened with counter of the bottles. The cover of the counter melted because of the heat. The duty officer broke the counter on purpose and told her that like this is better and to be calm because in any case it was not counting right the bottles and that’s why they counted them on hand.

CULTURE The second version is that Petya, together with her friend Vladimir worked on the machine for bottling of beer. She jogged the counter not on purpose and it stopped working. Vladimir tried to repair it with match, but it didn’t work and the bottles started to go in without to being counted.

The factory management accused Petya of sabotage and wrote a letter to the English School directorate. The police came to investigate the case. The teachers who didn’t like Petya found her guilty because she didn’t want to work then. They wrote a report and decided to punish Petya with lower mark for “attitude” (it was a compulsory subject of the evaluation system for all students) because of the crime she did. As they said this was not the only sin of Petya. The big “sins” of Petya were that sometimes she was going to school with her hair not in a tail and a red blouse had been seen under her uniform - actions forbidden in the communistic school. All of these rules look funny for the modern youth but then it was a big offence.

In 10th grade Petya decided to be a good student and to concentrate on her studies. From the writers societies they prepare her to study literature in Moscow. The way to this dream could be stopped by the punishment with lower mark. She had been called every day in the directorate. It was wanted from her to confess that she did the crime in the factory on purpose. On this time the mother of Petya spoke with one of the teachers because of the emotional condition of Petya. The teacher said that all of this pressure is not just because of Petya’s crime but also because they wanted to give a lesson to everyone and to consolidate the authority of the school management. The next day the school’s council vote to punish Petya with a lower mark. It is interesting to be noticed that the school management broke the rules with taking the decision for Petya’s punishment because the rules said that they first should speak with her and reprimand her.

On 3.12.1979 Monday the class leader teacher said to Petya for the punishment.

What a shame! How she will tell to her parents. It is awful for her not that the mark was lower but that they did not believe her. Sad Petya was coming back home after school. She explained to her parents who consoled her saying that it doesn’t matter really. After that she said good bye to her parents who went to work. She went to the pharmacy and bought Diasepam. She wrote her last poem on the typewriter. Her mother found her powerless body on the bed but she was already in coma. On the morning of 4th December Petya died in the hospital.

Petya Dubarova ©

All the town was shocked from the news about the death of this young and talented girl. The suicides in the totalitarian society were a taboo topic because the new socialist person had to be full with optimism for the bright future and thoughts for suicide were unacceptable. After Petya’s death the students of The English High School were angry about the management of the school and the directorate. All month students wore white ribbon on their clothes, showing their sadness about the talented poet who passed away. They also showed that they thought the teachers killed Petya. They wrote on the walls of the school “Killers”. This type of protest was impressive at the time.

After Petya’s death she became more and more popular and looked at as a saint.

Youngsters started to go secretly to her grave. They also went to her home, even at night when her parents were sleeping. The rulers became crazy because of all of this but they were also afraid to act because it was too vast.

Petya Dubarova ©

Georgi Konstantinov, a senior editor of “Rodna rech” magazine decided to collect a book of best works by Petya. He asked her parents for help and more of her poems and make the book “Me and the Sea”. Firstly, the publishers from “Narodna mladej” decline the idea for the book with the argument that it would be encouragement for more suicides. Secondly, the idea is also declined by the publishers from “Bulgarian

editor” because the poetry was too young and was not a member of Union of Bulgarian Writers. Then the book was given to a publishers in Varna (another big seaside town) where they published the book finally. With “Me and the Sea” started Petya’s way to her readers. The death created aureole about her personality and work. Petya became very popular especially in students societies. In 1980 she was awarded post mortem with a prize “South Spring”. In 1984 started a national competition on a name of Petya. It became very popular for the young poets. Her texts have been composed as songs for popular singers in the 80s. Petya’s house on 68, Gladston Str., Burgas become a museum on 1995. At the end of 2010 in the Sea Garden of Burgas was open as a monument of the young poets..

Source: http://socbg.com/ and blazingbulgaria.wordpress.com Photos: http://socbg.com/

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BALKANANIZATER

by María Aguilar López

Armenia : A treasure hidden all over the world Armenia is a country located in the South Caucasus bordered with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran and with a population of around 3 million of people inside of the country and 8 million of Armenians all around the world. Armenia is one of the countries with a largest number of people in diaspora. Also around 130.000 Armenians are living in the disputed lands of Nagorno-Karabakh, where they constitute a majority.

Apart from this few and not very precise facts, I didn’t know anything about Armenia the day that I found myself on a plane taking off to Yerevan, the capital of the country. And the truth is that if someone would have told me one month before that I would be travelling to Armenia in this so spontaneous and unexpected way I would have never believed it. But, as it is usually said, unexpected plans tend to be the best plans we can do.

So without any kind of plans and prejudices I arrived to Yerevan in the night of the 1st of July expecting to live one of the best professional and personal experiences of my life. And I can swear that my expectations didn’t get unsatisfied.

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First impressions As I said, I arrived in Yerevan during the night, what was one of the best things I could do and something that I totally recommend to do every time is possible no matter the destination. Arriving during the night you have the privilege not only of admiring the landscape with its lights from the plane but you have the chance to get your first impression of the city the day after when you wake up and go out from the hostel or hotel.

I could say that the first thing that I saw and made me realize about the differences between Armenia and any other country that I had visited before was the rosaceous tone of the buildings built by those big stones so robust and with different tones that create the impression of being observing mosaics. But actually what impressed me the most even before landing in Armenia was the so famous concept called Armenian hospitality.

From the moment I entered in the plane I couldn’t feel more at home. During the journey I met an Armenian girl who was sitting next to me in the plane and who made all my nerves and insecurities of visiting a country for the first time fly away. I wouldn’t know how to explain the feeling of being in a country so different and far from yours and feeling so comfortable and so at home.

And I wouldn’t be able to explain how they manage to make you feel so good but I can just say that is something that I never experienced before in any other country even if I met very good people in every place I had the luck to visit.

Linked with this comfort and calm that Armenians transmit to you could be the fact of how quiet and asleep is Yerevan during the night. I had the opportunity to visit the most iconic place in the city the first night I spent there: Cascade. From this giant stairway I had the privilege of observing the whole city and feeling the strange silence of a country capital that looks totally asleep from twelve in the evening. A silence and a calmness that is totally contagious and pleasant.

Maria Aguilar Lopez © Republic Square in Yerevan 37

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Armenian culture As a nation so widespread throughout the world and with a so intense and recent history, Armenian culture is influenced for many other national traditions around the world. It has many similarities with some bordering countries such as Georgia and Iran and some other Mediterranean countries like Cyprus and Greece.

The first cultural event that I had the luck to live in Yerevan was the famous Armenian day of Vardavar. This is an Armenian tradition consistent in drench each other with water no matter where and no matter who. From the moment you are outside in the streets you aren’t safe from being wet.

I was asking to some of my Armenian friends about the origin of this day that takes place 14 weeks after Easter but the truth is that any of them knew the exact answer to this.

Some of them tend to think that is a tradition which represents a way to clean yourself from all the bad feelings and situations of the last year. Some others said that it was only a way to refresh you in the hot Armenian summer.

But this tradition actually comes from pagan times – although right now is linked with Christianism –, with the goddess Astghik, the goddess of water, beauty, love and fertility.

Regardless the origin of this tradition the only certainty is that this day is full of fun and everyone is playing and watering everyone no matter the age and no matter if they know you or not. And, although I was quite afraid because of my camera, I can affirm that it was amazingly funny.

As some other facts about Armenian culture, they feel also very proud of their tasty fruits, especially of Armenian apricot, national fruit; and pomegranate, national symbol too that represents fertility. As a lover of gastronomical tourism, I enjoyed like crazy tasting Armenian traditional food such as these fruits and some other salads and spicy meats; especially the day that we went to visit a carpet factory, another of the greatest pride of Armenians.

We had the opportunity during this visit to learn how difficult and long is getting a real good and nice handmade carpet as well as admiring and

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Armenian has its own distinctive alphabet with 39 letters although most of Armenians speak Russian and also English is becoming more popular.

Arara LLC ©

Arara LLC ©

touching carpets with more than two thousand years. After this short guided tour through the factory, we had also the chance to taste great Armenian food and wine in a big room surrounded by carpets on the walls and on the floor and in at atmosphere that I would have never imagined before. Having dinner and, after dinner, dancing and partying surrounded by carpets of more than 20.000 dollars is, at least, an original experience.

Touristic places in Yerevan As I mentioned before, on my first night in Yerevan I had the opportunity to visit the most iconic and touristic place in the city: The Cascades. This monument was mainly built to link the city center with the Monument neighborhood.

As we could count in this nightly tour, the monument has exactly 556 steps to raise the top. But, although the effort, I can assure that it worth. Besides the amazing view of the whole city and the beauty of the Cascades in every level full of fountains and sculptures, what impressed me the most was the calmness and silence of Yerevan that you could feel from this high place.

But if this first night in the Cascades was nice, my second visit to this place in the early morning was maybe the most pleasant experience in the city that I had. They say the time to do crazy stuff is youth so, I don’t really know why or whose idea was, but two days later we were climbing the Cascades at 5:30 in the morning just to see the sunrise. This experience was so magic and special that we were there looking at the horizon, while the Mount Ararat

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was becoming more and more lighted in front of our eyes, in an atmosphere of total silence for maybe more than half an hour, just understanding that this moment was unique and that we would never forget it. I would really recommend to everyone who visits the city to do this if it is possible.

During the days that I spent in Yerevan we had also some activities outside aimed to know the city and its most important places. Thanks to these activities I had the chance to see places like the Republic Square surrounded by many big and roseate buildings of the Ministries, the Government House and, in the middle, its big fountain with an amazing show of music and color every night. We could also visit the Cathedral of Yerevan, Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, of recent construction (year 2001) and with a very particular style and totally different from every cathedral or church that I have seen before. Some other stops like the Yerevan Opera or the Moscow Cinema are also mandatory if you are visiting the city.

Another great place to visit if you have the opportunity to reach this amazing country that, unfortunately, I couldn’t visit is the Temple of Garni. This small village is located not very far from Yerevan and, as some friends that stayed in Armenia for a couple of days more told me, the journey really worth. This Temple is a classical Hellenistic construction from the 1st century AD as a temple in honor to the goddess of the sun, Mihr.

Maria Aguilar Lopez ©

Maria Aguilar Lopez ©

Maria Aguilar Lopez ©

As I could see on my friend’s Facebook profiles and some other Armenian friends told me before, more than the beauty and the luck of admiring a temple of 20 centuries old, the magic of this place is in the surrounding landscape no matter the season of he year you visit it.

As you would have probably noticed, Armenia has totally caught my heart in a really short time and left a mark on my traveller soul that will hardly erase. Now I feel even more motivated to visit more non-European countries that for sure will have a big impact on me as this one had. But, not in vain, I left some important places and people to visit in Armenia. I’m sure we will see each other again…

Maria Aguilar Lopez ©

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THESS FEST OIL WRESTLING

by Ebru Sener

Wrestling... It’s certain that most of us know what is wrestling. Well than, what about oil wrestling? If you didn't hear before, it sounds silly, how can we put together oil and wrestling? Yes, yes of course we aren’t cooking, I am pretty sure. It is still some kind of sport.

I am not very good with words therefore I will take a help to make a definition from a frie we all know: Wikipedia describes “Oil wrestling (Turkish: Yagh güres), also called grease wrestling, is the Turkish national sport. It is so called because the wrestlers douse themselves with olive oil. The wrestlers, known as pehlivan wear a type of hand-stitched lederhosen called a kisbet, which is traditionally made of water buffalo hide, and most recently has been made of calfskin.”

Now, at least you have some ideas about oil wrestling.

The rest is up to your imagination.

History of oil wrestling held in centuries. The current shape held in Ottoman Empire. The Kirkpinar in Edirne (a city), Turkey is the annual world series of oil wrestling. It is most important and famous tournament held in since 1362. There is a very tragic story about the first match: Süleyman Pasha and 40 soldiers captured the places where now Greek/Turkish border.

They camped there and at night two brothers wrestled for fun. None of them won the match. Süleyman Pasha asked two brothers to continue competition during the annual Spring Festival. According to story they wrestled from morning to midnight. Still there is no winner and then they became exhausted and both of them died. Their friends buried them under a fig tree and left. When the soldiers visited the burial site years later, they noticed that several springs had sprung up on the site and named the place Kirkpinar (Forty Springs). In time, they started to organise oil wrestling tournaments and the sport became a tradition in Edirne. This city was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for 91 years.

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by Thao

o Nguyen ©

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by Ebru Sener ©

I am in Thessaloniki and still talking about Turkish national sport. Am I nationalist? Why I am doing this? “Sochos Oil Wrestling Festival on June 30” this title is the answer of these questions. Sochos is a village located in north of Thessaloniki and part of the municipality Lagkadas since 2010. It is 52 km from Thessaloniki. The church of St. George with its impressive bell tower makes you dip deep into the past. With amazing nature everyone is welcomed to this nice village. On the east side of the village there is the church of the 12 Apostles. Based on the myths (without anything proved) apostle Paul passed or escorts Apostles and for this reason it was built the chapel dedicated to the twelve apostles. On 28-29-30 of June is three-day festive celebration with the presence of Bishop. In this festival, many sports competitions are organized and culminating in the sport of wrestling.

by Ebru Sener ©

This oil wrestling festival is one of the biggest oil wrestling festival that Greece has done for more than 70 years. Participation was high in spite of it was not on weekend. People from all ages watched competitions in company with Zurna sounds. In the periphery of the field, dozens of street vendors gave vitality to the festival. Everything was very similar with Turkish oil wrestling festivals. There were also participants from Turkey.

As a logical it shouldn’t be surprised to see that Turkish and Greek people have a similar culture because we were under the same dome which is called Ottoman Empire for 600 years.

Information is not enough to understand something, knowledge and interpretation is very important to use information.

Sometimes we need a mirror to see and this Sochos Oil Wrestling Festival was a mirror to me look history, now and future. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sochos https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_wrestling

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SAIL FOR PINK

by Paula Lagunas García ©

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women around the world…

According to the World Health Organization (2015) every year 1.38 million of new cases are detected and almost 460.000 of deaths are caused by this cancer.These amounts are growing up year by year. In main of developed countries, cancer is the main cause of death, after the cardiovascular conditions.

Which are the causes of the breast cancer? There are several causes: ageing, family background, and lifestyle: alcohol, smoking, physical exercises...

Although is really difficult to prevent it, there are many ways to reduce the risk of suffering it; one of them is maintaining a healthy life, avoiding alcohol drinks and overweight. It is also recommendable to make a test to diagnose it.

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Bowties for a good reason...

Marianna Spiri studied architecture and now her old office is just her workshop... but what is her job nowadays? Marianna makes wonderful bow ties for all tastes. She started creating these amazing accessories as a hobby, for giving as presents to theirs, but in a year this became really successful.

More things about Marianna: she has participated in several fashion events.

She studied at University of Arts of London. There, she worked with different type of art, fashion. In 2001, she became interior designer but when crisis started, she had to leave it.

She loves fashion so she started eight years ago making jewellery as a hobby.

Creating handmade jewellery and bow ties is a hard work but she doesn t care about the time she has to spend on it, because she enjoys doing her job. It’s difficult to combine work (site, customers, etc.) with her personal life but she handles it well.

Regarding to her own artistic creations, she exhibited them on many events.

Sometimes, people think that they are stuff for wearing on the hair, but actually they are bow ties! You can use them as you want; they are totally flexible and for everyone... even for pets!

She has experimented with many materials (liquid glass, paper, etc.), sometimes she doesn’t like her creations but she tries to make bow ties of all types.

When an idea comes, she put into practice. All her bow ties are on her catalogue, so you can choose the model that suits better on you!

But why she really decided to start with these original creations? Which is her main source of inspiration? A very close person of her, her mother, has suffered cancer, so she started to think that it was a great idea making things in order to donate them and earn money to support this cause... And that’s what she did actually on the event of Sail for Pink celebrated on the last 15th of May in Thessaloniki.

by Paula Lagunas García ©

Interviewing Alma Zois...

Sail for pink... what is this? It was a great event that took place next to Alexander the Great, in Thessaloniki. The main purpose to run this campaign was to be all together and more aware for a cause: breast cancer. Alma Zois was the organization who created it. Do you want to know more about them? Continue reading...

Please tell us more about Alma Zois. Who are you?

by Paula Lagunas García ©

We are a non-profit organization which provides psycho-social support to women who are confronting breast cancer. The association was established in 2008 in Thessaloniki by a group of women who were affected by breast cancer. Also the Pan-Hellenic Association of Women with breast cancer has supported and contributed to this initiative. We actively support women with breast cancer and their families on a daily basis.

Their essential goals are the organized mutual aid, ‘based on the international Reach to Recovery Program by Susan Komen which actually women who have undergone breast cancer offer support to who are fighting with cancer now’; the psychosocial support and rehabilitation of women who suffer of breast cancer and their family members. Other goals of this organization are to ‘demystify cancer and to inform people about the prevention and early diagnosis of the disease’. They organize workshops and events to get these goals.

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by Paula Lagunas García ©

Please, present us how came the idea about the campaign Sail for Pink. What is it and what is the main goal of it? What is your message?

The idea came up five years ago from some members of the Board of directors. More specifically we talked about having an event in order to launch our goals and messages and we were inspired by the sea of our beautiful Thessaloniki. We thought that sailing was the best way because it combines sea activity. Activity plays a key role in the prevention of breast cancer. Moreover we wanted our message to be heard by younger ages and we thought that Sailing was the best way.

Sail for Pink is an effort to make the public more aware and informed about breast cancer. Moreover, the Sailing races con-currently with a walk to Thessalonikiσs Port are symbolic. With these two activities we have the chance to inform people about the prevention of breast cancer and the positive effects of early diagnosis.

As we know early diagnosis can save lives nowadays.

Apart from that we want the people to see us, to meet us in order to avoid discrimination and all wrong perspectives about cancer. In Greece, in the past, cancer was deeply connected with death.

Their message is: ‘BREAST CANCER CAN BE BEATEN with an early diagnosis’. They mostly focus on young people because they want them to adopt prevention behaviours.

For how many years do you make the event like this? What was the difference this year?

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by Paula Lagunas García ©

We have been organizing the Sail for Pink campaign for the past 4 years and since then we have organized several programs.

This year, the people is response was more than we expected.

Almost 5,500 people actively supported the event, especially young people’.

CULTURE What people should know about Breast Cancer? How they can prevent it?

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women after skin cancer, and is the second most common cause of death from malignancy after lung cancer. Breast cancer also occurs in men, but is however uncommon. Most women find that the disease does not affect them although the statistics shot that one in eight women will present breast cancer during her lifetime and over 70% of all women with breast cancer have no family history. However, the diagnostic and treatment methods have developed sufficiently to allow the early detection of the disease at an early stage, and to be treated successfully.

There is no sufficient way to prevent breast cancer, but Health habits such as Body weight, physical activity, and diet have all been linked to breast cancer, so these might be areas where you can take action. Although according to the scientific community there is only one safe way to prevention, the timely diagnosis with self-examination, clinical examination and mammography’.

‘Our sail for Pink is of vital importance because we have the opportunity spread our goals and messages through our land and sea activities’.

What are the next activities of Alma Zois?

‘At the moment we are having a Free Screening Program. This program consists of clinical testing for young women, from the ages of 2039, together with offering free diagnostic tests with the aim of prevention and timely diagnosis of breast cancer. This program is run by special surgeons and if it’s deemed necessary, women can have further free tests done. The Program’s main goal is: to awaken women of this age group to the fact that breast cancer concerns a wide range of age groups’.

by Paula Lagunas García ©

Wish something of the young audience of USB Blog and Magazine

‘I would like to advice and encourage the young audience to do the necessary prevention tests and to take care of themselves’.

Special thank you to Marianna Spiri and the team of Alma Zois: Froso Dira, the Vicepresident, Dimitris Gatzounis, secretary, Magda Geromichali, social worker, Andromaxi Athinaiou, general secretary of the Executive Board and Nectaria Maxi, member of the Executive Board. Also to my colleague Iva Veneva who collaborated with me on the interview to Alma Zois.

They also organize during October two- or three-daily events that provide free testing to women of all groups of ages, prioritizing uninsured women. For more information you can visit their website: http://www.almazoisthes. gr/

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TRAN FESTIVAL

by Iva Veneva

Dance Festival “There Is Not Better Than Tran”: An Open-Air Fairy of Happiness

TRAN_ 1 ©

Sun. Sea. Summer. If you are not a fan of a high temperatures and you like trips around not popular destinations maybe now it is time to think about happy escape on some of the open air festivals in this time of the year.

Today I will tell you more about one traditional, interesting and not very popular festival for your weekend in the beginning of June. There you can spend a nice time getting to know a new folklore and celebrating with music with the view of amazing Balkan nature.

Tran is a small town in Pernik Province, western Bulgaria. It is 100 kilometres away from the capital Sofia and 15 km from the border of Serbia. The name of the town in Bulgarian means “thorn” and the wild and innocent beauty of the mountain nature supports these meaning as an analog of the wild and beauty plant. The town is associated with 3 things: 1. Very typical Transitional dialect, reminding to Serbian which is hardly understandable even for native speakers of Bulgarian; 2. The lowest temperature record of -38.3 C degrees in Bulgaria registered in the winter of 1947; and 3. Remarkable folklore with strong traditions in dancing and singing.

A proof for the last is the traditional Folklore Dance Festival “There Is Not Better Than Tran” in the town which takes place in the first weekend of June every year. The festival is strongly supported by the Municipality and locals because it is an occasion to be popularised the landmarks and traditions of the region. Organisers of the Festival are Municipality, local community centre and the clubs for folklore dances “Bodyfolk”.

The Festival Park in the centre of Tran is a “trade mark” of the occasion. As a part of the festival program in the beginning it is given life of one tree by each new group-participant. This act

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TRAN_ 2 ©

TRAN_ 3 ©

TRAN_ 4 ©

CULTURE symbolises a new beginning and it is a wish the tradition to be strong in time and to be multiplied as a roots of the trees in the Park. It is followed by a parade of all participants leaded by a traditional for the region Sourvakars.

They are masked characters with costumes made by leathers and big and noisy bells who cast out evil spirits of the town.

The Fest schedule every year surprises the participants and the audience of the Festival with a new activities connected with traditional dancing. This year light motive was popularising of the landmarks of the region. For this purpose they were organised games with dance and singing tasks at two of the most remarkable for the region places. The first place was the Ethnographic Museum of the Ceramics in Busincy Village. It is funded in 1978 by Peter Gigov - the most popular craftsman, specialist in Busincy’s ceramics. The second place was The Stone Church of St.Petka. It is popular with legend of St Petka.

It is said that St Petka was raised in rich family but when she become 18 years old she donated all his properties and start to travel.

After awhile on 40 years old against her started persecutions and she is made to live in the Asian desert just praying. She came on the Bulgarian lands and started to search for a shelter.

When she reach Tran, on these days it was not populated, and she chose to leave in a cave because it was on a high and secluded place. One day she heard the army to come for her and she decided to hide herself in a hole of the rock in the cave. When the army came they found a print of her hand and foot in the rock. Nowadays these prints can be seen in the Cave Church and it is believed that if you wish something touching one of the prints, it will become true.

sary as a singers group. Quartet “Slavei” was established in 1991 in Sofia by the world famous folk singer Nadka Karadjova, called by the audience “The nightingale of Bulgaria”.

The members of the quartet are Svetla Karadjova- daughter of Nadka Karadjova and conductor of the formation, Kristina Karamfilova, Lilyana Galevska and Vania Vakari professionals with rich artistic biography. The quartet “Slavey” has realised more than 3000 concerts within its 25-years history on the stages of theatres, cathedrals and open air concerts, in all the European countries. It has participated in projects with famous Bulgarian and foreign pop singers; it has performed the soundtrack of Hollywood productions.

If this article and the idea for the summer in the mountain with dances, happy mood and new territories, sounds attractive for you, pin the first weekend of June 2017 and come to Tran to feel the spirit of folklore traditions in the region.

TRAN_ 5 ©

TRAN_ 6 ©

The competitive program of the Festival comes just after these thematic games on the sacral places of the region. The participants are amateurs’ groups of folklore dancers from all around the country and all folklore regions. They have to dance on a traditional music and after they were evaluated by the scale from 1 to 6 and a professional jury. More than 20 groups and 750 people are from the participants this year. The prizes are given for the best presented group. This year the prizes were 800, 600 and 400 Levs (the BG currency) for the first 3 teams.

The program is divided by pauses with popular guests. This year guests were from Quartet “Slavei” because of their 25 years Anniver-

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MUSIC CORNER SINGER HO QUYNH HUONG

by Thao Nguyen.

“I have been singing for 20 years since I graduated, but have no other title than “Singer Ho Quynh Huong”, at the most the awards I have gained. I cannot define the title of Diva for female singer. What I know is that as an artist, I want to contribute my best and gain a place in my audience’s hearts. It’s not important how they would address me.”

That is how Ho Quynh Huong (born 16 October 1980) responded to the question from a journalist about being a Diva, which again confirms her strong passion for art and positive viewpoint about singing career.

Possessing a beautiful soprano voice whose vocal range spans three octaves, Ho Quynh Huong is regarded one of the top female singers in Vietnam. Throughout 20 years of working with disregarding effort, she has marked her status with profuse hits of diverse music genres such as pop, pop ballad, jazz, dance and rock.

Some typical music products of hers are Anh (You), Buc thu tinh thu hai (The second love letter), Honey, Uoc mo trong doi (Dreams in life), Toi tim thay toi (I found me). Notably, she has performed very successfully the song Vu dieu hoang da - the Vietnamese version of Wild Dances sung by Ruslana – the Ukrainian singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 held in Turkey.

Being called “A Girl of Awards”, she is the owner of an impressive collection of both domestic and regional awards since her teenage years. She has been the 3-time winner of the Yellow Apricot Award’s Most Favourite Pop Artist and 5-time winner of the Blue Waves Award’s Most Favourite Singer, both of them are renowned Vietnamese awards. In 2013, she won the “Best Asian Artist of the Year” at the MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards), which has gained recognition as the equivalent of the South East Asia to the US Grammy Awards since its establishment in 1999. Also in this year, she was recognized by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) as the Asia’s Sexiest Vegetarian Woman.

With innate sensual voice and skilled singing techniques, Ho Quynh Huong is one of few singers graduating with distinction from Military University of Culture and Arts. Since 2016, she has been invited to become a professor in this university, being responsible for training of high-quality student intake. Moreover, Ho Quynh Huong has been very active and successful as a participant or judge of many reality shows, namely Dancing with the Stars (Season 1), Perfect Couple (Season 1), X-Factor (Season 1 and 2).

Maintaining her status in the audience’s hearts as a professional and passionate singer, but her life is getting more enjoyable and peaceful as well, especially after the decision to be a vegetarian since 2009. According to Huong, this choice mainly for the benefits of health, soul and life balance, and she feels totally satisfied with it so far. “Before, I was famous but had no idea what I really needed inside.

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http://nguoinoitieng.vn/tieu-su/tieu-su-ca-siho-quynh-huong-52969 ©

My heart used to be arid and empty. It always worked and was in tension. Many nights I could not sleep, lying and felt totally exhausted. I thought: what if tomorrow I could not open my eyes anymore? What I could bring with me was just a heart of heaviness? Anything else left? Fortunately, I now realize and know how to love myself and my life more” she shared openly.

Amid many other young singers and artists with flourishing music events and products in Vietnam nowadays, Ho Quynh Huong is adopting a relatively different and calmer path of development with real talent and passion for music. With her undeniable essential role in Vietnamese music world, greater contribution are awaited not only from her music and younger talents that she is coaching but also from the simple yet meaningful life she is living.

References: http://www.godsdirectcontact.org.tw/eng/news/211/sr_68.htm http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/giai-tri/297617/ho-quynh-huong-thua-nhan-qua-khu-sai-lam.html http://tuoitrenews.vn/lifestyle/10895/quynh-huong-named-asias-sexiest-female-vegetarian

http://starpress.vn/ho-quynh-huong-phien-ban-giay-dep-ngo-ngang/ Š 49

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JOURNEY WITH FAKEAR

by Bojan Livaja

Last two decades music is changing. Now, all previous categories of music have more subcategories New waves of music keep coming so often, and it makes a bit difficult to find what you search. New commercial music, with not so good lyrics, making real artists to give more and to push themselves to the limits. In the world of internet, multimedia, where old fashion things like vinyl, Cassettes, CD-s are not important anymore, is making a really hard time for artists to expose themselves!

In 2016 there are many kind of music options to choose, but in the sea of commercial music there is always some good, unique and powerful music.

FAKEAR This amazing musician in just a few years have been showing us that everything is possible, if will for success is strong enough, and of course with huge amount of love! Fakear or in English ''Fake Ears'' is a French musician whose real name is Théo Le Vigoreux, 24 years old producer with limitless energy! In just one year with his debut album “Animal” he already touched the sky and showed his enormous energy to the world!

As usual, story of his career started much further back, when he tried to make his pass to the stars!! Parents of young Theo were both musicians, and they gave him genes for music, and they made his way when they raised him on songs by Ismael Lo and Cheb Mami. Later he started to listen Daft Punk from whom he had obtained an electrical guitar. Story of this young and really talented musician just started.

On his first album “Animal”, song named “La Lune Rousse” gained millions listeners all around Youtube, Spotify or Soundcloud. This song helped him to reach international level.

La Lune Rousse song is just beginning of one amazing journey on album “Animal” by Fakear. On this album are also genial songs like Morning in Japan, Neptune, Damas or SheerKhaan.

Music of Fakear is full of emotions, but in same time enhanced with raw instinct. Those raw instincts he gathered 2015 when he spent few months in mountains in Japan. This situation made his feelings for music more deeply. Fakear: “This country gave me a finer desire for music and a greater attention to detail.” Fakear’s music is lively, incarnated and instinctive.

The result is an album as suited to the dance floor as it to listening under the stars, or in the moonlight of the Lune Rousse.

Definitively Animal!

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Sensational and Unified: Kinisi Festival of Sound

by Burhan Köse

Where experimentation and authenticity meets in a musically enchanted way, there is Kinisi Festival of Sounds. Taking place in Santorini, during an off-season period, the breathtaking and peculiar atmosphere of the island will be perpetuated by a serie of musical events that correspond to its environment. Founders of Kinisi Festival of Sound, ethnomusicologists and artists Alyssa Moxley and Ramona Stout, explore and offer a stage for “musicians of folk,” rather than “folk musicians,” throughout the Balkans.

Unifying highly skilled –yet not necessarily popularmusicians, Kinisi Festival of Sound stands a ground for a true statement in a pursuit of sound. With concerts and jam sessions that are to be combined with workshop and daily events, Kinisi Festival of Sound is a musical trip throughout the peculiar island of Santorini. As daytime events will take place in different locations in the island, the core of events will take place in Venetsanos Winery, with a view to the main port Athinos, and the crater of the infamous volcano.

This year’s theme in Kinisi Festival of Sound is be “Porous,” post-volcanic structures on which cave-dwellings are carved, one of the very essential matters that assign the island’s identity, as music will enhance itself with a consciousness and awareness of the credentials of its setting. Festival is to be opened by Katerina Tzedaki (GR), a soundscape artist that will conduct a sound-walk in the village of Pyrgos, and workshops and evening concerts will take place with artists such as Kaynak Pipers Band (BG), Dzambo Agushevi Orchestra (FYM), Elena Gjika (ALB) and so on.

For further information regarding line-up, events and tickets, visit festival’s website: www.kinisifestival.com

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SVET: From 11 cents in the pocket to “America’s Got Talent”

by Iva Veneva

Today, I will present you Svetlin Radoslavof - SVET - one big Balkans’ talent, who travelled the long way from emigrant from the Balkans with 11 cents in a pocket to the Semi-Finalist of America’s Got Talent in 2011 in order to make his American dream to become truth and to see his family proud of him.

SVET was born on September 3rd 1986 on the Balkans in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the age of only three, he displayed his unique talent on the violin. On the age of 11 he moved from Bulgaria to the United States with his mother who became a Spanish teacher and his younger brother, who is travelling and helping him in his show programs.

Through dedication, determination and discipline, his early compositions on piano and violin won him a scholarship to the legendary Eastman School of Music. As a violinist, singer and music producer, SVET is now one of the few if not the only one in the industry with such horizon. At the age of 26, SVET has appeared on major networks such as ABC, BET, MTV, and recently SVET was featured on NBC's premier TV show America's Got Talent. SVET is currently working on his debut album as well as touring College Campuses all around the USA. His style can be define as electro hip-hop with violine. ​"I love the fact that I can elevate music to the next level. It gives me inspiration watching people enjoying and dancing to my music", he says. I met SVET on his tour in Sofia and ask him to tell us more about his way, his dreams and from where the inspiration is comming.

I hope you will ejoy following interview.

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Please tell to the audience of Balkan Beats who is SVET? My name is SVET, born and raised in Bulgaria, Sofia. On the age of 11 I moved with my brother and my mom to the United States, New York. I lived most of my life in NY. I was raised as a violinist in the “School of Lyubomir Pipkov” in Sofia till 4th or 5th grade and after I finished we moved to the States and I started to be familiar with different types of music and different styles.

Hip-hop was one of my favourite styles which showed me and helped me how to speak English. I remember how I stayed at the back of the classroom in school, writing rymes all day long and that was my favourite thing - just writing rymes and poetry and just putting them into a music. And one day I decided why I just not try hip-hop and violine together. It is just synergy.

It is very unique.

Yes, you use the violine very unstandart and you say that you are electro hip-hop violinist. But why you choose exactly hip-hopas a style to be combined with the violine?

It was super unique style. Hiphop, back in the days was very much recognized as a one of the leading styles of the music - not so much right now in the United States. I think in Bulgaria is very

well known. But generally hiphop is very unique music because you besically talks about struggles. It besically talks about growing up with a lot of struggles, with a lot of obstacles on your way and you coming up.

That’s why a lot of the artists in hip-hop come from nothing... just like us. When I first started to write a hip-hop music I really enjoyed it because it developed my English skills very well and eventualy I started to produce music on the age of 15-16 in highschool and we started to produce music toghether with the hip-hop rymes that I wrote I was just my own manager.

I didn’t need any producers, I didn’t need anybody else. And one day in school… actually I was 16 years old, 10th grade in high school and one day when I was playing in orchestra in hischool and that’s why people knew about me. I was rapper who used to wear two ridges, those things that tiring your head like bandana and that was my style but I also played in orchestra as first violin in orchestra which was like the best in the world and people did really recognized that. We had a talent show in my school in one point.

I come out to play on the violine and I wanted to surprise people, I had this idea. I really wanted to surprise people with thing they were not expecting to see. So, when I come out on the stage

I started to play the violine on a classical movimiento about 30 seconds and I stopped and started to go out from the stage.

And than everybody started to say things like: “Oh, come back, come back. You were good.

Come back!” and I wanted to surprise people of course so I came back and I started to beat just rap, the hip-hop rap that I produced. And I started to sing really fast as a rapper and on the same time I started to play violine very fast on this beat. And than everybody was just eyes wide open, stand up, started to clap. That was my moment of truth because on that moment I realized that I just love to be on stage doing that things that I just did and I wanted to experience just this. It’s like … A lot of people do drugs to experience their high. Same thing on a stage I want to experience that high.

That was my drug.

I understood that on your last show you combined Bulgarian folklore with your style. Did the audience like this?

It was absolutely unique. Unique to me because I have never tried it before. Song that really tough my heart was “Oblache le byalo” (“White Cloud” - typical and very nostalgic for emigrants Bulgarian song). I remember that song as a kid. I mean I didn’t hear it from a lot of time but when I was in Chicago a few weeks

https://openbookingsblog.com/2013/02/24/nbcs-americas-got-talent-svet-the-violinist/ ©

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ago, Yasen Darakov - one of my friends who works in Nova TV (one of the most popular national TVs in Bulgaria), told me: “Hey, why don’t you try this song?”, I was like: “Ok, but first show me the song.” and when I heard it and I remembered this song from when I was a kid, wow… and he add: “You should try this in Bulgaria!”. And I said that I would love to do it. I played it on 26th of May in Sofia Live Club (a central Sofia club) with a good friend of mine Vessy Boneva and Svetlin Kusev. They are very talanted kids. She is very talanted singer. Svetlin is a great pianist. We made it as a trio. I was playing over lyrics with my violin and it was such a unique experiance - the audiance was crying - and I was wow...I love to experiment with Bulgarian music because it is in my heart.

I love to sample Bulgarian gaidi (traditional folklore instrument for Bulgaria). It is like our sound - Bulgaria and 100 gaidi. I love to mix it with hip-hop and I do it. It sounds very well.

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So, ou will continue to popularize Bulgarian folklore and music ...?

Yes, because the people needed to hear it more often. What you hear around the world now and what is commercial … there is not so much style behind it anymore. Eighteen years ago when I started with hip-hop there was a lot of style behind the hip-hop.

We had battles at school, battles between us - kids, hip-hop battles. I was the only one white kid.

And most of the times I was on first or second place. That was my passion. I loved to do it. They thought that I am just a white boy who cannot compete with them but I showed that the white men can jump actually. And this just became very unique and I really become to love that and I think that it is because of the Bulgarian in me. I just love to bring that sound especially in my production, singing on the sound of violine is different. We love the violine in this country.

And I feel that that’s why everyone here gives me so much respect and love. That’s incredible!

I know that you are your own producer of yourself. Is it hard and is it a challenge for you as a performer?

Absolutely, this is very challanging. A lot of people produce … I studied a lot about producers. I studied Timberland, Farrel, Dr. Dre - a lot of different producers who are big and they were started with being DJs. A lot of people who produce in the USA they don’t take their time. They make a beat 5 minutes, put a sounds on it, sample chappel and that’s it. But me ...I really like to take my time. I really take my time because I sit in the studio for 1015 hours at a time and no eating, no even water. Basically I loose track of time. I sit untill I make

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something that my ears are happy, I don’t stop. First I make the beat and put the violine to it, the melody. And finally I write the lyrics to the song.

So, we could say that you produce yourself as an artist - you do not go out from the studio before the work to be finalized, right?

Yes, exactly. It’s gotta be perfect for my ears because the way I started is … I didn’t like what is on the radio. I didn’t like to listen to it. And when I started to produce I started to produce what I liked, what I wonna hear.

I wanted to hear what I like to hear. Because beats to me, production, a music … are emotion, brings different emotion.

The song you hear on the radio or anywhere brings different emotion and that to me is very important. I would like to bring different emotion to myself. Just it helps me to live. When I felt down, when I breaked with a girl in the high school, I produced something and that made me to feel better.

That motivates me to ask you did you write music for a girl?

Oh, who hasn’t… I mean, if you didn’t write something for love you were not living. Love is an incredible feeling and everybody should experience it. Yes, in the high school I wrote songs for girls trying to impress them of course.

And did you?

Eh, I hope so. It was good. I just basically liked to put a lot of methaphors in my in bars and rymes.

If you should put Bulgaria in your methaphors and to make a music for Bulgaria, how would you name it?

“Bulgarian horo” (the horo is a Bulgarian national folklore dance with people who are dancing hand in hand). This is a very special word because it brings people together. We are very close culture. We are family origines people. In this dance everybody is holding hands together, dancing around in a circle. It is not just for having fun but to show that we are together. As we know: “The Unity Makes the Power.”(this is a Bulgarian national moto and is written on the Bulgarian Parliament). This has a very special meaning to me.

In a music too - in the Bulgarian music. I actually produced hit called Bulgarian Horo.

I would like to go a step back a little bit with you. You are starting from the Balkans.

Was that important for the way how people treat you in the United States. Does it helps you or no? Did you feel different there?

It actually was very motivating because all my family was here in Bulgaria. We didn’t have family in the States. We were me, my brother and my mom. So, it was very hard. When we moved in the States we didn’t have where to stay. We lived in a shelter for few months very poor. Basically, my mom wants to write a book one day, called “11 cents” because that’s with what we came in America - with 11 cents in a pocket. I remember, it was austerity… just austerity… I knew that all my family is at home and I wanted to make my family proud. So, I just really worked hard to do that. Basically, I do a lot of things for my family. I have been asked to be in one VIP real-

lity show in Bulgaria but I declined it because my family didn’t agree and I didn’t want to expose my family name. For me 40 000 - 50 000 Dollars in my pocket are not bad but to me my family is more important than this. I discussed it with my family and we decided that it was not a good idea. I decided that I will take my opportunity somewhere else and it will not stay my family name. For me that is very important.

So, in this case, would you say that your family is what motivates you? I know that you work with your brother and he is everywhere with you. Does it helps you?

Of course. My brother is like a half of me and when I do show we do it together. I mean, he is my DJ, my photographer. So, we are basically a team. When I perform he does the media by me, all the videos that you can see online. He does and edits and produces them. We are successfull together because there is nothing better than to have a family business and to run it together. Of course we argue all the time like all brothers do. You know, it keeps you motivated. It keeps your level headed. We are not listening people, saying: “Oh, you are so great.” and we are do not take it as: “Ok, I should keep my nose up.”. No, we just take it as a motivation a tour to keep going and just to be more level headed people and just to respect everyone…

Is there sth that you would like to say but you have not been asked till now?

May be “What can you do with the violine?”. They don’t really ask me “What else you can develop in your show?”. I am working on a lot of different things right now. I wold like to show that the violine by itself doesn’t have to be just a… Everyone is playing on a violine and do

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nothing else. What I am tryningto do next is to play on violine and make a beatbox on the same time which is very taugh to be done. I want to sing and play violine on the same time. I do sing but just I want to do that and play on violine on the same time because I have never seen somebody with a violine to do that before. And for example, I am a break dancer. I grown up as a break dancer in the States.

That’s why I combine dancing a lot with a violine which people really love. But people don’t ask me: “What else can you do?”.

And yesterday I had the opportunity to be on “Bulgaria’s Got Talant” and show case which is like a spontanious moment in the back stage when producers asked me: “Do you wanna to do sth else with a violine?”. They showed me in the back stage beatbox and they told me: “It is very unique! You should do this on the stage.” So, I was like “Why not, I have never done it on stage.” So, we did it life on the stage on the National Television and million people saw it and it was very unique, very unique.

That’s one of the things that I like to do.

So, for you there are not limits? You could do everything with the violine?

Music is music. I mean that that’s why I combine violine with the hip-hop - music doesn’t have any… sky is a limit they say. And people feel it so unique but for me it is just comes natural. It is just music, it is sound of music and combined with a melody it just makes sense.

What do you dream for?

I wanna circle the globe. I want to be on different stages. I want to be in very different countries.

There is a lot to be seen in the

world. I don’t feel like I should be defined in the States. I don’t want to be a prisoner in my own mind. I like to expand my mind with different people, different cultures. Till now we had the opportunity to go to Dubai, to Quatar… I just want to see the Middle East a little bit more and to meet different cultures and people. It teaches you how to communicate better. It teaches you how to be a better person, how to look at the world differently. I feel that is why I wanna travel. I wanna travel and to learn more about the world. We all have a limited time on this planet and I want to use it up.

I am sure that there are a lot of youngsters from the Balkans who also like you want to travel and to succeed. What would be your advice to them?

Never give up. Never give up because you never know when the star is gonna shine. For me givving up is like … to be desperate. It stops you of developing you. I feel like those very, very hard time when you feel like you are sitting on the bottom of the lake. Swimming is the only way up and you have to swim and see the light of the day. I feel that many different artists give up and you know life happens family starts, people have kids.

But for me you do not have to stop developing your proffecionalism because possitive things happen whan you think positive.

The moment when you change your way of thinking the possitive things just start to come on your way. I will give you an example. The moment when I feel down and I am a kind of to stop I just start to do sth else. My music stopped to develop and I started to make more music on my fb for example - to produce more and I started to post more videos on my fb page and

I immediately started to receive messages that there are opportunities for me and that people want to contact me. This is it.

It happens many times. The moment when I start making music all the opportunities just come on my way. I have one song String Theory. It happens just like this. The things happend in the moment when you start changing your way of thinking. If one change happens here, the other is happening in the other site of the world - just like a phisics. Positive thinking makes possitive things happen.

Do you want to add something more?

There are a lot of talanted people on the Balkans. We comes from nothing. We comes from zero and that should be the motivating point to go higher and do not stop developing. There are very talanted Bulkan people and teachers abroad and many of them have started to think how to come back here and that is how it should be.

I am saying “Good bye!” to SVET wishing him a good luck in his remarkable way. I hope I showed you that with talent but also a hard work, ambition, courage and patience everybody can “buy” his special moment of happiness in a desired field.

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BALKAN BUFFET

by Iva Veneva

FANTASTIC VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS

CAUTION!!! Dangerous for your European Food Diet! You can be addicted to this Asian recipe and to be able to prepare it every day in a row in 1 month (or more).

Dear reader, Before I tell you what Vietnamese spring rolls are and how amazing the taste is, you should know that they are absolutely healthy, light and different‌ I am in love with them even though I am a typical Balkan girl with a typical Balkan taste. So, my advice is try and enjoy them!

Ingredients for 15 rolls:

Dipping sauce:

300 g pork belly

1 tbsp oil

200 g shrimps

1 tbsp garlic

200 g rice vermicelli

5 tbsp Hoisin souse

Lettuce, mint leaves, cilantro, Chives, cucumber

5 tbsp broth

Rice paper 15 pcs

1 tbsp peanut butter 1 tbsp sugar

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Way to be made: Firstly, boil a pork belly with 1 tbsp of salt. When it is boiled turn the heat to medium-low and cold for 25-35 minutes, depending on how thick you cut the pork. You can taste if it is cooked by piercing through the meat using chopsticks.

If they can already coming out the meat is ready.

You should soak the meat in cold water to keep it from blackening and to make the broth ready to use. After that, cut the pork into thin slices.

Fry just the shrimps without any oil on medium heat for 1-2 minutes until they turned orange. Then peel and clean the shrimps and cut them into two halves vertically and if needed remove the black lines from them.

Now we put a saucepan of water to boil and cook the rice vermicelli 3-5 minutes following the package instructions.

Drain and wash them again with cold water to stop the vermicelli from cooking further. Lastly you should cut the cucumber into vertical slices of the halves and wash the green vegetables very well a few times.

Before starting to assemble the rolls, prepare a pan with warm water to soften our rice paper. Put the rice paper into the water evenly, giving a little shake to get rid of the excess water and lay the wet paper on the flat surface (plate/ cutting board). After, set the green vegetables across the center leaving 3 inches from each side. Affix 2 cucumber slices, 2 slices of pork and 2 shrimp halves at the end. Remember to keep the orange part of the shrimps facing down. Now you should roll one to two rounds first and than to close the two sides of the paper, that you left 3 inches space from. Continue to roll gently but tight.

Preparing the dipping sauce: Put 1 tbsp of garlic in a frying pan with 1 tbsp of oil until the garlic become brown. Than add 5 tbsp of Hoisin sauce and 5 tbsp of broth from boiling the pork. Mix all the ingredients. Add 1 tbsp of peanut butter and finally 1 tbsp of sugar. Stir all and leave the sauce to boil 1-2 minutes until it is thickened. Transfer it to a small cup and add on the top cut fresh chili pepper and crushed peanuts. You are ready to serve it.

The spring rolls should be served and ate together with the sauce. Chuc ngon mieng (“Have a good meal” in Vietnamese)!

This is the wonderful receipt about Traditional Vietnamese Spring Rolls which could be find in this video.

And here you could find some tips from a real Vietnamese girl - Thao Nguyen :  Pork and shrimps could be replaced with fried eggs and mushrooms to make vegan spring rolls.  Dipping sauce: Sometimes the sauce could be made in a different way. You could use the soy sauce, then you could add peanuts and some pickles (I put sliced carrots and onions into vinegar for 1-2 hours --> drain the vinegar --> taadaa! homemade pickles are ready).  With the spring rolls, you can be as creative and flexible as you want. Add whatever vegetables/ things you prefer!  Soya sauce: basically, there are 2 types of soya sauce: One is very watery, the other is thicker. For the spring rolls, you need the thicker sauce.

Video: Youtube Channel of Helen from: http://danangcuisine.com/ Photo: http://adelinesays.blogspot.gr/2012/11/yummy-viet.html Consultant: Thao Nguyen

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SUMMER RECIPES

by Paula Lagunas García

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Tortilla de patata

For summer nights...

Ingredients: 3 potatoes

1 small piece of conger

5 eggs

Saffron

1 small onion Oil Salt

Directions: Peel the potatoes and cut them in small slices. Put oil in a pan and wait until it´s hot. Then, add the potatoes and fried them. Once they are fried, put them on a plate with kitchen roll and keep them for a few minutes.

Beat the eggs and then mix the potatoes with them. Add small pieces of the onion and mix everything again.

Take another pan with a spoon of oil heat on and put into the mixture of potatoes, eggs and onions. Allow the mixture to cook and check when it turns brown: it´s time to turn into to cook the other side. Place a dish over the pan and with one hand holding the pan and the other on the top of the dish turn into the pan so that the omelette stays on the dish.

Let the omelette cook for few minutes, and repeat this if it’s necessary until the omelette it’s completely cooked. Let stand for few minutes...and you can eat!

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Gazpacho photo: Foodwishes.com

This summer, cook without overheating...

Ingredients (4 people) 4 tomatoes

Some bread slices (from the previous day)

1 small onion

Oil

1 green pepper

Vinegar

1 cucumber

Salt

1 clove of garlic Directions:

Clean the tomatoes cut them and put them into the blender. Take the cucumber, peel it and cut it in small pieces and add it to the blender too. Remove the stalk and seeds from the pepper, cut it and put it into the blender. Add the small onion in small pieces and the glove or garlic. Finally, add two or three spoons of oil, vinegar, salt and the bread.

Blend until everything is mixed... and let it cool!

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Paella photo: http://cooking.sigmalive.com/

The perfect lunch next to the seaside...

Ingredients (4 people) 300 gr. Rice 100 gr. Prawns 100 gr. Clams 300 gr. Mussels 4 chicken wings Directions: Put the clams and mussels separately in salted water. After a few minutes, put them to cook with a little water until they open.

Cook the shrimp heads with the piece of conger until you have a stock.

In a saucepan fry gently the onion and chicken wings, then add the rice: for each cup of rice, put two of the fish stock obtained. Add the salt and the saffron. When the rice is almost ready add the prawns and mussels.

After 20 minutes, you have your paella ready, let it stand ... and eat!

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TRAVEL

TRAVEL

LY SON ISLAND -VIETNAM

by Thao Nguyen

TOP SIGHTS

1

.Hang Temple (Cave Temple) Lying in one of the biggest caves in Ly Son, Hang Temple is famous not only as religious destination but also for its construction since 16th century, basing on natural terrain. In a natural cave of 480m2, surrounded by lava-coloured walls, visitors will be overwhelmed by the spiritual atmosphere with lots of altars for Buddha, gods and credited ancestors.In the temple courtyard, where there are a huge Buddha Statue and lotus pond, visitors can sit comfortably in the shade and enjoy peaceful moments in front of the endless sea.

TO V GATE Š

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.To Vo Gate This rock gate has been a favourite destination of young people and photographers due to its natural shape as an archway surrounded by rocks of different shapes and sizes. Climbing to its top to enjoy the spectacular view of the sunset by the sea is what you should not miss.

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.Mu Cu Islet The islet is located about 3km to the east from Ly Son district centre and is renowned for its particular surface of big black stones. Being basically unoccupied by residents, Mu Cu Islet offers visitors a tranquil and relaxing atmosphere. It is also considered to be the best site for watching sunrise in Ly Son District.

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.Thoi Loi Mountain Climbing up to this extinguished volcano, visitors will reach the highest peak of Ly Son Island (150m) from which they can enjoy the breathtaking panoramic view of the district. Also on the mountain top, tourists can easily find the national flag tower of Vietnam which marks the country territory and a huge lake of fresh water for the whole island.

HANG TEMPLE NEARBY BEACH Š

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5

.Be Islet (Small Islet) Despite its highly limited area, Be Islet offers lots of perfect sandy beaches surrounded by exquisite high rock cliffs. Going there, tourists have a chance to leave behind all worries and totally indulge themselves into the crystal clear sea and tropical sunshine. Besides, wandering around the little islet to enjoy the agricultural spirit from large fields of garlic and onions is highly recommended.

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.Duc Temple Following the stair of 100 steps along Gieng Tieng Mountain – a thousand-year-old former volcano, tourists can explore the Duc Temple. In Vietnamese, “duc (duc)” means to carve. The name of the Temple indicates how it has been constructed with numerous shrines carved into the mountain side along the way to the top from which appears the panoramic view of the blue ocean and colourful paddles.

Standing in the lobby is a 27-meter high Alokitesvara Buddha Statue, who according to the myth, used to reside here to protect the locals from natural disasters.

BE ISLET ©

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.Am Linh Temple (Temple of dead spirits) This temple is the place to worship dead people who have not been recognised such as homeless people or people who passed away in a different place than their hometown and had no relatives informed. Especially, this is a sacred place for many dead naval soldiers whose corpses could not be found during the wars.

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Duk Temple ©

A Garlic field being fertilezd ©

.Hoang Sa - Bac Hai Flotilla Memorial and Exhibition House The Hoang Sa – Bac Hai Flotilla was founded during the Nguyen Dynasty, being responsible for surveying the sea and establishing national milestones. Despite mortal dangers, the Flotilla contributed greatly to the affirmation of Vietnam’s sovereignty of the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Unfortunately, many of them had sacrificed their lives in the sea and never returned.

Nowadays, the Memorial and Exhibition House act as reminders to the Vietnamese of those brave soldiers. There, visitors can also find many precious historical relics related to the Flotilla and the history of Vietnamese territorial waters.

Massacre Muesum ©

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HIGHLIGHTED ACTIVITIES 1

. Visit the dummy gravesThey are also called “wind grave� as there are no real corpses inside but clay dummies of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country and whose dead bodies could not be found from the sea. Listening to stories of how to build the dummy graves and summoning rituals, visitors will gain more insights into local beliefs and traditions.

2

. Scuba diving and watching coral reefs Thanks to the clear blue sea and diverse marine ecosystem, there are various area in Ly Son District where you can try scuba diving and watching colourful coral reefs as well as marine creatures.

One of the best place for these activities is Be Island.

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. Join local fishermen for night fishing and hunting People of Ly Son are well-known for their friendliness and willingness to introduce local culture and lifestyle to visitors.

Tourists can ask to join with the fishermen for a night fishing or hunting trip which will be a real unforgettable experience.

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. Try the local Salad and Huynh De Crab Coming to the Kingdom of Garlic, tourists should not miss the Garlic Salad with its typically strong and spicy taste. There are also other nice choices such as Seaweed Salad and Jellyfish Salad.

Beside diverse kinds of fresh sea food, Ly Son is famous for Huynh De Crab which is considered the king of crab because of its firm tasty flesh and nutrition.

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. Visit different temples Ly Son District is the homeland of over 200 temples which highly reflect the distinctive local spiritual life. Therefore, if possible, it is recommended to pay some visit to nearby temples and let yourself be amazed by mysterious religious stories.

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TIPS - Best time to visit: June to September: the weather is nice and sunny which is suitable for sea travel.

- The only way to get to Ly Son Island from Quang Ngai mainland is travelling by high-speed boat from Sa Ky Port. Basically, there are 2 trips per day leaving at 7:30 am and 13:00 pm. Ly Son is usually crowded with tourists throughout the year, so it is highly recommended to book the ticket in advance through the line +84 55 3626 431 or email dankyve.csk@gmail.com.

Booking is also advised when travelling from Ly Son Island to Be Islet.

- Riding motorbikes is a convenient way to go around and explore the island. Visitors can contact the hostel/hotel in advance for renting motorbikes and helmet with reasonable price (about 4-5 euro/day).

- Wear rubber sandals (which can be found from local markets) when going diving to prevent your feet from being cut by rocks and corals.

- Remember to wear proper clothes when visiting temples or sacred sites.

- During the summer time, remember to try Ly Son watermelons which have a very special flavour and are tasty of course.

- After returning to Quang Ngai mainland from Ly Son Island, heading about 15km from city centre, visitors will find the Relic Site of Son My Massacre during the American War where lots of historical relics and remnants are preserved and displayed.

REFERENCES http://dulichdanang.vn/en/travel-tips/backpacking-travel-in-ly-son-the-islandof-garlic-quang-ngai.html http://vietnamtravel.indochinacharm.com/explore-beautiful-ly-son-islandquang-ngai/ http://vietnam.vnanet.vn/english/quang-ngais-ly-son-commemorates-hoangsa-sailor-soldiers/237807.html Photo sources: To Vo Gate; – http://kenhdulich.org/vi/articles/quang-ngai/canh-dep-dao-lyson-day-me-hoac-qua-ong-kinh-fujifilm-x100-cua-phuot-thu-8x-0.html Be Islet - http://kenhdulich.org/vi/articles/quang-ngai/dao-be-thien-duong-nhocua-huyen-dao-ly-son-0.html Hang Temple nearby beach - https://www.ivivu.com/blog/2015/03/du-lich-daoly-son-cam-nang-tu-a-den-z/ The rest of the photos: ŠThanh Thao Nguyen

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GREEK DESTINATION

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CRETE ON THE ROAD

by Emanuele Scapaticci

Four wheels, two Italians and a piece of paradise that is also known as “Crete”. Crete is the biggest Greek island and the fifth one for its vastness in the Mediterranean Sea. It can be reached by ferry from the most important harbors of Greece, but also by plane: Crete hosts in fact two airports in the cities of Chania and Heraklion. My eyes began to shine when I found a cheap round trip flight from Thessaloniki in June, it was one of that “trains” that only pass once in your life and i didn't lose the opportunity: flight booked in 7 minutes! I guess that June or May are the perfect months to visit Crete: not so hot weather but neither cold (by the way I don't think that Cretans know what the word “cold” means), not many tourists, not the highest prices of the season, etc.. Here's my board diary of our trip on the road.

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DAY 1 We landed in Chania on 3rd June's evening and we immediately rented a car for the five days we were staying there.

After some troubles with a company that was asking 400 € of deposit (that of course, we, ordinary unemployed youngsters didn't have), we managed to obtain a shiny green Ford Fiesta from an Italian speaker employee of another company, who made us a cheap offer. So... Go! The trip could start!

First Stop: center of Chania. This city is second biggest in Crete but not so big if you are used to the size of Thessaloniki. It has a really pretty historical center in front of the sea. I noticed immediately what some Greeks told me: Cretans have their own slang. “Οχι” (“no” in Greek) becomes “Οι”, “Τι κανεις” (“What's up”) becomes “Ιντα κανεις”, and of course many other differences that a non-Greek speaker like me couldn't get.

However, not a problem, almost all people there can speak English so the communication is not a problem! For the first night we granted ourselves some “luxury” sleeping in a very cheap hostel in the center. Wherever you go in Greece you will find for sure very hospitality people, this rule is valid also for Crete. In fact, Konstantino, the owner of the hostel, suggested us the best places to visit and some tips about travelling in Crete. Also he gave us for free a map of the island and he told us some of his story: born in Canada from Cretan parents, he decided to come back to live his life in the island he came from… I found it amazing! The day ended after a good cheap taverna on Chania's seaside.

Emanuelle Scapattici 1©

Emanuelle Scapattici 1©

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Emanuelle Scapattici 3Š

DAY 2

DAY 3

Wake up, and ready for seeing a bit more of Chania in the daylight. The water in Chania's bay was very clean and transparent for being a port city (again, so clean if compared to the water of Thessaloniki's seaside). Along the coast there are also a lot of beautiful yachts that make envious every ordinary person. After a dive in Chania's water we took our car and went in west direction. Crete has only one very good highway along the north coast. If you leave that road, don't trust so much Google maps like we did: you could find yourself in a dirt street (followed by a dozen of goats) just because the navigator find that street shorter. Anyway after having escaped of those streets, we arrived in Falassarna beach, where we spent the afternoon.

Wake up. Bad. The sleep was one of the worst comfortable ever. We continued our journey. We have read before our departure about a place called Balos beach that seemed to be a very nice place. So we drove to there and we didn't regret it. Balos is probably the best beach I have seen in my whole life. It is placed in the extreme north-west peninsula, and you need to drive on a 7km dirt road before of arriving there, but it was totally worth it. The water is crystal, the sand is white and you can walk for meters and meters without the water become deep. Also there is a tiny island near that you can reach through a "bridge" of sand. We decided to change place in the afternoon, but before leaving Balos,

Clean water, a large beach and very big waves... that place would have been perfect if someone wanted to practice surf.

We brought a tent with us for saving some money for the accommodations. We built it in a quiet corner, set a fire and, after a modest dinner with Panini, we managed somehow to fall asleep. Don't make the same mistake as us: if you camp bring a mattress with you!

I stared just a bit more the amazing landscape.

We drove the west coast from north to south. The streets there are full of small farmers' shops where you can buy homemade olive oil, honey, Rakomeli and more. We stopped in Elafonisi, the beach that was supposed to have pink sand according to the guide. So, or I am colorblind, or the beach wasn't pink at all.

And as from my last sight test I resulted just myopic, I decided that the pink sand was a lie. A bit disappointed about this, and also because it was very windy, we left the place soon. Anyway the place was very nice, but nothing compared to Balos.

We moved in the evening to Rethymno, the third major city.

Similar to Chania, Rethymno owns a little port and pretty seashore with also an ancient fortress. Around the parked boats it's full of Greek tavernas, but we took a Pizza in one of the most touristic street. By the way the pizza was good, and if it's an Italian saying it, it means that it's really good. After dinner we decided to sleep in the car hoping it was more comfortable, and actually it was.

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DAY 4

DAY 5

After a rapid breakfast we moved to the south part of the island. Stop in Preveli beach. This place is so particular because you can see on one side the sea, and on the other, if you turn over, a river. This is so cool because the presence of the river made possible the growing of a tropical palm forest.

You can also walk into this forest through a path made for tourists. Although the place was nice, it is famous also for camping, that's why it was not as clean as previous places we visited.

We moved to Heraklion, the biggest city, the capital of Crete.

If you are going to Heraklion in the future by car, then good luck. The city is a bit chaotic and has some trouble with traffic jam. Finding a parking is almost impossible: I don't know which Greek god helped us in finding one, but we have been so lucky to occupy a car place not so close from the center.

In the afternoon we moved to a place that a friend of mine suggested me: Matala. Matala has a pretty nice beach in a tiny bay in the south part of Crete. It is famous for being a Hippy place. In addition of a beautiful seaside, Matala hosts also an ancient Roman cemetery that consisted in holes dug in a rock mountain. Every people can pay a fee and climb to explore that place. In the late afternoon you can enjoy also a beautiful sunset. On a wall on the back of the beach you can read the quote "Today is life, tomorrow never comes" that became the "motto" of the place. The line means to seize the moments and to enjoy your time now, because your life is today and you never know what tomorrow brings. We decided to camp in Matala but still we didn’t have any mattress. So we decided to borrow some sun-beds (without asking) and put them inside the tent. It worked.

Heraklion was definitely the city with most tourists in Crete. It is similar to the previous Chania and Rethymno. It has a particular Venetian fortress in its port and many, many boats.

Near Heraklion there is a famous archeological site called Knossos, we went there in the afternoon. The site is what remains of one of ancient king Minosse's place. In particular it is conserved perfectly a ruin of its ancient palace made of three red columns and a painting of the Minotaur.

After the "Heraklion experience" we started our journey to come back to Chania. Yes, our trip had to end. We took the plane to come back to Thessaloniki. I came back with the back full of pain but the mind full of marvelous landscapes.

When in future I hear about Greek islands, Crete will be for sure the first that comes to my mind.

Emanuelle Scapattici 4 Š 73

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LEGION 4X4

by Bojan Livaja

MUSIC

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Artic Monkeys In last decade one of the best rock bands. Vocal of band Alex Turner giving another level to rock sound with his impressing thickly-accented voice! Their album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not ” became one of the fastest-selling British albums of all time.

Selah Sue Belgian singer/songwriter who impress with amount of energy on the stage.

Singing and writing songs for different geners of music making her powerful and adoptable in the world of music. “Jamaican voice lost in Belgium”

Rone One of the best artists on electronic scene. Enjoy the magical journey with his incredible album Tohu-Bohu(hurly-burly). With this album you will enter in hypnotic ambient!

Thivery Corporation The duo DJ’s are recognized as electronic, but in their long career(1990s-2014) you can enjoy a lot of different genres, from acid jazz, triphop to downbeat. Powerful sounds for everybody!

LEGION

MOVIES The Fountain

by Darren Aronofsky What if you can live forever? Love thru reincarnation.

Perfect movie, but still underrated…

Blue Is The Warmest Color(La Vida De Adèle)

by Abdellatif Kechiche Color Blue is changing the life of young girl Adèle …

Movie won Palme d’Or in Cannes Film Festival 2013.

Son Of Saul (Saul Fia)

by Nemes Laszlo

Ex Machina

by Alex Garland

“Finding meaning in meaningless place“. Movie is not only despair, it is showing drama in impossible ways!

Amazing movie with deep look in future! A.I. humanoid fighting for freedom…

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BOOKS Factotum

by Charles Bukowski

The Pale Horse

by Agatha Christie

Enjoy the journey with Henry Chinaski, alter ego person, alcoholic, rejected from society. Story which waiting to be read!

One of the best dark mystery books. Thrilling and powerful to read, with brave and intelligent hero Mark Easterbrook making this book to be read in short time.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis

Book is magical realistic sheets of paper which is permeated with soul of G.G. Marquez, and his amazing writing style. Even the title of book is depressing somehow, the book is real brilliant and adventure!

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To fit in society is really difficult, especially if you are person with strange needs...

Book is bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.

LEGION

ART

Bibliotheca Alexandrina or Library of Alexandria (Egypt) Raised like Phoenix, ancient one was burned, but new one is new wonder of world! Walls of Bibliotheca Alexandrina are carved with characters more than 120 different human scripts.

International Festival Of Carthage (Tunisia) One of the most famous festivals all over the world. In first place represented with Arabic, African and Mediterranean culture, music and artworks, but also including artists around the world. In the festival were hosted famous artists as Joe Cocker, James Brown, Luis Armstrong, etc.

Grenoble Street Art Fest (France) Breathtaking street art! Every year all best artists around the world coming to show and bring their love thru the graffiti in this small city!

X-ray Style In Arnhem Land Rock Art (Australia) Fantastic example that art and creative minds can survive the years, centuries!

Aboriginal painters express their connection with natural or supernatural! Unique place in world culture!

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FLASHBACK Paula Lagunas GarcĂ­a

Harry Potter Nineteen years ago J. K. Rowling became famous with the publishing of first book of Harry Potter (30th June 1997). And 9 years after, the 21th of July of 2007 was published the seventh book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. J. K. Rowling spent many hours writing, what it was her true vocation, until Bloomsbury, the prestigious British firm, published the first book. These awesome books were translated on more than 65 languages and it’s well known that almost ten years ago more than 400 million of copies were sold. Harry Potter has been one of the most read books in the last 50 years.

Dolly, the first cloned sheep On the 5th of July of 1996, 20 years ago, Dolly the first cloned sheep was born. It was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. This took place at the Rollin Institute, and Dolly was the only that was born after 277 attempt. Dolly lives six years and a half, she died on the 14th of 2003, she had to be euthanized.

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Google + Google launched its new social network Google plus 5 years go. On the 28th of June of 2011 Google plus became very famous, reaching 20 million users three weeks after its launching!

With Google Plus sharing online it’s easier than ever! You can communicate with your colleagues, friends, etc. and share your life through its communities. Which will be the new invention of Google for the coming years?

We look forward to it...

Curiosity on Mars Four years ago, Mars Science Laboratory, called as Curiosity, landed in Mars. It happened on the 6th of August of 2012 and it was launched on November of 2011. Some years ago, other devices landed in Mars too, but with the difference that Curiosity is twice bigger and three times heavier. The main aims of this launch were: to know if life took place ever in Mars, to identify the characteristics of the climate and the effects of biological process, to determine the geology of this planet and the preparation for the human exploration.

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MIX FIX

by Burhan Köse

INDIE MUSIC IN 2010’S TURKEY Turkish music scene, where countless artists of different musical backgrounds who would fail to get sufficient radio airplay, has undergone a shift in tides around early 2010s. The state of affairs for mainstream music used to be quite predictable, and revolved around only a handful of artists, producers and record companies.

The means and ways of mainstream music that is in the hands of only a handful bunch would either compel musicians into pursuing a career that is thoroughly dependent on “Big Music,” or pursue an underground career, barely making ends meet, with a scarce fan base, lack of opportunities such as putting out proper physical records, and playing in great venues. Strongholds of music industry, such as UK and US, had already experienced a liberating and soaring popularization of indie music during mid-2000s, due to emerging and growing social media platforms. However, occurrence of such trend in music in Turkey hasn’t had a mainstream breakthrough until late 2000s, and early 2010s. Yet, when this outbreak initiated, sort of like a slippery slope, it encouraged many other artists to produce and release on their own terms.

Thus, this outbreak has entailed a scene, which is still ongoing and ever-growing as many artists rise to prominence on their own terms, and claim their fair share of mainstream music.

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It all started with Buyuk Ev Ablukada, a band that draws inspiration from a bluesy/indie-folk sound diluted with millennial, mundane and absurd Turkish lyricism. In a very short while, they broke the dynamics of supply and demand, through creating their own demand by putting out their supply, rather supplying a pre-existing demand. The band’s music started to circle among masses, and this no-strings-attached type of liberation that prevails throughout their sound initiated a new wave in Turkish music. As they started to gain radio play, and play gigs, and tours, many other artists were encouraged to put forward their personality, perception, and humor, knowing that it will be rewarded. The prominence of Buyuk Ev Ablukada thus created the wave where many artists sought refuge. Yuzyuzeyken Konusuruz is one of them.

Nourished by the notions of peculiar Anatolian Istanbul district, Kadikoy, and a really simplistic formula of radio-friendly blend of Western Turkish melodies with borderline Americana, the band stole the hearts of many, and they were considered to be the continuation of interrupted “Kadikoy Scene,” that district’s underground musical phenomenon in 1990s. Their fellow townsmen, Adamlar, are another band that broke through mainstream in 2010s. Their eventual debut titled as “Eski Dostum Tankla Gelmis” was a manifestation of what Turkish music scene lacked, an authentic statement of exhaustion, a distinguishable personality, and a musical and lyrical ingenuity that pumped blood back to veins of Turkish music, that had been longing for invigoration for a long time to come.

This scene has manifested almost a holistic stance of musical acts that are not necessarily tied to each other. Due to the mannerisms and the untranslatable language that is observable throughout the bands’ endeavor of exploration of peculiar themes, a sense of family is usually attributed to this musical scene, as if they’re members of a family, but most importantly, they have been perceived to be “among one of us” by the listeners. That is why, unfortunately, this scene might evoke sort of alienation for non-Turkish listeners, due to its esoteric essence. But fortunately there is also an emergence of Turkish musicians who are making music in English such as In Hoodies, 123, and The Away Days. The inherent inclusiveness and sincerity of this musical scene, contrary to its esoteric essence, welcomes everyone of any language, and waits to be explored, as its prominence continuously grows, and the members of that one family ever-expands.

LEGION

NEW TECHOLOGIES

by Burhan Köse

Changing times The times we are going through in terms of technological development are so peculiar. To be updated with new developments is briefly impossible since it is a matter of minutes that something new is either announced, planned, or released. Also, at a faster rate, developments are being delivered to end-user, so on a daily basis we are getting to observe the repercussions of them. Every new item in retail is a whole new line of influence upon people’s lives, and sometimes they change the things as we know it drastically. Here’s a selection of prospectively life-changing technological breakthroughs that are –planned to be- made recently:

Real-time translation

Self-driving cars

Improvements in field of translation are on a mind-blowing level, as many tools are being devised for instant translation.

A tool recently released by Google works with the principle of taking a picture or a video, and the tool translates the text into preferred languages. Also, one device that is released by Panasonic is sort of an entertaining way of doing it, since it is a megaphone that requires speech from the receiver of it, as the speakers vocalize that sentence translated in a different language. Another tool that is devised by Skype is based on the usage of artificial intelligence, thus the translator tool gets better with more and more translations. This generates a whole new path for the other tools that are to be designed, as the tool will be able to teach itself.

Self-driving cars have being discussed over the last decade, but finally they have made appearance. Recently Ford made a deal with Google, which could be an indicator of a mass production in a near future that we’re not totally sure of the date.

Apart from that, Tesla Motors have announced their recent software that enables auto-pilot. Apart from those, only basic modifications in various companies such as auto-break, lanechange warnings are to be included in a very near future, but totally self-driving cars are still under development.

Transparent solar panels It is such a crazy idea when whole principle of solar panels is omitting the light, whereas transparent objects completely let them be. Researches from Michigan State University found a way for it, which is basically a proto-type that collects invisible wavelengths. The invention could be used in screens, open spaces, places and devices where usage of semi-transparent plans is inconvenient, in terms of maintenance and aesthetics.

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SPORT

by Iva Veneva

Hristo Stoichkov: “I want to thank fans for the respect they show…”

Bulgarian legend Hristo Stoichkov feted his 50th birthday with a tribute game at Sofia's Vasil Levski Stadium on May 20, 2016.

Hristo Stoichkov was born 8 February 1966 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

He is a legendary footballer. A prolific forward, he is regarded as one of the best players of his generation and is widely considered the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time. He was runner-up for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 1992 and 1994, and received the Ballon d'Or in 1994. In 2004, Stoichkov was named

by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.

At club level, Stoichkov spent six years at CSKA Sofia and became the top goal scorer in Europe in 1990, receiving the European Golden Shoe. In 1990 he joined FC Barcelona where he earned the Spanish nickname 'El Pistolero' which translates to 'the gunslinger', and he was part of Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" that won four consecutive La Liga titles and one UEFA Champions League. During his time at the club he formed a lethal strike partnership with Romario. Cruyff was largely instrumental in bringing him to Barcelona, where he quickly developed into one of the most prolific forwards in the world.

Stoichkov was a member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup, of which he was the top scorer with six goals and received the World Cup Golden Shoe. He was ranked the third best player at the World Cup, after Romario and Roberto Baggio, and received the World Cup Bronze Ball. Apart from his footballing talent, he was notable for his on-pitch temper. In his playing career he was nicknamed The Dagger.

Legendary Barcelona coach Johan Cruyff is reported to have first set his sights on Stoichkov when the CSKA Sofia forward was just 23 and had scored three goals in a losing effort against the Catalan club in the 1989 European Cup. Cruyff reportedly said at that time that he wanted the young prospect on his team.

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"I knew about him before that [goal]," Cruyff later said, according to UEFA.com. "I signed him not because of his goals but for his character and mentality. He has a hard but strong character – everybody knows that. I badly needed such a personality. He was fast, sharp; he scored, he passed and he had a killer instinct in front of goal."

Franz Beckenbauer called him "the best Bulgarian player I've ever seen" while for José Mourinho he was "a real giant" and continue “I first saw him in a tournament in Setubal in the late 1980s and he, Kostadinov and Luboslav Penev just demolished my team.

He was so young but so impressive. Later with Barcelona he demolished Porto in the 1994 UEFA Champions League semi-final when I was working as an assistant to Sir Bobby Robson.”

"In 1996 as Barcelona assistant coach I talked to him as Bobby Robson wanted him back at Barça from Parma. His motivation and class were phenomenal. That's why he belongs to that special band of footballing giants."

Under the applause of 40,000 people who crowded the stadium despite the heavy rain, the team of Stoichkov faced the all-star team of the world in a spectacular match that 'N8' team won 4 1. The team of Stoichkov included beloved players such as Txiki Begiristain, Gheorghe Popescu, Antonio Benarrivo, Emil Kostadinov, Yordan Lechkov, Dimitar Berbatov, Gheorghe Hagi, Martin Petrov, Krasimir Balakov, and others. The team of the stars included legends such as Jorge Campos, Vincent Candela, Paolo Maldini, Mauro Camoranesi, Jean-Pierre Papin, Carlos Valderrama, Ludovic Giuly, Ivan Zamorano, Demetrio Albertini and many other great stars that came to Sofia to show respect for Hristo Stoichkov and to Bulgarian football fans.

The legendary striker with N8 t-shirt, did not hold back his tears before the match when the whole stadium paid tribute and remembered great Bulgarian defender and teammate of Stoichkov

LEGION

in CSKA and the national team - Trifon Ivanov.. In the 14th minute of the match, tears were again seen on the faces of players and fans that honoured the memory of legendary Johan Cruyff. Nostalgia and memories, as well as lots of joy brought by the achievements of a whole generation of players were an integral part of this unique football match.

Krassimir Balakov scored a beautiful first goal of the match for Stoichkov's team after a pass from Emill Kostadinov. Until the end of the first half goalkeeper of the stars Jorge Campos repeatedly intervened decisively to stop Stoichkov's strikes, demonstrating his unique style of play. Just before the halftime there was a new goal for team “N 8� after a cross from Stoichkov and a header by Dimitar Berbatov.

At the beginning of the second half, Stoichkov made a great surprise to fans when together with some of his former teammates from Barcelona lifted the European Cup - the same one won with Cruyff. Later Martin Petrov replaced Stoichkov on the field and the score quickly turned 3 - 0. Ludovic Giuly scored a goal for the stars with a skilful shot but, in the 65th minute of the game, referee Atanas Uzununov called a penalty for the home team and Stoichkov stood behind the ball. With accuracy that is typical for him he scored the 4th goal for his team in the net guarded at the time by Felix Fernandez and the referee ended the game.

"I want to thank fans for the respect they show and for everything I have achieved. This celebration today is not for Hristo Stoichkov, it is for the fans. Without you there would have been no victories," Stoichkov said after the match and bowed in front of loyal fans.

Sources and photos: http://www.uefa.com, http://www. espnfc.com, https://en.wikipedia.org, http://www.gol.bg, http://bnr.bg

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Muhammad Ali “The Greatest” “I got nothing against any

Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger.”

by Filippos Sacchet

Muhammad Ali ©

On the occasion of the death of Muhammad Ali I will try to present you his life, inside and outside of rings, because besides boxing he was a natural born leader fighting for human rights and justice.

For his beliefs, he was sentenced with five years of prison and a three years ban from boxing. He is considered the greatest of all times, as he is the only heavyweight boxer who won three times the championship. Lastly, he was also an artist known for his freestyle rhymes and spoken word poetry, receiving two Grammy nominations for his two spoken word albums and rhymes and blues songs. He also performed in several films and a Broadway musical and finally wrote two autobiographies.

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942 in Louisville of Kentucky. He was a descendant of slaves, that is why he later changed his “slave name” to Muhammad Ali. A police officer directed him towards boxing after he caught 12 year old fuming over a thief who tried to take his bicycle. His amateur boxing debut was in 1954 ending with a record of 100 wins and 5 losses, he won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, which later threw in Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a “whites-only” restaurant and fought with a white gang.

In March 1966, he refuses to be drafted to army service to go the Vietnamese War and his title is stripped, his boxing license is suspended. On June 20 he is convicted for draft evasion and sentenced with five years of prison and 10.000$ fine. By paying a bond he managed to remain free while the verdict was appealed. Finally, in 1971 his conviction was overturned, but he had lost his best years without fighting (2529). During his boxing inactivity he gained sympathy because the stance he held against the war, he spoke to colleges criticizing the Vietnam War and defending African American pride and racial justice.

“The Rumble in the Jungle” On October 30, 1974, he fights for the title against heavyweight champion George Foreman (considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history) in Kinshasa, Zaire. Despite his age (32), Ali was very confident and colorful and told the press: “I have done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail, only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick, I am so mean I make medicine sick”. Ali managed to retain the title against the odds with a knockout in the eighth round.

In February 1978, Ali fights Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, where he lost the title by split decision because he was seriously out of shape. After seven months a rematch was done in New Orleans, Ali won an unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight and was the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.

On December 11, 1981, after the fight “Drama in the Bahamas” with Trevor Berbick, which he lost, he retired forever having a 56-5 record. Three years later the champion is diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome, directly linked with the severe head trauma he suffered during his career even though Ali remained the public spotlight, traveling all around the world to make humanitarian, goodwill and charitable appearances. Ali was the people’s champion because of his outspokenness on issues of race, religion and politics. He always fought for general justice and human rights.

Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. One of his daughters, Laila, became a boxer in 1999 despite Ali’s opinion for female boxing: “Women are not made to be hit in the breast and face like that”. She managed to win all her fights: 24 in total, of which 21 were won by knockout.

“I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I am the prettiest thing that ever lived.” Made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, and started with a win. On February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach he fought against Sonny Liston (a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob) for the title. Ali was the underdog of the fight but he managed to win his first title.

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Αssociated Press©

LEGION

Some of Ali’s best quotes which inspired are: “Don’t count the days, make the days count” “I hated every minute of training, but I said ‘don’t quit’. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion” “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life” “ Impossible is potential – Impossible is temporary – Impossible is nothing” “I know where I’m going and I know the truth. I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.”

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb the wear you down. It’s the pebble in your shoe” “We have one life it will soon be past, what we do for god is all that will last” “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself” “I’ll tell you how I’d like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title, who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him, a man who stood for freedom justice and equality, and I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was” “Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee. The hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see” Finally, a fact that really affected him, on his mother words, was when Ali was denied a drink of water at a store: “They wouldn’t give him one because of his color”. Maybe a glass of water is more important than we think…

Flip Schulke©

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LEGION

HOROSCOPE Have you ever belive in the horoscope?

I don't!

For this reason, the desntiny givesto me the chance to start a discovering trip in the amazing world of Planet, Stars and Zodiachas well!

Did you know what's happened to me after weeks studying sites of Horoscope, Experts and Tarots?

Exactly nothing!

For that reason I decided to develop my special Horoscope for you!

An horoscope that doesn't have anything related to the influence of Venus in your life.

For these four months I will just suggest some quotes for you.

Read it, Reflect on it and if you will find useful I will be very glad.

If you will not.... I don't care at all !!

Let's Start.

ARIES First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Mahatma Gandh TAURUS I make mistakes, Iam out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.

Marilyn Monroe GEMINI Elegance is not about being noticed, it's about being remembered.

Giorgio Armani CANCER Don't be afraid to have Courage.

John Paul II

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LEO If you can dream it, you cando it.

Walt Disney VIRGO I will not be never nobody but nobody will be never like me.

Jim Morrison LIBRA Never stop smiling not even when you're sad, someone might fall in love with your smile Gabriel Garcia Marquez SCORPIO when you lose, don't lose the lesson!

Dalai Lama SAGITTARIUS Those like me face forward, though the heart remains a few steps back.

Alda Merini CAPRICORN He or she who abandon a project before starting it,who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know,he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know,die slowly.

Martha Medeiros AQUARIUS Speak only if it improves upon the silence.

Mahatma Gandhi PISHES Bet he change you want to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

LEGION

Domenico di Nuzzo ©

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FUNDED BY:

AUTHORIZED BY:

General Director: Domenico Di Nuzzo Aris Parashou Editors: Ebru Sener Maria Aguilar Lopez Editorial designer: Panagiotis Semitelos www.usbngo.gr FIND US: Usb_ngo

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