December 2013
0.5â‚Ź
Nr. 15
Our priorities
The Adriatic Times
Living in a community can be challenging. Apart from personal responsibilities, we are also expected to have responsibilities towards the people we live with, and towards the community as a whole. Not everyone shares the same responsibilities, of course, and not everyone cares equally about the same stuff, but we do not always remember it when judging others. We tend to discuss it if someone’s behavior is incorrect, but we often forget that not everyone’s approach and/or opinion is the same as ours. Our actions and opinions are not all the same even though we live in the same place and attend the same college. A simple example would be that some of us dedicate most of our time to academics and some to social events or activities. Surely background, culture and personality are the key reasons for these differences, but there is one very important factor which we sometimes forget to mention and that is “Our Priorities”.
which second would be nothing but another “chicken or egg” dilemma. Let us try to simplify this issue with an example. If life is a painting and the act of painting is living then there are many different colors available for us to choose from in order to set up our own lives, in order to create our own paintings. There is not enough time to use all of them. You choose the colors which will help you paint your picture. It is the painter who chooses, indeed, but are there other factors that should influence his decision? This relates to the topic of living in a community. Does life in a community mean that we should all have common aims and priorities? If yes, what should they be? If no, can we accept that not all of us have the same priorities? To give you a clearer perspective on what students at our college think about this dilemma, The Adriatic Times team has decided that the theme of the 15th issue of the student magazine should be “Our Priorities”. We hope this will help you reflect upon your own priorities and also our shared priorities.
We set priorities throughout our life to make it easier for us to deal with different situations and to achieve our objectives. Our aims are closely related to our priorities. Dis- The Editor cussing which comes first and
The Editorial
Editor: Sibel Spahija Jornalists: Nari Lee, Giuliana De Polo Proof reader: Malcolm Price Designer: Valev Laube Cover photo: Marta Mitrofanovaitė
The Adriatic Times
The voice of our peers By Sibel Spahija
For two weeks, before the deadline of the 15th edition, I sat and thought about what would be an appropriate article for this edition’s topic. I first tried to think of what our main priorities should be as students at the college, and tried to reflect upon that. I can tell you, it did not work out! I came up with many ideas and answers that were completely opposed to each other. It took me days to realise that, this time, I wanted to do something special, which would approach the issue from a different perspective. I found that what I lacked was the opinion of other students of the college. I realised that I haven’t
had many conversations with people about this topic and thus I lacked inspiration. I finally worked out what would be the best way to clarify my ideas about “Our Priorities”. It was simple. I had to go out, find some people, and ask them. Simply, I had to ask them. Like me, there are many other people who are very confused about what they should think when it comes to “Our Priorities”. As a result I decided to share the answers I received from First Years and Second Years with you too (without mentioning anyone’s name, of course). Talking to
others helped me figure out what my opinion on this issue was. I strongly disagreed with some answers and I strongly agreed with others but, in the end, they all helped me find my way to answer this question: What should our main priorities be as students of this college (or as human beings in general)? I hope this answers will help you too. On a personal note: I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who took their time to talk to me over this topic.
First Years’ answers: Care for each other and encourage others. Be flexible and talk with others even if you are not confident about your language level because there are many people out there who want to know you. Also, be honest. Sleep! Our main priority should be to have priorities. Personal hygiene. To always have a goal. “Reach for the stars and hope for the moon.” Don’t give up your social life for excess work. Don’t feel caged-in in Duino. Break down your barriers, talk to others, you really don’t need to be shy here. Experience nature. Try to interact with staff members, too. They are as important as the student body.
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Enjoy the experience and try to keep a balance so that you
can be happy. Being thankful of being here. To be optimistic and open-minded. We should also be aware of things that go on outside the Duino bubble, like global issues. Stop and Listen. Be aware that we are in an international environment and that all of us are different. Stop and think how our acts could affect the others. We should be conscious of our actions. Try to stay healthy throughout the experience. Step out of your comfort zone! Encourage to debate. Communicate. Accept others’ opinion but give priority to your own decisions.
To learn how to react. People should not be passive. We should take actions and try to make a “change”. We should admit that we are interdependent and we should try to connect with others.
The Adriatic Times
Second Years’ answers:
To make sure we are happy. If this place doesn’t make us happy, if we think we don’t fit in here there is nothing much that we can gain from this experience. Caring for each other. We should try helping people who need help and it is usually obvious to see who is in need of help. We should not ruin the reputation of the college. It is really important that we give people who are outside the college a good image of this place. For this we really need to be careful how we act and how we behave towards others. There should not be priorities, really. Priorities ruin everything. You cannot enjoy the experience fully if you set priorities. This place is just so magical that everything can change in a glance and if it does, there are no priorities, no aims, and no rules left in the end. Take care of our health. Choose healthy food, do exercise and sleep. Sleep is very important for both physical and psychological condition of a person. We should try to remain healthy both physically and psychologically. “Judge Not!” Find the most balanced of balances for you (keep an eye on giving something to the community though). Share with others and enrich from them. Accept challenges because they will make you reach your potential. To make sure we still feel we have the spirit of making everything possible. I cannot speak for everyone since we all have different priorities but my main goal in life is to make others happier and make the world a better place. To make sure you are living your own life. Do not give up because of social pressure, reputation and so on. Find some personal time. Enjoy your life in maximum. Keep in mind, you may die tomorrow.
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The Adriatic Times
By Maria Canfora
To what extent can members of UWC Adriatic truly represent our priorities? Discuss. So, let’s rephrase the question:
To what extent can students and teachers of UWC Adriatic truly represent our priorities? Discuss. In order to define what UWC Adriatic is, I am going to refer to the school’s website: UWC Adriatic brings together 180 students from around the world for the final two years of their high school education. Inspired by the ideas of the German educationalist Kurt Hahn, the UWC movement aspires to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.
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Established in 1982, UWC Adriatic is located in the Italian/ Slovene village of Duino/Devin, in north-eastern Italy, 16 km from the city of Trieste. Long a
crossroad, the choice of location was deliberate as a meeting point of the Latin, Slavic and Germanic cultures. What better place to locate the first United World College outside the English-speaking world and to work towards intercultural understanding. Having delineated two chief terms (and please note they are not the perfect definitions, but just what is going to be used as the base of the coming considerations), it’s time to move towards the juice of the argument, by defining what truly means. The Oxford Dictionary provides at least four different definitions for truly.
truly
Pronunciation: /’tru:li/ adverb 1. in a truthful way: he speaks truly used to emphasize emotional sincerity or seriousness: it is truly a privilege to be here [as submodifier]: I’m truly sorry, but I can’t join you today 2. to the fullest degree; genuinely or properly: management does not truly understand about the residents [as submodifier] absolutely or completely (used for emphasis):a truly dreadful song 3. in actual fact or without doubt; really: this is truly a miracle 4. archaic loyally or faithfully: why cannot all masters be served truly?
The Adriatic Times
If I were asked what is important when writing a response to an essay question, I would say to define key terms, to acknowledge different points of view and to try to make your point clear. The first term to define is relatively easy: member. A member is someone who is part of UWC Adriatic. Members can include: students, teachers, administrative staff, caretaking staff, national committees, parents, donors, activities leaders and those who are in social services; basically anyone who contributes to or is affected by UWC Adriatic could be considered a potential member, a stakeholder. Due to the limited nature of this article, I would like to use members to describe only the first two categories: students and teachers.
What is better for members? Well, you pick; as individuals and critical thinkers you are entitled to decide for yourself what truly means. You may be seriously thinking – and quite rightly so – that this is a poor article, primarily composed of information pasted from the internet. In total honesty, had one of my students of English B taken so long in getting to the key point of their argument, I would be rather disappointed. However, considering that I completed my IB a long time ago, having understood and followed all their rules, I feel at ease to break them. What’s the point of all of this? The point is to classify what our priorities are, echoing the recurrent questions around this research for truth: Are members doing enough? Are members enacting our priorities? Are members fulfilling the UWC potential? Should members do more of x and less of z? The list is long. In order to define our priorities, I am neither going to look at the Oxford Dictionary nor going to paste information from the school website. I would rather discuss. Discuss whether there is a point in trying to achieve a universal, collective,
univocal our, or if members should accept that our our is multifaceted, multicultural, composite and/or, as Stuart Hall once said, articulated. The type of articulation Hall referred to was not that of someone who can speak or write well, but that of a lorry: united as a structure but made of two or more parts which are joined together to make a whole but can still move independently to adjust to terrain conditions. This member feels that Our Priorities have an articulated structure, they are made of different elements, which are themselves dictated by the individuals who make up our society, but they have multiple joining points and a direction. If Our Priorities at UWC Adriatic are made of combined parts, if they are shifting rather than constant, if they are multiple because of the personalities and interests of members, is it still correct to call them ours? I believe so, because this is what we are, our priorities are our identities and our direction. You may want to ask what this direction is; on this aspect I disagree with Hall who states that to find the direction you must look at the hierarchy of the society you are analysing. The variable nature of our
society does not allow us to have a fixed hierarchy, because the majority of our members change every year. In seeking the ‘truly’, our direction, we cannot look for supremacy, but for the joining points. Members are individuals who share a set of values, these are not identical between one another, but there are some common elements. Members’ duties are to keep on questioning the different approaches of living ideals and values, to look for shared features and acknowledge distinctions. Discussing is key to the existence of our community, though it is fundamental to acknowledge that our articulated society has several, and equally valid priorities. However, we must not fall into injudicious questioning which aims to persuade and uniform all views. In doing so, we could accidentally deride and override the work and the priorities of others, whether students, teachers or in fact any other member. Let’s not discuss the extent to which we represent and enact Our Priorities, but rather let’s research and share the multiple ways we think we do, on a personal and communal level, focusing on our joining points.
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The Adriatic Times
Lost thoughts in the Duino-verse… By Dina Alzu’bi
“We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.” Chris Hedges We are told that we are all selected because we have potential. Some of us know how to tap into our inner selves and utilize the experience offered to reach that potential and bloom. Some of us get really lost, sometimes so lost that while everyone is speeding forward, it feels as though we are lost under their feet. Stampeded over. Stuck in the same place. Sometime between August and May that roller coaster of thoughts begins. We are told we should find our balance; the infamous balance between sleep, social life and studying. Then we try to fight those doubts by telling ourselves that we are privileged being here. Our mere presence in Duino carries a responsibility for action, because our being here means that there are others who are denied this opportunity. And that thought that was meant to motivate us drives us deeper down the hole of feeling like we’ve failed. Failed ourselves, and those around us.
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Where to start? Talking to new people and having those inspiring Mensa conversations that seem to rarely happen… Studying for that
test next week that is important, or maybe not so important… Getting started on that Internal Assessment that is already overdue…? That’s when you hear the little voice in your head: What if what I want to do isn’t what I need to do? What if neither are what I have to do? What if I’m making all the wrong life choices? What if I fail? What if I will look back on this and regret it? The thing is, maybe that balance that is so crucial isn’t about “the three S’s”. Maybe it’s more about the balance between us as individuals and us as members of a society. As individuals, we come here with so much to give. Somehow, between August and December that side of us quiets down, perhaps because of the immediate tasks that stare us in the face, we consume without giving back. We come here carrying our personal ambitions, academic ambitions, ambitions for the future, and ambitions for creating new friends, meeting new cultures and trying new things. When it seems like we have failed to realize those ambitions, or we think it is too late to realize them, we get frustrated. When we find out that who we are and who we want to be aren’t lining up, whether as individuals or
as a community, these feelings of frustration, defeat and belittlement creep up on us at the peaks of our vulnerability. We end up cultivating a common feeling of bitterness. Bitterness that isn’t really directed towards one specific thing or person. But that bitterness coupled with a feeling of self-consciousness and thoughts of failure cripple us. And there is nothing more painful than getting to the closing ceremony and realizing that the person who keeps the record of all your failures and shortcomings, assessing how good your experience was or how it could have been better, is only you. What if that one obstacle, or series of obstacles, which triggered this roller coaster of despair, are actually nothing more than hurdles? What if we don’t let them define who we are? What if we take the leap of faith to turn them around? What would we be doing differently if we weren’t scared? Would we do those things if we weren’t afraid of being shut down or of them being ‘the wrong life choices’? And what if we weren’t defeated by the opportunities ahead of us but allow them to let us grow? In Destiny’s words, “We did not come to UWC to be defined, but rather to have the space to define ourselves.” We can’t care for those around us
knowing why we’re doing what we’re doing and what it is that is driving us. An idea that is often the punch line of many UWC jokes is “we try to change the world”. Maybe our priority here shouldn’t be ‘changing’ the world as if we are external observers, watching the world play out, but actually acknowledging that we are part
of it. Being members of the community. Taking the time to reflect on who we are and what we’re doing, think about whether we’re becoming human doing rather than human beings. And then creating the platform for growth and a strong support system. The momentum of an entire community has a much stronger impact than individuals alone.
The Adriatic Times
if we aren’t caring for ourselves, and we can’t grow if we don’t reflect on the reality of where we are now or know where we want to be. When we are focused on the end result, the diploma, the nostalgic recollection of memories, we forget the process. The one thing I’m certain of about UWC is that it’s the process that counts,
Letter from Spain Hello, everyone, I miss you a lot. Last year at this time my life was spinning around completely different issues, and they seemed to have a completely different importance. I was the lost kid who had no idea about her future; I was the girl who had no clue where she was going to be next year. Now I am the lucky girl studying in this fancy university in the middle (literally) of Spain. First of all, I want to address those of you who are like me at this point – there is nothing wrong with not knowing what to do. It is going to come to you, at some point it will. Applying in February or March, or even June is still not too late. Trust me, I was like that. I encourage you to take gap years. I encourage you to take two. Or four, as long as you find something that you really want to do. And to be honest, I sometimes regret not taking a gap year. Wanda just seems to be having too much fun! Second of all, I want to address the minority of you that are applying to IE University – it is worth it. The city is spectacular; the university is high quality and the people are international – just as we like it. I have discovered that there is such a thing as the typical “international student”, and that is quite a new concept to me, because UWC is far from the typical. I admit, the community is different, and at the same
time there is not enough of the “celebration of difference” that we value so highly. However, I feel like it is a good transition into adult life, and I think that UWC alumni bring beautiful dynamics to this place. I am generally really happy here, even if the most beautiful moment of the week still is opening a bottle of wine on Saturday night when on Skype with my friends from all over the world. Lastly, I want to address the community – people who are my beloved family, people that I just briefly know from weird interactions during my visit in September and people that I never talked to before – I encourage you to somehow document your memories – write a diary, blog or take pictures every day to document your happiness. And do beautiful things – make Advent wreaths, make cookies and give them out on a Thursday morning in the piazza or just put up loud Christmas songs all around Foresteria. (The places can be adjusted to wherever you are.) There is a lot of happiness in December, and it needs to be enjoyed! These are the words I want to address to you – and now run off and leave your footprints and memories all over the places you are at! And we will see each other soon! Beāte Ančevska
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The Adriatic Times
How to reach an agreement A brief analysis of the Geneva Conference on Iran By Hugo Côte-Petit-François
Yesterday, a few minutes before the bells of Geneva rang three times, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs went out of the conference room. He was immediately assailed by journalists of different nationalities, a single cry reaching his ears: "Mister Fabius, is there a deal?" Mister Fabius had been meeting with his Chinese, American, British, German, Russian, European-Unionian and Iranian counterparts to discuss the Iranian nuclear programme. With the so-called P5+1 on one side, and the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other, it is easy to imagine how tense the debates were. However, after hours and hours spent in a closed room (don't worry, they had breaks: on Saturday, at lunch time, the journalists gathering around the conference room even thought that an agreement had been reached as they saw John Kerry, the American Secretary of State, walking in the direction of a chocolate shop, renowned for its delicious chocolate truffles), they finally managed to agree. A four-page document was issued, and the delegations of all the countries represented walked towards the Palace of Nations (famous for having been the theatre of the creation and failures of the League of Nations, and now hosting a part of the United Nations) to gather again and finally sign it (quite remarkable that important agreements need to be signed in particular places, and not where
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they are written…). What good news!!! But how did two sides with points of view light years away from each other manage to agree? Well, they had priorities… And they fought for them. While Iran wanted to be able to produce electricity with nuclear energy, and possibly to be free from some of the sanctions that weighed heavily on its economy, the P5+1 wanted to make sure that Iran would not be able to produce nuclear weapons. For this reason, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs was particularly virulent in the debate; he stood firmly for the dismantlement of the Arak plant and for the destruction of the already highly enriched uranium that Iran owns. But even stronger was the will, on each side, to reach a peaceful agreement. The international consequences, in terms of diplomacy, economy and society of a treaty putting an end to the fears that Iran might become the owner of a prestigious but certainly harmful toy, would be too good, they all knew it. Even Iran, after decades of isolation from most of the world, started to realise that it needed to establish better relations with other countries (as we all know, "no country is an island", and therefore integration is one of the most fundamental aims of all governments). Now, the public opinion does not seem very satisfied – but is
it ever satisfied? On the side of the P5+1, people believe that not enough has been done, that the negotiators have been too soft. In Iran, the general feeling is one of disappointment. Even if, officially, there was no military purpose in the Iranian nuclear programme, there was still a hope that, one day, Iran would produce nuclear weapons to be able to "defend itself against Israel". Israel is, indeed, probably the most aggressive enemy of the Islamic Republic, when it comes to the ownership of nuclear warheads. We can understand Israeli fears: the only non-Muslim state in the region, it could be seriously threatened by Iranian middle-range ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. However, we should bear in mind that Israel has one of the biggest stocks of nuclear weapons in the world and that, unlike Iran, it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty… On each side, there are reasons and guilt. This is the game of international relations. Essentially, why do we not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons? The main aim of nuclear weapons has become, since the first one was detonated in the desert of New Mexico in 1945, to "avert wars". However, can we be sure that it would remain their chief purpose if they became a widespread gadget? Maybe it is simply better to find an agreement in such cases. It can be hard. But it is worth it. And it works!