January 2022
voices MAGAZINE FOR ALL YOUNG PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD
Editorial
Едиторијал
H
К
Technically speaking, it’s not one year that changes, but one day. Yet we like to use this new number as an occasion to work on ourselves: Should I go to the gym more often? This year I will eat healthily and spend more time with my family!
Технички гледано, не се менува цела година, туку само еден ден. Сепак, сакаме да го искористиме овој нов број како повод да поработиме на себе: Дали треба почесто да вежбам? Оваа година ќе се хранам здраво и ќе поминувам повеќе време со моето семејство!
ow time is flying! We are already in the new year of 2022.
It’s arguable if our resolutions come true, but New Year’s tends to open the conversation about the past year! Globally speaking, Covid was still a constant part of our lives. However, summer gave us back international events like the Eurovision Song Contest, Pride Parades and the Euro Cup. What were your highlights? But the new year also provides goodbyes right at the beginning. Six long-term volunteers will leave Macedonia and go back to Poland, France and Germany. For VOICES, we dived into the world of fast fashion and discovered the background of pyjamas. Also, we have a special focus on music this edition: The diverse Eurovision Junior Contest, the problem with streaming services and how Adele tricked the music industry. Hugs to everybody and thank you for being with us during 2021! Clarissa Leute
ако лета времето! Веќе сме во новата 2022 година
Неизвесно е дали нашите одлуки навистина ќе се случат, но новата година има тенденција да направи осврт на минатата! Глобално гледано, „Ковид-19“ сè уште беше постојан дел од нашите животи. Сепак, летото ни ги врати меѓународните настани како што се „Изборот за песна на Евровизија“, „Парадите на гордоста“ и Европското првенство во фудбал. По што ќе ја паметите вие? Но, новата година ќе донесе збогум за шест долгогодишни волонтери кои ќе ја го напуштат нашето семејство и ќе се вратат во Полска, Франција и во Германија. За „Воисес“ нурнавме во светот на брзата мода и ја откривме позадината на пижамите. Исто така, ова издание имаме посебен фокус на музиката: разиграниот детски натпревар на Евровизија, проблемот со стриминг-услугите и како Адел ја измами музичката индустрија. Ве прегрнуваме и ви благодариме што бевте со нас во текот на 2021 година!
Клариса Лоијте
VCS DIRECTOR: Nikola Stankoski COORDINATORS: Andrej Naumovski Goran Adamovski Goran Galabov Selina Niemi Ewelina Chańska
VOLUNTEERS: Christopher Machold Clarissa Leute Yvan Barbeau Anna Marek Kacper Król Jolanta Ciopcińska Lucile Guéguen
EXTERNAL WRITERS: Tim Miles Aleksandra Kanasiuk TRANSLATORS: Martina Danilovska Dora Arifi PROOFREADERS: Elen Wright-Stead Edward Stead
DESIGNERS: Lucile Guéguen Selina Niemi Ewelina Chańska Clarissa Leute Anna Marek Kacper Król Jolanta Ciopcińska Yvan Barbeau
CONTACT: Volunteers Centre Skopje Emil Zola 3/3-1, 1000, Skopje +389 22 772 095 vcs_contact@yahoo.com www.vcs.org.mk
VOICES magazine is coordinated, designed and created by ESC and local volunteers with support of Erasmus+ program.
content
VOICES January 2022 - issue 1
topic of the month 4
The thousand and one lives of pajamas
Lucile Guéguen
music 6
Anna Marek
More technology, less money
28
Anna Marek
8
Kacper Król
Më shumë teknologji, më pak para Eurovision Junior 2021 makes history!
26 Јуниорската Евровизија 2021 создаде историја! Кацпер Крол
reportages 10 12
Shein - Fast Fashion at its worst
Clarissa Leute
Waterworld may no longer be a sci-fi scenario
Yvan Barbeau
14
Aleksandra Kanasiuk
16
Kawah Ijen, into the lungs of hell
20
Human-like robots are more and more sophisticated
How people killed a sea
Lucile Guéguen
Yvan Barbeau
22
Is smart manufacturing really smart?
Yvan Barbeau
erasmus+ 24
The greatest threat to youth – radicalization
Jolanta Ciopcińska
opinion 30
4
Why can’t we just listen? Tim Miles
Cover: Ewa Rybarczyk Instagram: ewarybarczyk_photography
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12
topic of the month
the thou sand and
one lives
of
pajama s P
ajamas, pyjamas, PJs, night suits – whatever we call them, pajamas are part of our everyday wear. Pajamas have been beloved by all for centuries. In winter, fuzzy socks and fluffy pajamas are the perfect outfit to enjoy cozying for a good night’s sleep or for those who like spending their day lounging around the house. The garment is seen as a practical type of clothing that provides convenience and comfort. And yet, pajamas date back further than one might think… From an Asian garment that became a European fashion piece, pajamas have come a long way. Originally the term “pajama” derives from the Hindi word “pai-jama”, itself stemming from the Persian word “pae-jama” (هماجياپ) literally meaning “leg-garment”. Traditionally pajamas were loosefitting trousers that are tied at the waist with a drawstring or cord. So by definition, pajamas referred only to the pants. Pajamas can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire in the 13th century. Pajamas were made of lightweight material, such as cotton or silk; the garment was worn throughout South Asia and the Middle East, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and
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тема на месецот
India, not only for sleeping but also for the comfort of the whole day to cope with the warm temperatures. Pajamas were worn by both sexes and members of all social classes. In India, pajamas have been a staple for ages. The loose pants are reminiscent of the Mughal Era when men traditionally wore pajamas paired with a belted kurta and a dupatta – a knee-length tunic and a shawl commonly worn in India. The pioneer of our modern PJs was then known as Mogul’s breeches. In the Western world, wearing pajamas was not a common thing until the 20th century. The worldwide use of pajamas is the direct result of the British presence in India in the 18th and 19th centuries and the British influence on the wider Western world during that era. British colonizers quickly adopted Indian pajamas as an exotic piece of loungewear and emblem of high culture, refinement, and knowledge. Brought back to Europe, the garment was adapted by British to fit their own style and climates. They made two changes: first, they added an “s” to the word so it would match its English equivalent, i.e. trousers; second, they wore their pajamas with a loose top to bed. Thus, the term “pajamas” began to mean a set of nightwear, both the shirt and trousers. Following their introduction to the Western world, pajamas were primarily used as sleeping attire for men. Before then, people just wore typical undergarments to bed. The earliest form of modern pajamas was the combination of Western culture, the cold climate, and the developing modern fashion. Pajamas only became popular in Britain and other Western countries from the beginning of the 19th century. Pajamas initially were the symbol of wealth due
to their scarcity. Then, they entered the mainstream. Soon due to the increasing popularity of the sewing machine, they began to be adapted into a fashionable dress: designers started to experiment colorful materials, various textiles, and feminine trimmings. While men’s pajamas were usually undecorated, those designed for women were made from thin, smooth silks and viscose, dressed with lace and embroidery. Pajamas rapidly became an expression of style and beauty. As PJs were catching on as nightwear for men, they slowly became fashionable daywear for women. However, the ensemble remained a luxurious attire for lounging until the beginning of the 20th century. In Europe, pajamas are often associated with the “liberation” of women. In the early 1920s, the French fashion designer Coco Chanel popularized pajamas for women by creating a style she called “Beach pajamas”. They became a highly sought-after garment by women as swimsuit cover-ups on the beaches and for walking on the boardwalk, notably in the South of France and Great Britain. Women of all ages wore beach pajamas. So the attire got its breakthrough in Europe after the end of the First World War. The transition to the modern pajama took place over the 20th century. In the 1930s, it was a fashion for “Evening Pajamas”. The new type of attire was traditionally worn by hostesses to entertain guests during informal dining at home. Evening pajamas comprised flowing pants and a loose-fitting top. Thanks to the Russian-Georgian fashion designer Irene Galitzine, evening pajamas reemerged in the form of “Palazzo pajamas” after the Second World War. The elegant pajama ensemble was comprised of a tuniclike top and cigarette trousers, often made in soft silk and decorated with
bejeweled collars and beaded hems. Pajamas only returned to the bedroom after the 1960s. Baby Doll pajamas – consisting of a hip-length top of delicate fabric often decorated with ruffles, ribbons, or lace, and a panty – became popular in sleepwear fashion among girls and young women. By the 1970s, there was a rise in the sales of unisex-style clothing: more and more women started to wear the same top-and-pants sets for men in the house. The line between sleepwear and loungewear became blurred. And thus were born sleeping pajamas. Pajamas have stood the test of time worldwide. Today the nightwear falls into the category of intimate wear. Yet, in some cultures, it is socially acceptable to wear pajamas in public. For example, in China, it is common to see locals wearing pajamas while hanging out on the street, strolling in the park, or dining out at the restaurant. In India, pajama is still a standard daytime wearing apparel; kurtapajama is a common formal outfit. So just a word of advice for those finding themselves unable to fall asleep: instead of counting sheep, think of the never-ending history of this centuries-old traditional attire that makes your nights more comfortable and enjoyable. Lucile Guéguen Sources: World of Crow : Pyjamas Dolce & Gabana : The pyjama from the Raj to LA, A staple of fashion through the changing world RESTONI : Incredible Moments in the Epic Never-Ending History of Pajamas
VOICES - 5
reportage
MORE TECHNOLOGY
less money 6 - VOICES
репортажа
It is hard to imagine artists creating music without publishing it on streaming services. For listeners, it is a great convenience: without leaving home, buying a new album, they can listen to their favourite artists with one click. Unfortunately, not everything seems so easy, because as it turns out, musicians do not earn more on streaming platforms than they used to before. It is quite the opposite.
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elling CDs is a thing of the past and it’s not the most popular way for listeners to buy music anymore. Today, it is more of a way to collect music. Likewise, buying vinyl records provide a slightly different musical experience. So, most of the users benefit from the availability of online music. Until a few years ago, many people illegally sought access to music. The reason was simple: it is easier to listen to MP3 music when it is not lying on the shelves, when you can create your own playlists, than to buy it in material form. However, this illegal music download has opened up a way for a few people to create a place for legal access to music. One of them was Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify: today, one of the largest streaming platforms. Those services made life easier for both audiences and creators. From that moment on, the listeners could legally listen to music, and the musicians were to be provided with adequate finances, which they were losing by illegal services. However, it is very difficult to get adequate earnings on streaming services. Due to the ease of publication, they are crowded with hundreds of
thousands of musicians whose goal is the same. Another bothering question is how much you pay for playing one piece. Spotify pays for one song as long as it has been played for at least 30 seconds. As of 2019, Spotify reported that it pays between $.003 and $.005 per stream. So it means to get a dollar, the song needs to be played at least 250 times. And this amount still has to be split into several people and institutions. In Spotify case it is divided by the artist’s record label, their publisher, and other entities.
still defending themselves against payments by using the free versions. As a result, websites earn less and are not able to pay the appropriate amounts to the artists. But the fault lays mostly in the companies’ hands. They make the most important decisions, which also include the creation of playlists that make artists recognizable. This is one of the many reasons why artists protest. And although their music is legally available thanks to streaming services and they actually receive money, their amount is simply ridiculous. Artists’
F o r those who own rights to their own music, it is easier to earn more money. All they need to care about is promoting the music and of course the quality of the songs. However, to earn at least a minimum salary, it takes nearly 400,000 streams, which is not easy to achieve for less popular creators. That’s why many artists changed their tactics. They no longer release music once per 2 or 3 years, but even a few times per year, so they can earn more. The competition is very fierce, almost 40,000 songs are published on Spotify every day.
struggle against streaming services will continue, obscuring the main purpose of music. Works lose their value when more and more of them are created and the artists want to make a living, from what they create, which is very difficult. It is not known what will happen in the future when streaming services have more and more control over music than the creators themselves. Anna Marek Sources: Planetary Group: Do Artists Get Paid Every Time Song Played On Spotify? Business Insider: How Much Does Spotify Pay Per Stream? Rolling Stone: Spotify Dreams of Artists Making a Living. It Probably Won’t Come True
This is also influenced by the payment of subscriptions. Many people are VOICES - 7
reportage
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EUROVISION JUNIOR 2021 makes history! For the second time, the contest was won by Armenia. According to many Eurovision Contest commentators, this edition was one of the strongest ever. Many countries climbed to the heights of musical ability and sent representatives who represented their countries with dignity. This edition was also special because, after a year’s break, everyone could once again meet in one place to compete and enjoy the great atmosphere created by fans from all over the world. A year ago, due to restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic, the participants did not go to Poland, which was the festival’s organizer, due to Viki Gabor winning. They recorded their performances in their countries and sent them to Poland. Also, the audience could only watch the event from in front of their TV sets.
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his year's Junior Eurovision was the second contest with such a large number of participants. There were 19 young performers in La Seine Musicale in Paris. Macedonia was represented by the group "Дајте музика" with a song titled "Green Forces". The group consists of Kristina Mukaetova, Anastasija Dzhabirski, Miha Gigow, and Filip Popowski. The group is known for a TV show with the same name as the band. It was the most-watched children's show in 2020. Young Macedonians referred to the issue of environmental protection of the Earth in their song. In the end, Macedonia got 10th place in the jury's vote and 8th place in the viewers' vote, which ultimately put them in 9th place. As every year, the results of Eurovision Junior were decided equally by the professional jury and the viewers of the contest, who could vote for their favorites online. In each country, a fivemember committee, consisting of three adults and two children, evaluated
the proposals of all other countries, ranking them from best to weakest. The final of the 19th Children's Eurovision Song Contest was triumphed by a song entitled "QamiQami" performed by Malena from Armenia. She got third place in the jury's vote with 115 points and first place in the viewers' vote with 109 points, which put her 6 points ahead of the secondplace finisher, Sara James from Poland. The podium was closed by the hosts from France, who collected 187 points. This is the second gold for Armenians, the first silver for Poland, and bronze for France. In addition to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Portugal, and Georgia recorded the best results ever,while Kazakhstan, Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands, which has participated in all editions in history and until this year, had never finished in last place, recorded the worst. Kacper Król
FINAL SCORING 1. Armenia – Maléna – QamiQami – 224 points 2. Poland – Sara James – Somebody – 218 points 3. France – Enzo – Tic Tac – 187 points 4. Georgia – Nikoloz Kajaia – Let's Count The Smiles – 163 points 5. Azerbaijan – Sona Azizowa – One Of Those Days – 151 points 6. Ukraine – OłenaUsenko – Ważil – 125 points 7. Russia – Tanja Mieżencewa – Mon Ami – 124 points 8. Kazakhstan – AlinurHazmin i BeknurŻunibekuły – Ертегіәлемі (Fairy World) – points 9. Macedonia – DajteMuzika – Green Forces – 114 points 10. Italy – Elisabetta Lizza – Specchio (Mirror On The Wall) – 107 points 11. Portugal – Simão Oliveira – ORapaz – 101 points 12. Malta – Ike & Kaya – My Home – 97 points 13. Serbia – Jovana and Dunja – Children's Eyes – 86 points 14. Albania – Anna Gjebrea – Stand ByYou – 84 points 15. Spain – Levi Díaz – Reír – 77 points 16. Bulgaria – Denislava and Martin – Voice Of Love – 77 points 17. Germany – Pauline – Imagine Us – 61 points 18. Ireland – Maiú Levi Lawlor – Saor (Disappear) – 44 points 19. The Netherlands – Ayana – Mata SuguAō Ne – 43 points Sources: Eurowizja.org
VOICES - 9
reportage
Fast fashion at its worst “Fast fashion isn’t free.
Someone, somewhere is paying.” - Lucy Siegle It’s a widespread fact that fast fashion is problematic. Poor quality of the clothes, severe work conditions in the producing countries and the promotion of excessive consumption through unbelievable low prices. But what if the fastest growing fashion brand in the Western World is bringing these unethical conditions to a new level? 10 - VOICES
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here is no other brand like Shein. The giant Chinese brand that was founded only in 2008 in Nanjing produces clothes faster than any other company. In one single day around 7000 to 8000 products go online at Shein. Every single day. To put it into comparison: Zara “only” releases 200 new pieces a week. And the clothes are cheap - like really cheap! They have dresses starting at 4 Euro. Shein upholds the philosophy that “everyone can enjoy the beauty of fashion.” They even topped Zara and H&M with the most visited fashion website in the world. They are estimated to have made a win of 8.6 billion US dollars in 2020. So how is it possible to release that many clothes on a constant level? Does Shein have the biggest and most gifted team of designers? Not exactly.
STEALING WORK
Shein has a history of copying designers’ work. They are known to have stolen multiple designs from smaller and unknown start-ups. The American fashion designer Mariama Diallo is one of them that found her design on the giant’s website. “I’m SO over these major brands stealing from black designers. @SHEIN_official STOLE my designs. They couldn’t even change ONE thing and it’s now one of their highest selling items. I work hard to design and make everything in LA just for them to mass produce in China.”, she tweeted in June 2021. But as a single person without big financial resources, it’s difficult to sue a Chinese mega-company.
OFFENSIVE PRODUCTS
They have also come under fire for selling Muslim prayer mats as home decor and a swastika necklace - the necklace covers the symbol that was used by Nazis during the Second World War.
WORK CONDITIONS
But now let’s switch to another urgent question. How is it possible that a dress costs 4 Euro? The NGO “Clean Clothes Campaign” had a breakthrough when they managed to identify some of the
sewing places in Guangzhouand talk to the workers. The people they talked to usually work from 11 to 12 hours a day. Seven days a week with one free day in a month. The workers come from poorer areas of China and they purposely sign up for the amount of work to have savings for their families. The workers don’t have a formal contract.
GREENWASHING
Also, it’s not a secret that fast fashion is unsustainable. But did you know that around 8.1% of the fashion industry is responsible for global emissions? It is cheaper to produce clothes out of plastic than through traditional cotton - therefore most clothes from Shein consist of plastic. 60% of the worldwide produced clothes end up in an incineration plant or a dumpster within one year. Yet Shein aims to promote itself as a sustainable brand that cares about the planet. This practice is also called “Greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound.
INFLUENCER MARKETING
Another way that Shein stands out is its effective marketing. Shein gained its visibility and market dominance through a powerful group with a huge influence. The name already suggests: The so-called “Influencers” have a tremendous reach, especially among Gen Z aka people born after the turn of the century. They are paid to upload “clothing hauls’’ and to share pictures with the brand’s clothes. But not only do influencers dominate the market; also their own app. In the Shein App, there are endless coupons, price-off codes and plenty of “Dark Patterns’’. Those are purposely implemented tricks that websites and apps use to manipulate their users. The Shein App revolves completely around the collection of points. Through constant check-ins, challenges, live streams and gambling-related games users can
gain points. With those points, they can go shopping for cheaper as well. One of the most manipulative games in that app is “Gift Box Rush’’. In the minigame, you can click on falling gift boxes and open as many as possible. Some of the boxes contain gift-like coupons. Besides these mini-games, there is plenty of giveaways, hidden advertisements and even a wheel of fortune. Those mechanics can become especially dangerous for children and teenagers. In the Play Store, the app is legal from the age of 12 years old on.
OVERCONSUMPTION
Now all of this might be concerning but still not the biggest surprise. Of course, fast fashion comes with its cost. One might argue that the disproportionate amount of criticism is against people from lower-income classes. After all, Shein offers affordable clothes. However, who is buying the most amount of clothes there? Most probably, the fast fashion industry is not being sustained by people from low-income classes who cannot afford to shop anywhere else, it is being sustained by people who overconsume because they simply can. Why else would there be Shein YouTube Hauls for 900 Euro? And just like that, clothes become disposable and overconsumption becomes a real threat. Clarissa Leute Sources: Lavocedinewyork: How fast fashion became a phenomenon and why it’s bad for you and the planet YouTube: Shein Exposed: The worst fashion concern in the world YouTube: Exposed: How Influencers sell themselves to SHEIN The Guardian: How Shein beat Amazon at its own game and reinvented fast fashion
VOICES - 11
reportage
Waterworld may no longer be a sci-fi scenario The United Nations has recently approved a project called “Oceanix City,” which develops a floating city for the seas off Busan in South Korea to pioneer a new mode of living amid sea-level rises. Let’s give an overview.
On 18th November of this year, the city government of Busan signed an agreement with Oceanix, a company founded by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels Group, and UN-Habitat, to develop a new concept of an off-shore city located several kilometers from the South Korean town, located at the extreme south-east of the peninsula. Although the sea is relatively calm in Busan, the city was harshly hit by typhoons over the last decade, as Chaba, which caused flooding in 2016, and Kong-Rey, which provoked repetitive power failures in 2018 (55.000 in total).
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he aim of the project is to build a town that would be fully autonomous and ecofriendly. Construction should start in 2022 and last three years in total: “We are planning to welcome our first inhabitants in 2025 ”, says Itai Madamombe, co-founder of Oceanix, who informs us that her company is in talks with at least ten other governments about building more floating cities. “The initial concept will remain unchanged, but each town’s construction will be adapted to their own economic, cultural and social context.” The platforms will be anchored about 1.6 kilometers away from the Korean coast to reefs made of “biorock”, a natural material made by underwater minerals that are exposed to electric current and which strengthens over time. All the town’s platforms are linked together. Buildings will be entirely dismountable and made of durable material, such as bamboo or wood. They will be limited to seven floors’ height to keep a low center of gravity. Water -whether it is drinkable or not - will be provided through rainwater harvesting, desalination, or atmospheric air (through a process of condensation and filtration). No car will be allowed: people will have to use bicycles or electric-powered boats. Drones will enable freight transport. Waste will be transported through pneumatic tubes towards a waste recovery facility, where it will be recycled and reused. A real “shipping agriculture” will enable to feed inhabitants, with cages located under the platforms to breed St James shells and other seafood or aquaponic farms to fertilize plants. Adjacent inhabited islands will be dedicated to the production of food or power generation (for instance, with solar panels). As regards the city, it will be divided into “villages” of six hexagons each. The area of each platform is 20.000 square meters, and it will welcome up to 300 residents, but this number may increase over time: “in the coming months, we will discuss along with the town council and our shareholders to determine how many residents will be hosted in the city,” says Itai Madamombe.
There have been numerous projects of floating towns, but none of these projects have been so far successfully implemented. So, what explains the development of Oceanix City at that moment and place? The presence of typhoons in South Korea is not the only explanation. According to the co-founder of Oceanix, Itai Madamombe, “Busan was the best place to build the prototype city because it was home to one of the world’s busiest ports, so local builders and engineers have experience of building along the water.” Also, people have become gradually aware of the dangers linked to rising water levels. As the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, explains: “cities are increasingly at risk of flooding. In Bangkok, the ground on which some parts of the city stands is sinking by around two centimeters every year, according to some estimates, while sea levels in the Gulf of Thailand are rising.” Contrary to projects consisting in creating artificial islands for billionaires, Oceanix City is intended for the most vulnerable populations to rising water levels in the first place and who, according to the startup, “cannot afford a high rent in town.” However, the executive director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, informs us that work is still ongoing “to determine who the residents will be and how they will be selected”. In Busan, startup Oceanix’ team will collaborate with local designers to tailor the prototype to the local environment. Oceanix plans to unveil the results of those efforts at a second UN roundtable in April 2022. After that, the team would start engineering the platforms and working its way through the approval process. The cost of the project is expected to reach $200 million, but no investment has yet been received. Yvan Barbeau Sources: Global Construction Review: South Korea plans to host the world’s first floating city by 2025. Futura Planète: L’ONU veut construire une ville flottante autonome et écologique. L’édition du soir: Voici à quoi va ressembler Oceanix, la première ville flottante et durable contre la montée des eaux. Pictures: OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
VOICES - 13
reportage
How people killed a Sea. The history of eco-disaster in central Asia Sound of water and pleasant feel of the wind on the skin. Lots of boats were coming back from fishing. The fish smell was saturating everything in the harbour. People were busy transporting cargo to local canneries. Some people were sunbathing on the beach. It might look like that in the late 1960s in Aralsk or Muynaq in Central Asia. Before the Sea… disappeared. All that was left was the graveyard of rusting ships and an enormous ecological disaster.
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he Aral Sea lies at the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the middle of the deserts Kara-Kum and Kyzyl-Kum. In 1960 this saline sea area was about 68 000 km2; it was the fourth of Earth’s most giant inland water bodies. The economy of the surrounding cities was based on the fish industry. However, Soviet politics had a different plan for this region. They came up with the project of irrigating desert areas to cultivate cotton and crops. The digging of drainage canals started in the 1930s and increased in the 1960s. The water from the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya- two rivers fed the Aral Sea, was diverted into irrigation canals. The plantations were growing, therefore in the late eighties, Uzbekistan became the largest cotton exporter in the world. Water from the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya had been used to water plantations practically for thousand years. But what could go wrong? As we can see today – a lot. Twenty per
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cent of Aral’s water supply came from rainfalls. The rest was delivered by the Amu Darya and Sur Darya rivers. Most canals were built so poorly that the water from the rivers indeed watered the cotton. Still, it is estimated that ca. 30-75% of the water from the biggest Qaraqum Canal went to waste because of leakage and evaporation. All the water wasted in Qaraqum Canal was lost in Aral, sinking into the soil instead of sourcing the Sea. The water level in the Aral Sea has decreased rapidly since that time. And this is how the tragedy began. Since 1960, the first-decade water level dropped by 21 cm yearly, but in the next desiccation period, it was 57 cm a year. Due to positive feedback between evaporation and the sea surface temperature, the water level started accelerating faster. Due to shrinking, in the late eighties, the Sea receded to form two, then four parts: smaller North Aral Sea, temporary Barsakelmes
Lake and Larger South Aral Sea, which split into western and eastern basins. The salinity of the Sea increased from 10 g/l to more than 100 g/l in Southern Aral, so most of the Sea’s fauna and flora, including endemic species, died out. Water was no longer fit for drinking purposes due to increasing salinity and pollution with pesticides and fertilisers from surrounding farms. In 2014 US space agency’s satellite took pictures showing the dried-up eastern basin of the South Aral Sea, which turned into the AralKum desert, an utterly barren and salty area. Currently, the Aral lake has 10% of its original volume of water and 25% of its original size. Water leakages damaged the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya deltas and vegetation. The hydrological balance in the region was disturbed. The vegetative cover changed, and the plants began to die away. The side effect of this process was
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intensified winds. Six million hectares of agricultural land were destroyed due to desertification and salinisation of the soil. The Aral Sea had a significant role in regulating climate in Central Asia. Maritime conditions changed in the direction of continental and desertic climates. Summers have warmed, winters have cooled. Humidity in the region has lowered, and the growing seasons have become shorter than before. The desiccation process brought loads of ecological, demographic, and socio-economic problems. The fish industry pulled down; former ports after evaporation of the Sea were far from the shore. The high rate of unemployment in the region caused the wave of migration. People lost their hope, the cities and villages started to depopulate. In the late 1990s, one of more than 1100 Aral’s islands - Resurrection Island (Russian: Остров Возрождения) became a particular environmental concern. During Cold War, it had been a testing ground for Soviet biological weapons: genetically modified pathogens such as smallpox, typhus, or plague. In 2002 American expedition discovered there and neutralised one hundred tons of anthrax bacteria. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Resurrection Island has been united with the mainland. Existed a risk that some bacteria survived and could be transmitted to the human sites via infected wild animals. But not only the biological weapon was the main health hazard in this area. When the water dropped enough to expose the seabed, winds blowing across it produced sand and salt storms that buffeted the area with toxic dust from pesticides and fertilizers. The tempests were often from 150-300 km wide, and people could find the dirt
from the Aral Sea region hundreds of to feel a ‘post-apocalyptic’ climate of kilometres away from its source. empty canneries and rusty skeleton Scientists even found the dust ships, marine signs of former glory in Antarctica. Knowing that as a port. Now the Aral-Kum desert. a hundred million tonnes However, Uzbekistan started a new of dust are picked up by project to stop the toxic dust from winds and carried out, spreading worldwide. They planned we can imagine that to plant Saxaul – a native Uzbekistan people living near the drought-resistant tree in the Aral former Aral Sea basin seabed to transform the desert into are the most exposed. the forest and cover the toxic land with Therefore, the number a green blanket. of diseases such as asthma, Knowing all of that, the first plans typhoid fever, leukaemia, of saving the Aral Sea might sound throat cancers, kidney and liver hilarious. Soviets wanted to dig diseases or tuberculosis increased another canal(!) to water the Sea by through inhabitants of this area. Siberian rivers such as Ob and Irtysh. Thirty years ago, people Fortunately, the plan backfired; at thought there was least they didn’t cause another no more hope eco-disaster in Siberia. We can for the Aral Sea. We can learn a learn a lot from that bitter Fortunately, since lesson of one of the most lot from that bitter the beginning significant anthropogenic lesson of one of the of the nineties, disasters. Damaging the most significant Kazakhstan has environment is extremely been trying to easy, but repairing it anthropogenic stop the sea from is an arduous process. disasters. drying up. In 1992 History of the Aral Sea is they built the first dam the following example of separating the North and human mismanagement of natural South Aral Sea. After ten years, the first resources, which harmed people’s dam was washed away, making a more lives. It will never restore to its original modern one – the Dike Kokaral was size, but we can at least support necessary. It helped to keep the water initiatives fighting for preserving what level in the North Aral Sea. In 2001 can be saved. started project of the regulation of a riverbed of Syr Darya to Aleksandra Kanasiuk preserve the northern part Sources: of the Aral Sea. The water YouTube: Green Aral Sea Initiative – Planting a in the Little Aral Sea went Forest on the Aral Seabed up, the distance from Articlekz: Aral Sea: the last hope for salvation Aralsk - former harbour Ciesin: Desiccation of the Aral Sea: A Water city to the shore was Management Disaster in the Soviet Union Moluch.ru: Ecological problems of the Aral reduced from 120 to less Sea: legends and solutions than 20 kilometres. With Earthobservatory.nasa.gov: World of Change: the water, life returned to Shrinking Aral Sea this area – local enterprises Columbia.edu: The Aral Sea Crisis began recovering, fish restored, and Bbc.com: The country that brought a sea back people came back to villages. to life Britannica.com: Aral Sea Drying up the southern part of the sea Greenaralsea.org is inevitable since the Amu Darya has Scientificamerican.com: Reclaiming the Aral been used more than ever to irrigate Sea cotton. We cannot stop the deserting Juristas.com.br: The Aral Sea Disaster and evaporating processes in the south. Meanwhile, Muynaq became a Pictures: Kalman Kovacs - Pixabay dark tourism destination. People want
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Patrick Schenider - Unsplash Richard Mc - Pixabay
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I am not prepared just now to say to what extent I believe in a physical hell in the next world, but a sulfur mine is about the nearest thing to hell that I expect to see in this life. "
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Booker T. Washington
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reportage
KAWAH IJEN I
into the lungs of hell
ndonesia is located on the Ring of Fire, the most seismically and volcanically active zone in the world. The country is home to about 150 volcanoes of all types and dimensions. Locals call them Gunung Api – “fire mountain” in the Indonesian language. Kawah Ijen is one of the most active volcanoes scattered across the archipelago and certainly one of the most incredible and surreal places in the world.
Kawah Ijen is a geological masterpiece. It has two of the most fascinating natural phenomena on Earth. At night, due to the combustion of sulfuric gases, the volcano puts on a spectacular show of dancing electric blue flames. It also has the largest highly acidic crater lake on the planet, a magnificent one-kilometer-wide lake filled with turquoise-blue water as a result of extreme acidity and a high concentration of dissolved metals.
But the famous tourist attraction has a dark side.
Since 1968, Kawah Ijen is the site of a labor-intensive sulfur mining operation. The volcano hosts one of the last remaining active sulfur mines in the world and it is probably one of the few places in the world where sulfur mining is still done by hand. Every day over 200 miners journey into the depths of the volcano to extract the yellow-colored mineral. Kawah Ijen is undoubtedly among the most dangerous workplaces on Earth. In the early hours of the morning, sulfur miners leave from the base camp at the foot of the volcano to hike up to the summit of the volcano at 2600 meters. After an exhausting two-hour walk, they handily descend into the depths of the crater walking along a steep path with jagged stones and slippery steps. Many do the trip barefoot or wear only cheap flip-flops. One can see two kinds of people near the crater: sulfur miners working in grueling conditions, and tourists wealthy enough to afford gas masks, mobile phones, and digital cameras and take in the mesmerizing view of Mount Ijen. The beauty of the volcano comes at a real cost for the miners. Having reached the bottom of the crater, miners break off pieces of sulfur with iron bars. Despite the extreme conditions, they work with no kind of special
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equipment: most of them wear nothing other than sweaters, trousers, and a wet cloth over their noses and mouths to breathe among the toxic cloud of poisonous fumes. Few of the miners possess gas masks. The miners’ coughs rip the night silence that encircles the crater. The high temperatures and the sulfuric gasses burn their lungs, skin, and eyes. Since the beginning of the mining activities, over 70 miners have died due to poisonous gases. After harvesting chunks of yellow raw sulfur, the miners place the sulfur blocks in their pair of wicker baskets attached by a bamboo pole. They carry up to 120 kilos – more than their body weight and sometimes the double – of sulfur out of the noxious crater perched on their shoulders. Suffering under the weight of the loads, the 300-meter climb back up through the steep crater wall demands a huge effort, great strength, and balance. One by one the miners come out of the cloud with their creaking baskets on their shoulders. Due to the heavy loads, the miners are left with permanent scars on their shoulders and often suffer from spine, shoulders, and legs deformities as well as respiratory diseases. Their life expectancy is said to barely reach 50 years. But despite the harsh conditions they find themselves in, the miners sing local songs, laugh, and joke amongst each other. Afterward, miners hike down the volcano’s outer slopes to a weigh station, where they are paid straightforwardly a c c o r d i n g
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to the quantity they manage to
of carry
sulfur back.
A state company runs the mine, and the sulfur extracted is mostly bought by local factories to refine sugar and make matches. The wage per kilo of sulfur is about 1000 Indonesian rupiah – approximately 0.06€. So the more sulfur the miners carry, the more they get paid. Most miners do the trip twice a day, six days a week. The men rely on the volcano as their major source of income to support their families. A sulfur miner can earn around eight Euros per day or 200 Euros per month, a relatively high salary for that part of Indonesia – approximately twice of the farmers’ wage cultivating rice in East Java. The options for employment are very limited in this rural area. Most of the miners live close by with their families in the villages
around the volcano; some of them stay alone in makeshift wooden huts at the base camp on the crater’s rim. Despite considerations to modernize the whole process, the miners are not calling for a workplace revolution. They fear mechanization would threaten their job. Though, the miners want to spare their children from having to follow in their footsteps. Their efforts are aimed at ensuring their family can pursue a more comfortable future, sending their children to school, and giving them a passport to a better life. In recent years, Kawah Ijen and the nearest city Banyuwangi have become popular destinations. The volcano is visited by hundreds of local tourists each day. Meanwhile, the number of international tourists has tripled between 2014 and 2017. The tourism boom presents an opportunity for
the miners: some of them work as tour guides, while others run own a homestay business. The miners of Kawah Ijen want to be the last generation to mine sulfur by hand. Lucile Guéguen Sources: BBC: The men who mine the ‘Devil’s gold’ Media Indonesia: Banyuwangi, Java’s Easternmost Region with A Million Charm Photos: Agus Setiawan Jean-Marie Hullot | Flickr Arian Zwegers | Flickr CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | Wikimedia Commons Kondephy | Wikimedia Commons Emjeha | Wikimedia Commons
VOICES - 19
reportage
Human-like robots are more and more sophisticated Humanoid robots have long been sci-fi characters, but they are perfecting every day. Engineered Arts, a UK-based designer, and manufacturer of such robots, recently showed off one of its most life-like creations with its last bot Ameca, which can display what appears to be the most human-like facial expressions by a robot to date.
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ngineered Arts, the company behind Mesmer robot series, has unveiled a new creation that may weird you out even more. “Ameca is a new humanoid robot that does not have realistic hair and skin like Mesmer, but can instead show more human-like, natural-looking expressions than others we’ve seen,” as The Verge has reported. In a video posted by Engineered Arts on Youtube, Ameca first displays confusion, as it appears to wake up as if it were surprised by its existence. Then it seems surprised to see the viewer or camera, and finishes the video with a smile and welcoming hand gesture. The improvements in facial animation look to result from more fluid movements than we’ve seen before. By contrast, the Mesmer “Fred” robot had decent head movements but looks like he just had a shot of Novocain in his entire lower face when he speaks. Ameca appears to have a fully articulated head, face, neck, shoulders, arms, and hands, but Engineered Arts notes that “none of its robots can walk” - though the company is studying that capability. It’s unclear how Ameca’s facial expressions were animated, but some form of motion capture seems a good bet. The company said that Ameca is a “platform for developing Artificial Intelligence” but lets others develop the necessary machine learning algorithms. Engineered Arts have previously said that it uses “powerful, silent, high-torque” motors to drive Mesmer’s body and head movements, with everything designed from scratch to work together perfectly. It also uses sensors like cameras, depth sensors, LiDAR, and microphones.
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None of the robots at Engineered Arts has been designed to do anything other than impress an audience. Mesmer was programmed in a way that allowed it to give a speech using the voice of a person behind the scenes. But they cannot walk or move around -they move only their arms, hand wrists, fingers, neck, head, eyes, and mouth. Ameca has been designed as a robot platform-customers who buy it can add AI and other software to give the bot desired abilities. The software it comes with is geared toward creating life-like expressions: it can smile, frown, wink, and open and close its mouth; it can show surprise or frustration, or amusement. As for Mesmer, it used 3D scans of actual humans to give the bot accurate bone structure, skin texture, and life-like facial expressions. In a video posted just days after the Ameca showcase, Mesmer makes a series of expressions that look even more convincing, given that this bot has more life-like skin and facial features than Ameca does at the moment. This latter has, on the other hand, grey-colored skin, with deliberate gender -and raceneutral characteristics: “we’ve tried to be gender-neutral, raceneutral. We’re just trying to make something that has the basic human characteristics -expression- without putting anything else on top of that. So, hence the grey faces”.
репортажа Sources: The Verge: A humanoid robot makes eerily life-like facial expressions Global News: Meet Ameca, the remarkable (and not at all creepy) human-like robot Techxplore: Ameca robot shows off a new level of humanlike facial expressions Engadget: ‘Ameca’ robot shows off more human-like facial expressions
The reason behind creating these humanoid robots is simple, as Engineered Arts founder Will Jackson told Reuters: “it is to interact with people. The humanoid face is a very high bandwidth communication tool, and that’s why we built these expressive robots”. Engineered Arts designs and manufactures humanoid entertainment robots for science centers, theme parks, and businesses. Ameca is now available for purchase or rental. However, Jackson believes it is the perfect test platform for AI: “many people working on Artificial Intelligence interaction, all kinds of new apps that are using vision systems, segmentation, face recognition, speech recognition, voice synthesis. But what you don’t see is the hardware to run all that software on. What we are trying to do is to provide a platform for doing AI”. He adds: “a lot of communication is not verbal. So it’s not all about speech. It is about expression. It’s about gestures. A simple move like that can mean a thousand words. The robot does not have to say anything. So, the last thing we wanted to make was a robot that said, “Please repeat the question.” The abilities of Ameca and the company’s prior robots are the result of over 15 years’ worth of research and development. Ameca is currently available for sale at the cost of US$ 133,000 through the Engineered Arts website, but certain models are also available for rent for events. If you are interested in buying it, you can get a closeup look at it soon as Engineered Arts plans to show Ameca off at CES 2022 in Las Vegas. Yvan Barbeau VOICES - 21
reportage
Is smart manufacturing The notion of Industry 4.0 or smart manufacturing is a natural step of the ongoing “numerical convergence” with information technology (IT) on the one hand and operational technology (OT) on the other hand. It has appeared at the beginning of the 2010s. It has undergone incredible development since, so much so that the main question to this transition relies more on how industries will adapt instead of why.
really
smart? 22 - VOICES
Smart factory can be described today as a mix of technologies such as the Internet of Things, the digital twin, AI (Artificial intelligence), augmented reality, or Robotics. It can, however, be distinguished by four essential characteristics.
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irst of all, it is connected and data-driven. Smart factory relies on data and IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things connectivity) to facilitate adaptation and control over all the sites on every aspect of the operations in near real-time and with virtual automation. With the Internet of Things, firms can think and react independently as their exploitation, maintenance, and innovation have become proactive. Machines rely on reliable real-time informatics and connectivity, and they are equipped with sensors and interoperable open systems. All products, raw materials, equipment, hardware, and monitoring systems have sufficient potential to collect and share data. This latter can be analyzed in their context and in real-time to deliver workers usable information about machinery health monitoring, manufacturing process, and the state of the output. Smart factory also functions as autonomous and self-managed system of systems, in other words, as a network of individually interconnected systems, each of which has a high degree of flexibility, efficiency, and autonomy. Eventually, firms will be similar to a vast system, including hundreds of subsystems operating independently, but turned towards the same goal. Each system and subsystem in the firm will use AI (Artificial Intelligence), machine vision, deep learning, and edge analytics to control and communicate with everything that factory floors encompass, whether it is about factory production, maintenance, its supply chain, or security. Smart factory can also be described as a collaborative human-machine hub as it involves humans, machines, and production systems altogether. It reduces human presence on factory floors: in return, they are helped by collaborative robots (“cobots”) for carrying out complex tasks, whereas robots have to perform repetitive tasks that are generally harmful to humans.
Smart factory is, at last, a system that shows the capacity for adaptation as it enables manufacturers to extend and develop applications as well as improve IIOT value to accompany the evolution of entrepreneurial strategies. This is, for example, the strategy developed by ALTEN, a French consultancy company created in 1988, which tackles technological challenges of the Industry 4.0 transformation. According to François Portier, program research Smart Factory 4.0 director for the company, “the more it is triggered at an early stage, the more transformation will be effective in the factory. The hardest part is to get down to it and ensure the change will take place”. That is why ALTEN bets on new technologies’ adaptation to what is existing to avoid investing large amounts and facilitate a progressive appropriation: “Step by step, we are moving forward; at the beginning, on a defined perimeter which enables to measure the impact and gains earned before broadening this perimeter gradually.” Artificial Intelligence and deep learning create numerical patterns, which are increasingly detailed, accurate and relevant, both for equipment and processes, which in turn facilitates decision making and planification. The latter becomes, as a result, more focused on data. The consequence is that devices react to events at a higher cognitive level and get smarter as time goes by. Production monitoring becomes more autonomous, and new entrepreneurial approaches emerge. Yvan Barbeau Sources : Qu’est-ce qui rend une usine intelligente ? - informatique Industrielle & IIoT (integral-system.fr) L’usine intelligente: quand l’intelligence artificielle se met au service de l’homme
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erasmus+
t s e t a e r g e Th – h t u o y o t t a e r th n o i t a z i l a c i rad
While most of us are familiar with the concept of radicalization, it is often difficult to define it. We also narrow down its meaning to a specific group, e.g., terrorist or religious groups, which does not reflect the phenomenon’s complexity. What is radicalization? How can we prevent it? The participants of the training course “Preventing radicalization of young people through youth work” answered these and many more questions about radicalization and shared good practices in preventing this process. 24 - VOICES
еразмус+
“Preventing the conflicts of tomorrow means changing the mindset of youth today.” - Graça Machel
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bout thirty youth workers from eight countries were part of the training course: “Preventing radicalization of young people through youth work” held in Struga, Macedonia, from November 25th to December 3rd. The training course was organized in cooperation with Puntland Community ry from Finland, which coordinated the activities and was funded by Erasmus+ program. Volunteers Centre Skopje was the host and implementer of the project. The increasing number of terrorist attacks in recent years, migrant crisis, separatism, and rise of nationalism all over Europe have become the push factor for radicalization processes. What do we understand by the term radicalization? Radicalization is the process by which individuals or groups embrace extremist beliefs that support violence as a method to achieve changes in society. The radicalization of social views and behavior is gaining momentum and is a growing threat to democracy in Europe and the world. Researches show that especially young people are exposed to the indoctrination of radical circles. The project “Preventing Radicalization of Young People Through Youth Work” precisely addressed this issue: the radicalization of young people and the need for more knowledge, competencies, and action to prevent this malicious phenomenon. During the project, participants examined and discussed the key factors that trigger and fuel youth radicalization: social exclusion, inequality, the polarization of political views, stigmatization of dissimilarity, and hate speech. What do radicalized youth have in common? They might struggle with rejection, a sense of injustice, or danger. When they feel left out, they might look for groups and people that will understand them. How can we prevent the radicalization of today’s youth? The participants of the training course shared some
ideas. Kerli Telve from Estonia said that we need to “create joint activities for different people so everyone could learn that besides all the differences, we have more things in common”. “We must provide education, tolerance, employment opportunities, and integrate youth.” added Emine Girişken from Turkey. What advice can we give to parents? “The best way to prevent our children from radicalization is to know more about their lives and activities.” shared Abdulaziz Ibrahim from the UK. Except for supporting the exchange of good practices in the field of youth radicalization through sharing positive experiences from different countries, the participants highlighted the importance of accepting cultural diversity. They reflected on stereotypes in their home countries and the countries of other participants and shared their knowledge about accepting and promoting cultural diversity in education, business, and local communities. The participants also had the opportunity to learn more about the culture of their hosting organization. And what is the best way to immerse yourself in a foreign country’s culture? Explore its beauties! During the project, the participants had the chance to visit one of the main travel destinations in Macedonia – Ohrid. Besides a huge dose of knowledge and ideas for the future, the participants got fond memories and gained lifelong friendships during eight days in Struga. The project provided space for networking and developing new ideas for preventing youth radicalization through the mutual work of youth workers from various European organizations and improved the capacity of participating organizations by providing them with new youth work practices and effective activities addressing youth radicalization.
Jolanta Ciopcińska
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Јуниорската Евровизија 2021 создаде историја! За втор пат, победник на натпреварот беше Арменија. Според голем број коментатори на Евровизискиот натпревар, иваа едиција беше една од најсилните досега. Мнигу држави се искачија на висините на нивните музички способности и достоинственоисоратија нивни државни репрезентативци. Оваа едиција исто така беше посебна бидејќи по целогодишна пауза, сите можеа уште еднаш да се сретнат на едно место да се натпреваруваат и да уживаат во убавиот амбиент создаден од фановите низ целиот свет. Оред една ходина поради рестрикциите поврзани со ковид-19 пандемијата, учесниците не занинаа во Полска, која беше прганизатор на фестивалот, поради победата на Вики Габор. Тие ги снимија своите перформанси и ги испратија во Полска. Исто така пубкиката можеше да го гледа настанот пред нивните ТВ екрани.
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ваа година Јуниорскиот Евросонг беше вториот натпревар со толку голем број на учесници. Таму имаше 19 млади изведувачи во La Seine Musicale во Париз. Македонија ја претставуваше групата “Дајте музика” со песната насловена “Green Forces”. Групата ја содржат Кристина Мукаетова, Анастасија Џабирски, Миха Гигов и Филип Поповски. Групата е позната по ТВ емисија со истото име како бендот. Беше најгледаната детска емисија во 2020. Младите македонци се осврнаа кон проблемот за заштита на животната средина во нивната песна. На крајот Македонија заврши на 10тото место по гласовите на жирито, и на 8мото место според гласовите на публиката што автоматски ги донесе на 9тото место. Како секоја година, резултатите на Јуниорскоиот Евросонг беа подеднакво одлучени од страна на професионалното жири и публиката на натпреварот, кои можеа да гласаат за своите фаворити онлајн.
Во секоја држава, 5-члената комисија содржана од тројца возраснии две деца, кои ги евалуираат предлозите на сите други држави, рангирајќи ги од најдобри до најслаби. Финалето на 19тиот детски Евросонг беше триумфиран од песната насловена “Qami Qami” изведена од Малена од Арменија. Таа доби 3то место од жирито со 115 поени и прво место од публиката со 109 поени, што ја донесе со 6 поени предност од натпреварувачката која заврши на второ место, Сара Џејмс од Полска. Подиумот беше затборен од домаќините од Франција, кои добија 187 поени. Ова е второто злато на Арменците, првото сребро на Полска и бронза за Франција. Како и Арменија, Азербеџан, Португалија и Германија ги имаа најдобрите резултати досега, додека пак Казахстан, Шпанија, Ирска и Холандија, кои имаат учествувано во сите едиции низ историјата и до годинава, никогаш немаат завршено на последно место.
Подолу се целосните резултати од натпреварот: 1. Арменија-Maléna-Qami Qami-224 поени 2. Полска – Сара Џејмс – Somebody – 218 поени 3. Франција– Ензо – Tic Tac – 187 поени 4. Грузија – Николоз Кајаија – Let’s Count The Smiles – 163 поени 5. Азербеџан – Сона Азизова – One Of Those Days – 151 поени 6. Украина – Олена Усенкo – Ważil – 125 поени 7. Русија – Тања Миенцевa – Mon Ami – 124 поени 8. Казахстан – Алинур Хазмини Бекнур Зунибекулу – Ертегіәлемі (Fairy World) – points 9. Македонија – Дајте музикa – Green Forces – 114 поени 10. Италија – Eлизабета Лизa – Specchio (Mirror On The Wall) – 107 поени 11. Португалија – Симао Оливеира – O Rapaz – 101 поени 12. Малтa – Ике &Кајa – My Home – 97 поени 13. Србија – Јована и Дуња – Children’s Eyes – 86 поени 14. Албанијa – Aна Ѓебреa – Stand By You – 84 поени 15. Шпанија – Леви Дијаз – Reír – 77 поени 16. Бугарија – Денислава и Мартин – Voice Of Love – 77 поени 17. Германија – Паулин – Imagine Us – 61 поени 18. Ирска – Maiú Levi Lawlor – Saor (Disappear) – 44 поени 19. Холандија – Ајана – Mata Sugu Aō Ne – 43 поени Кацер Крол Превод: Mартина Даниловска Извори: Eurowizja.org
VOICES - 27
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MË SHUMË TEKNOLOGJI
MË PAK PARA 28 - VOICES
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Është e vështirë të imagjinohet që artistët të krijojnë muzikë pa e publikuar atë në shërbimet e transmetimit. Për dëgjuesit, është një lehtësi e madhe: pa u larguar nga shtëpia, duke blerë një album të ri, ata mund të dëgjojnë artistët e tyre të preferuar me një klikim. Fatkeqësisht, jo gjithçka duket aq e lehtë, sepse siç rezulton, artistët nuk fitojnë më shumë në platformat e transmetimit si dikur. Është krejt e kundërta.
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hitja e CD-ve është një gjë që i përket të kaluarës dhe nuk është më mënyra më e njohure dëgjuesëve për të blerë muzikën. Sot, kjo është më shumë një mënyrë për të koleksiunuar muzikë. Po kështu, blerja e disqeve vinyl ofron një përvojëtë ndryshme muzikore. Pra, shumica e përdoruesve përfitojnë nga disponueshmëria e muzikës në internet. Deri pak vite më parë, shumë njerëz kërkuan ilegalisht qasjes në muzikë. Arsyeja ishte e thjeshtë: është më e lehtë të dëgjosh muzikë MP3 kur ajo nuk është e rënditur në rafte, kur mund të krijosh listat e tua për të dëgjuar, sesa ta blesh atë në formë materiale. Megjithatë, ky shkarkim i paligjshëm i muzikës ka hapur një rrugë për disa njerëz që të krijojnë një vend për qasje legale në muzikë. Një prej tyre ishte Daniel Ek, themeluesi i Spotify: sot, një nga platformat më të mëdha të transmetimit. Këto shërbime e bënë jetën më të lehtë si për audiencën ashtu edhe për artistët. Që nga ai moment, dëgjuesit mund të dëgjonin ligjërisht muzikë dhe artistëve do t’u siguroheshin financat e duhura, të cilat po i humbisnin nga shërbimet ilegale. Sidoqoftë, është shumë e vështirë të marrësh fitime të mjaftueshme nga
shërbimet e transmetimit. Për shkak të lehtësisë së botimit, ato janë të mbushura me qindra mijëra artistë, qëllimi i të cilëve është i njëjtë. Një pyetje e rradhës është, sa paguani për të luajtur një pjesë. Spotify paguan për një këngë për sa kohë që është luajtur për të paktën 30 sekonda. Që nga viti 2019, Spotify raportoi se paguan midis 0,003 dhe 005 dollarë për transmetim. Pra, do të thotë për të marrë një dollar, kënga duhet të luhet të paktën 250 herë. Dhe kjo shumë ende duhet të ndahet në disa njerëz dhe institucione. Në rastin Spotify, ajo ndahet nga etiketa diskografike e artistit, botuesin e tyre dhe subjekte të tjera.
Për ata që kanë të drejta për muzikën e tyre, është më e lehtë të fitojnë më shumë para. Gjithçka që duhet t’u interesojë është promovimi i muzikës dhe sigurisht cilësisë së këngëve. Megjithatë, për të fituar të paktën një pagë minimale, duhen afro 400,000 transmetime, gjë që nuk është e lehtë për t’u arritur për krijuesit më pak të njohur. Kjo është arsyeja pse shumë artistë ndryshuan taktikat e tyre. Ata nuk publikojnë më muzikë një herë në 2 ose 3 vjet, por disa herë në vit, në mënyrë që të fitojnë më shumë. Konkurrenca është shumë e madhe, çdo ditë publikohen gati 40 mijë këngë në Spotify. Kjo ndikohet edhe nga pagesa e
abonimeve. Shumë njerëz ende po mbrojnë veten kundër pagesave duke përdorur versionet falas. Si rezultat, faqet e internetit fitojnë më pak dhe nuk janë në gjendje të paguajnë shumat e duhura për artistët. Por faji qëndron kryesisht në duart e kompanive. Ata marrin vendimet më të rëndësishme, të cilat përfshijnë edhe krijimin e listave për dëgjim që i bëjnë artistët të dallueshëm. Kjo është një nga arsyet e shumta pse artistët protestojnë. Megjithëse muzika e tyre është e disponueshme ligjërisht falë shërbimeve të transmetimit dhe ata në fakt marrin para, por shuma e tyre është thjesht qesharake. Lufta e artistëve k u n d ë r shërbimeve të transmetimit do të vazhdojë, duke errësuar qëllimin kryesor të muzikës. Veprat humbasin vlerën e tyre kur krijohen gjithnjë e më shumë dhe artistët duan të sigurojnë jetesën, nga ajo që krijojnë, gjë që është shumë e vështirë. Nuk dihet se çfarë do të ndodhë në të ardhmen kur shërbimet e transmetimit të kenë gjithnjë e më shumë kontroll mbi muzikën sesa vetë artistët. Anna Marek Përkthyes: Dora Arifi Burimet: Planetary Group: A paguhen artistët sa herë që luhet kënga në Spotify? Business Insider: Sa paguan Spotify për transmetim? Rolling Stone: Spotify Ëndrra e artistëve për të siguruar jetesën. Ndoshta nuk do të bëhet e vërtetë. VOICES - 29
reportage
Why can't we just listen?
We’re running, before we can walk, finishing before we’ve started and arriving at the end of things before we’ve even heard the beginning. Album song shuffling is here to stay, disrupting the musical journey, but the artists are pushing back. 30 - VOICES
репортажа
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s a teenager growing up in 1970’s Great Britain, I listened to music on vinyl, played on a record player with a single speaker and it was great. Most Saturdays, I would cycle across town to the record store and thumb through the hundreds of albums and singles, buying my single of choice with my saved-up pocket money, cycling home to play it endlessly in my bedroom. Sometimes, I would save up my money and after a few weeks, I would be able to buy an album; that collection of songs that the artist has put together to take the listener on a musical journey through time; I still prefer albums over singles. For some artists, the album art, was as important as the music itself, Motorhead’s ‘Bomber’ being a classic example of this art, along with Mike Oldfields
carefully created, which is why so many musicians supported Adele’s nonrandomization request. You wouldn’t shuffle a book or a movie, so why shuffle the musical story of an album? A well thought out album that is crafted with a storyline is best listened to in its entirety start to finish, with the pauses, just as the artist intended it. Listening to The Beatles’ Abbey Road on shuffle, for instance, is like reading the chapters of a great novel in a random order. For concept albums like David Bowies, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust, you need to have the rise before the fall.
always right, right? It remains to be seen if Adele has reversed a trend and all eyes will be on her which sounds good in one sense, until you realise that Adele is selling a product and the more people who hear about it and talk about it, for any reason, the more money she will make from it. She is a clever and talented artist, far cleverer that the people commenting on this minor issue. More power to her I say.
Premium subscribers to Spotify have now gone one step further, changing the usual ‘shuffle’ mode, defaulting now to ‘play’, meaning that every time users want to listen to an album, the default option is to play it from beginning to end instead of hitting the first song and then choosing to keep the regular
‘Tubular Bells’ album. (Fig:1 & 2). Then came MTV, the internet and then Spotify, spoiling this musical journey, crafted so carefully by the music artist. Google Music. SoundCloud and now YouTube Music have continued this “mix it up” trend.
But the artists are pushing back. In case you missed it, when Adele released her fourth album “30” last month, she successfully convinced Spotify to change its default setting so the listener cannot randomize the songs, thus preserving this musical journey. (Fig:3). This Latin, Grammy Award and Emmy Award winning music artist, who has produced more than 90 albums wrote an article and explains the importance of album-sequencing – that is, the art of compiling album tracks to take the listener on a personal musical journey, creating themes and stories that enrich the listening experience and by clicking on random, listeners may well be missing the message as well as this audio journey that has been
queue. For advertisement supported listeners though, they still have to listen to the songs in whatever order the Spotify algorithm chooses to, taking the listener to the end before the start. However, despite this, push back, artists writing musical journey albums seem to be becoming increasingly hard to find, as artists create music for this digital, randomised play market, where sales and music play, via streaming services have greatly expanded, bringing music on demand for anyone with a smart phone. All we need is the choice. Albums often contain a mix of good songs, some great, some good and some not so good and so the ability to skip the bad ones makes sense, doesn’t it? Surely. It’s about the customer, and they are
Tim Miles Sources: Andorno Jose, Spotify ditches shuffle button for play for all artist albums after doing this for Adeles ‘30’ Smith Chris, Adele is right – shuffle buttons are a betrayal of great albums
VOICES - 31
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