VOICES July 2020

voices

ENGLISH МАКЕДОНСКИ SHQIP

Magazine for all young people around the world

July 2020

EDITORIAL кирси суоми - УРЕДНИК НА ОВА ИЗДАНИЕ НА “ВОИСЕС” Kirsi Suomi - EDITOR OF THIS EDITION OF “VOICES”

“Dance is the hidden passion of our soul.”

„Танцот е скриената страст на нашата душа“ - Марта Грахам

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- Martha Graham

his month dancing is our passion. It’s a wonderful way to express yourself, relieve stress, and forget everything around you. The times of solitude are passing, have you had enough time to take a look at your inner self, reflect your thoughts and dreams, maybe think who you really want to be?

Take a look at what has been happening in Erasmus+ world, seek motivation to have the courage to expand your experiences in the field of volunteering because we care, we act, and so you can, too!

And if this world and planet are not enough, don’t panic. From HERstory, you’ll find out what we have been doing in space and later on, update what the present and future have to offer, followed by interesting thoughts of our modern society and culture. Get to know the World of Anime and the unknown territories of Venice(s).

Enjoy your summer, read VOICES & remember to keep up the Pride!

вој месец танцувањето е нашата страст. Тоа е чудесен начин на изразување, да се ослободите од стрес и да заборавите на сѐоколу вас. Времето на изолација изминува, имавте ли доволно време да погледнете во своето внатрешно „Јас“, да ги увидете вашите мисли и сништа, можеби да размислите какви навистина сакате да бидете? Разгледајте што се случуваше во светот на Еразмус+, најдете мотивација и храброст да ги проширите вашите искуства на полето на волонтерството, бидејќи ние се грижиме, ние делуваме, па можете и вие, исто така! И доколку овој свет и оваа планета не ви се доволни, не вознемирувајте се. Од НЕЈЗИНАТА приказна ќе откриете што правевме во вселената, и потоа што сегашноста и иднината можат да понудат, проследено со интересни замисли од нашето модерно општество и култура. Запознајте се со Светот на Аниме и непознатите територии на Венециите. Уживајте во вашето лето, читајте ВОИСЕС и не заборавајте да ја задржете Гордоста!

Voices magazine is coordinated, designed and created by ESC and local volunteers with support of Erasmus+ program.

VCS DIRECTOR: Nikola Stankoski COORDINATORS: Andrej Naumovski Goran Adamovski Goran Galabov Selina Niemi

VOLUNTEERS: Jules Striffler Kirsi Suomi Dogukan Sever

WRITERS: Ewelina Chańska Vitória dos Santos Acerbi Júlia dos Santos Acerbi Wiktoria Moritz Sascha Schlüter Kelly Kocks Josip Gegaj Dafina Veselinoska David Veselinoski Damjan Veselinoski

Translators: Goran Galabov DESIGNERS: Ewelina Chańska Kirsi Suomi Jules Striffler Dogukan Sever Selina Niemi

CONTACT: Volunteer Centre Skopje Emil Zola 3/3-1, 1000, Skopje +389 22 772 095 vcs_contact@yahoo.com www.vcs.org.mk

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CONTENT

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TOPIC OF THE MONTH

14 OPINION

4

Dance me to the moon - Ewelina

20

Танцуваj со мене на Месечината - Евелина

6

REPORTAGE

6

History of Pride - Selina

10

Quarantine reflections: Who do we really want to be? - Kelly

12

Anime - Dogukan

22

HERstory: Margaret Hamilton - Wiktoria

8

ERASMUS +

8

The last EVS-volunteer - Sascha

18

VCS - TEHV - EU Aid volunteers - Josip & Andrej

36

Junior science

26

KA3: Momentum

36

Admit it - you are a fish! - David & Damjan

36

ВЦС - TEHV - EU Aid volunteers - Јосип & Андреј

14

The weakening of language’s power -

30

Дали кога ќе пораснеме срцето ни умира - Дафина

32

The absurdity of the marriage proposal and of what follows it - Vitória

16 16

24 24

social media, communication’s noises’ and superficial relationships - Julia

Science Change the world and help humanity - Kirsi

culture Venice(s) - Jules

тема на месецот

Dance me to the moon Dance is one way to build a passion between two people and what an artistic way it is... When you dance with your partner, at the very moment you are in the world that consists of just the two of you. And for the outside world, you speak an unknown language, which is not audible, yet understandable at its beauty.

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his article will mostly focus on the ballroom dance and the origins of this genre, as well as classification and short descriptions of the main ballroom dances. The name “ballroom” can be associated with a ball, where the main entertainment is, of course, dancing. However, the name comes from the Latin word ballare which means simply “to dance”.

You need two people to perform ballroom dance. One in the pair always leads the way, giving unspoken signals to the partner about the intentions of another step to take. The more you know your partner, the more fluent the dance is. It’s like reading each other’s minds and doing exactly what your partner think of without him/her saying it out loud. Having a passionate conversation where the looks and the bodies speak.

The modern form of ballroom dance bloomed its way in the 20th century when the privileged class started to practice partner dances on the famous balls or other dance parties. However, earlier in the past, the lower class was organizing dance parties, developing all different kinds of social dancing.

Some sources prove then that the social dance in its first form came to the cities from the villages and peripheries. The social dance developed then to its more elegant form. The burst of ballroom dance is also connected with jazz gaining popularity in the ‘20s of the 20th century – a lot of dances, such as waltz or swing, were created to keep up with

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the rhythm of jazz music. Only after World War II, ballroom dance had a full room to take over the world and make its way to develop even more.

Ballroom dances are mainly divided into two groups of dances: Standard and Latin dances.

The easiest way to distinguish both groups is to describe standard dances as relatively slower and more elegant, while Latin dances are faster and more energetic. When you watch the dance tournaments, you can also notice differences in outfit between two groups of dances. In standard dances, the outfit is more classy, men wear tailcoats and women longer, sometimes tighter, and sometimes princess-like dresses in calmer colors. In Latin dances, there is more freedom with the outfit, dresses are shorter, often finished effectively with fringes or feathers, and the colors of clothes of both partners are more vivid, sparkling with sequins and glitter.

So, we have two groups of dances and each group consists of five different dances. Standard dances are English and Viennese waltz, tango, quickstep, and foxtrot. Latin dances are samba, cha-cha, rhumba, jive, and pasodoble.

This is the main categorization and all the above mentioned dances are included in the ballroom dance tournaments. There is a third group of dances existing, including dances like salsa, bachata, kizomba, merengue and many else. The world of dance is so rich, after all.

topic of the month English waltz, also called slow waltz, comes from England and is connected with the Viennese waltz, from which it originates. For the first time performed in London, in 1910. English waltz is the first dance to open dance tournament in ballroom dance. The impression of the waltz could be a couple raising and falling slowly like a water wave.

The story told by this dance is very romantic and innocent like first love. The music is dreamy and elegant, often sounds like coming from the old movies soundtrack or slow variations of jazz classics.

Viennese waltz is a faster type of waltz and a whole century older than English, as well as the oldest from all ballroom dances. First presented on the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and from the beginning having quite a stormy history. Since the dance requires partners to hold each other tightly and closely, it was considered inappropriate to perform in public. Nowadays, the thoughts on dancing the Viennese waltz may associate more with the snowflakes swirling in the air one around another.

Depends on imagination. And just to think about the beauty of the waltz music, like Johan Strauss’ “The Blue Danube” or Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers”.

Tango, is classified by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. It was developed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay in the late 19th century among people coming from the lower class. The history of tango is rich enough for a separate article and the lists of styles is long also.

Every style of tango has something unique, but one thing they have all in common: tango is always fiery passionate. All the sweet and sorrowful moments of love can be expressed in just one dance – excitement, joy, passion, jealousy, and despair of one abandoned by a lover.

Another English originated dance is quickstep.

There is a lot of running and joyful jumping happening in this dance, yet as much as it seems to be carefree and amusable, it’s still elegant and smooth. It looks like the dancing couple is all the time above the dancing floor.

Foxtrot is the older brother of quickstep, coming from America. It’s called “the most difficult walk in the world” and reminds a bit of moody weather.

What is characteristic in foxtrot is that dancers change the pace from fast to slow.

Sources: https://wformie24.poradnikzdrowie.pl/treningi/ taniec/taniec-towarzyski-podzial-i-charakterystykatancow-towarzyskich-aa-M4N9-umga-3hhK.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballroom_dance

From standard dance, we shall move to Latin and the first one to talk about is Brazilian samba, which has African origins. When you think of samba, you picture Carnaval in Rio, with dancers in colorful clothes, covered with fringes and feathers vibrating in the rhythm of the dance. Samba is a fast dance based on energetic moves of feet and hips. It seems to be a mating dance of newly met pair of people, trying to show everything the best to attract the other’s attention.

Vamos a Cuba! This is where cha cha comes from.

Next to samba, this one is another dancing flirt.

Fast and strong footwork engages hips – well, it should, if you dance it right. What is difficult in cha cha is bending and straightening the knees all the time.

Rhumba is called the dance of love. It’s a slow and sensual game between the partners, where the main topic is seduction. The origins come from African tribes in Cuba and date back to 1886 when slavery was put to an end. People who regained freedom moved to the peripheries of the towns and cities and created small communities called solares.

From there started dance parties called rhumba, although today’s tournament version of rhumba is so much different than the dance performed by solares. The current rhumba was developed on the East Coast of the U.S., but in the music, we can still hear Afro-Cuban drums and rhythm.

Pasodoble comes from Spain and is a full of passion spectacle of corrida and flamenco in one. In this spectacle, one is always a matador and the other is matador’s cape or bull. The rhythm of the dance seems to be alike a marching parade.

Jive was created in America in the first decade of the 20th century and was first introduced to Europe by American soldiers over 30 years later.

Known previously under the name jitterbug, where “jitter” means “to jump nervously”. Jive is a fast dance with characteristic movements of jumping and kicking. Sure you have to be in shape to jump and kick for few minutes.

It was just a few brief stories of dances, but you should not be brief on choosing which to dance – just try them all!

Ewelina Chańska

VOICES - 5

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History of

PRIDE

Not so long time ago - 1969 when homosexuality was illegal and highly criminalized - the history of pride begun in New York.

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une 28th 1969, police arrived to Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. 200 people inside resisted arrest as the police started homophobic violence, and it started series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by the members of LGBTQ+ community. The riots, as powerful moments of resistance against homosexuality laws, inspired the beginning of Pride.

The impact of Stonewall riots was recognized by the gay communities in United States, which leaded to celebrations year later. A committee was born, and the first LGBTQ+ Pride March in 1970. The “Mother of Pride” – Brenda Howard, a bisexual woman, worked in organizing the first Pride March and organized the whole week of activities along the March. Alongside her, LGBT activists, L. Craig Schoonmaker, and Robert A. Martin are credited with the name “Gay Pride”.

Wikimedia Gay Pride Parade, New York City, 1989 (18271108150).jpg 6 - VOICES

“Anyone can have pride in themselves, and that would make them happier as people, and produce the movement likely to produce change.’’

- L. Craig Schoonmaker, 2015

REPORTAGE

8 years later in 1978 the symbol of Pride was born.

An artist in San Francisco, Gilbert Baker, designed the rainbow flag for a gay Pride March, which became the iconic symbol of the movement all over the world. Nowadays, the flag has six stripes representing the spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community. The original design was with high stripes, each symbolizing the gay identity: “hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit.’’

The Stonewall riots are considered as the birth event for the Pride movement, which is now recognized internationally all over the world.

June became a Pride month, and inspired by Brenda Howard, it is often celebrated with whole week of activities and events, and finished with final celebration of Pride Parade on the last Saturday of June.

Pride Parade is a celebration of LGBTQ+ rights, uniting people worldwide by being organized in several countries and cities. The attendance is

growing each year everywhere and the biggest Pride Parade happened in 2019 in New York, with over 4 million people.

“All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more - and no less - heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, living our lives, and trying as civilrights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to ‘fix what ain’t right’ in our society.” - Senator Tammy Baldwin

Selina Niemi

Design: Selina Niemi Sources: https://www.hanxofficial.com/blogs/naked-truths/the-historyof-pride https://www.bustle.com/articles/167359-why-is-it-called-prideheres-why-the-name-of-junes-lgbtq-festivities-is-significant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride#Historical_ background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_LGBT_events

VOICES - 7

ЕРАЗМУс+

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r e e t n u l o v

S V E t s a l he

From May 2019 to February 2020 I did my ninemonth EVS at Volunteers Centre Skopje in the Macedonian capital Skopje – being the last of this kind, since the EVS programme is now being replaced by the ESC (European Solidarity Corps).

Already after a study-visit with the Young European Federalists (JEF) in 2017, I decided that I would one day return to this beautiful country with its open-hearted and incredibly welcoming people.

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hat it would go that quick and that it would be a long-term stay, I could not foresee at that time… What I also could not know back then was that the hostel where my travel-group and me stayed is only 5 minutes walking from what would later be my flat in Skopje’s district Kisela Voda.

open-air camping on lake Ohrid or just hiking up Vodno to discover some abandoned hotel and an old bunker... Which reminds me that there are still so many things and places to discover only in Skopje, so I felt that I have to get back there pretty soon.

When I read the call for this EVS-project, I thought to myself "Hey, they’re looking for me!" and immediately applied. After a bureaucratic procedure, that was less stressful than expected, finally – and just in time – I had my visa in my passport at the 13th of May and began my journey on the very same day, since I was supposed to start my EVS on the 15th of May. The whole thing worked fine without any more delay, because I was travelling by car and hence was very flexible.

Like this, various Camping-trips on hot weekends or general exploration-trips through this beautiful small country which, due to its many mountains appears so huge, weren’t a problem as well (I really miss the mountains! Here in the northern half of Germany everything is so flat...)

There are a lot of things that I miss about Skopje (actually the only thing I don't miss at all is the thick air in winter time). For example, I really enjoyed to just go downstairs to the green market for shopping: In Germany big super-market chains and overcrowded shopping malls are the standard and while here fresh vegetables are pretty pricy and the junk-food is extremely cheap, in Macedonia it's pretty much the opposite. Grocery shopping in Macedonia seems way less stressy than in Germany.

Dečko od Germanija The people at VCS welcomed me with open arms and I was part of an international team of volunteer with great young people from Macedonia, Finland, Poland, France and Turkey. From the moment I entered the apartment and met all my new flatmates, I knew that I came to the right place.

Even though we are all from different countries and backgrounds, I could relate very quickly with my new friends and soon we went through a whole lot of smaller and bigger adventures like

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I also miss the fact, that there is always something going on and it's pretty hard to get bored.

Especially when there's a pretty nice pub just a few hundred meters away. Beertija Pub became our second living room and I guess I haven't been to any other place that frequently... a place like heaven for a pub-person like me, where the waiter, after some time, took my order just by eyecontact through the crowd. I remember well how we went there for the first few times and every waiter – before we made friends with them – was just “dečko” to us. In return I became “dečko od Germanija” to them. I really like how people in Macedonia are very open and sociable and it's really easy to make new friends. In Germany it can be extremely tough even for Germans to connect with people when moving to a new city.

ERASMUS+

Work and progress But of course I didn't just hang out in the pub all day!

I guess I can say that I have been pretty productive during my stay and I learned a lot. Writing calls, selecting participants for international projects and of course: filling excel-tables for travel-cost reimbursements (don't ever make me do that again!) were just the “office-work”-topics. More lively it became when we held school-workshops or when I was part of an amazing international Erasmus+ training course in Struga as a co-trainer. Due to high motivation I even wrote my own Erasmus+ project later on.

Our local events were another highlight. I remember the first karaoke-party in Studio Pub, that I attended: people were dancing on the tables! I myself was responsible of our VCS Pub-Quiz that we held in Beertija Pub (where else?), which was probably one of the reasons for my other nickname “Saschapedia”.

Well, last but not least: of course the journalistic work with VOICES magazine was the main part of my job. I'm pretty good with words, and enjoy creative writing, so there was just the designing-part of it that I had to learn – but thanks to some critical eyes and helping hands I got into it pretty easily and quickly.

up to make sense (a whole lot of sense) suddenly.

To me it has been these random decisions based on some spontaneous mood and gut-feelings, that brought the biggest advances in my life. I'm not superstitious, as I said, but I am indeed fatalistic and this odd coincidence, for me, is a sign that I took the right step.

Prophetic Voices

The “Skopje-slow motion”-effect

Regarding “VOICES”, there is another – almost prophetical – link to my first trip to Skopje: back then, in the frame of our study-visit (which, by the way, was about the perspective of Macedonia's EUmembership), we produced a short video named “Voices from Skopje”. Well, nobody of us, back then, had ever heard about VOICES magazine, though. I'm not superstitious, but some things in life just add

Taking steps and seeing if they were right requires time. And time is one crazy thing for itself! I don't know where this comes from, but in my perception the time seems to run different in Skopje... I had that feeling already back in 2017, when I spent only five days in Skopje, but in a weird way it felt like two weeks (and even my mother said “something is strange with the time here” when she came to visit me for a weekend). Even though it felt like time was going by quickly (which is pretty normal if you're having fun) it also felt like there's still infinite time ahead. Back in Germany I sometimes barely notice the weeks passing by, especially when I'm working, and suddenly: oops, it's already October again!

Whereas in Skopje even my last two weeks seemed to never end. It just felt – with the end of my EVS in sight – that with every day that passed, there were two more days to come until suddenly I was sitting in my car heading towards the Serbian border to go home...

I can definitely say that I do not regret a single minute of my time in Macedonia and I hope to return soon (despite Corona-pandemic) to the “best country in the world” (Andrej). Се гледаме наскоро.

Sascha Schlüter

Design: Selina Niemi

VOICES - 9

репортажа

Quarantine reflections: Who do we really want to be?

I consider myself a pretty reflective person and during this whole quarantine I have had plenty of time to reflect on myself and on the outer world. Food for thought was given to me yesterday too, when I came across this quote by renown Indian spiritual leader Osho Rajneesh:

“[...] the human being profoundly fears solitude: in solitude the human being receives no external pretenses, coming to realize that everything that emerges comes from their inner selves”.

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REPORTAGE

I

believe that these months have taught us all one important lesson, which is, we should not forget to take some time to reflect on ourselves, who we are and what our values are. We spend so much time thinking about how other people see us when we post Instagram stories, Facebook and LinkedIn posts, but who do we want to be?

And why does it seem such a difficult question to answer?

Well, my personal view as a curious-minded new entry into professional life is that we are so used to living frenetic lifestyles that we feel guilty or ashamed when we just let go. I believe this is largely due to our Western, capitalistic society as well as to our education.

Indeed, at school, at university as well as in the working environment, respecting deadlines when presenting results may well make us feel accomplished at first but, after that, the feeling vanishes and our focus is directed to the next short-term goal.

Last summer I attended a really interesting course on “The Art of Failure and the Keys to Success” which made me question my idea of everyday priorities. What I realized was that it comes so natural to prioritize duties that we end up delaying, or even giving up on our passions and true aspirations.

Over these last few months the whole world stopped and people’s lifestyles inevitably changed. This time has been, perhaps, the longest we have had to focus on ourselves and on ways to alleviate feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. It was in this time that we rediscovered the values of solidarity and trust, appreciating little gestures and life’s pleasures. This way of seeing life in a different light made me reflect on how much we lose as a society by not taking time to cultivate the latter values because our minds are so overloaded with daily tasks. It is as if we were never alone: we are either in the presence of people or of our own thoughts.

The George Floyd killing demonstrated in a tragic way that the time we take to reflect on values as equality and mutual understanding is never enough. In the last few weeks people all over the world have joined to speak out, breaking an uncomfortable silence. Yes, “uncomfortable”, because everyone of us knows these are core values of our democracies but how often do we hear or read about them?

Perhaps reflecting and questioning ourselves, not from a professional or public point of view but as people, as citizens, is not after all less important than claiming skills or experience we gained on our CVs, but could instead, make us more inclined to speak or write about these values.

Kelly Kocks Design: Kirsi Suomi

Sources: http://oshosearch.net/Convert/Articles_Osho/The_Inner_Journey/Osho-The-InnerJourney-index.html https://www.facebook.com/pg/lartedelfallimento/about/?ref=page_internal https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article243444966.html

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репортажа

Anime T

he word anime — pronounced “ah-knee-may” — is an abbreviation of the word animation. Anime is a word used by people living outside of Japan to describe cartoons or animation produced within Japan. Using the word in English conversation is essentially the same as describing something as a Japanese cartoon series or an animated movie or show from Japan. One of the main reasons why anime has stood the test of time and grown in popularity across the world is due to its unique ability to grow with its viewers. The famous anime expert, Takamasa Sakurai, claims that the genre has been widely accepted due to its unconventional nature, “Japanese anime broke the convention that anime is something that kids watch”. Overseas fans of anime claim that they enjoy the intensity of the storylines with the endings being difficult to predict as anime is often targeted at adult audiences. Most anime fans can sum this up in two words: “It’s different.” Anime is as unlike most American cartoons like “Batman” and “Spider-Man” are different from the comics that run in daily papers. These differences show up in

many ways including the artwork storytelling, breadth of material, and even cultural nuances exhibited by the characters. It doesn’t shy away from epic storylines, either, which often run for dozens (sometimes hundreds) of episodes. The best anime, though, no matter what their length, all demand great emotional involvement from the viewer. For fans of hard science fiction, the show “Planetes” would be perfect for you; romantic comedy fans will love “Fruits Basket” while crimefighting lovers will enjoy “Ghost in the Shell.”

There are even adaptations of classical literature like “The Count of Monte Cristo.” What’s most striking is how anime’s impact is coming full circle. Some recent American cartoon productions, like “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” are openly inspired by anime itself, and live-action English-language versions of anime titles are starting to come into production more frequently.

I recommended 6 animes that I love to watch. I watch some of them twice, then I will watch it again later.

If you want to start watching anime, you can start with my recommendations, they are also so popular.

Dogukan Sever

Gon Freecss is a young boy living on Whale Island. He learns from “Hunter” Kite, that his father, who he was told was dead, is still alive somewhere as a top “Hunter,” risking his life to seek unknown items, such as hidden treasures, curiosa, exotic living creatures, etc. Gon decides to become a professional Hunter and leaves the island. To become a Hunter, he must pass the Hunter Examination, where he meets and befriends three other applicants: Kurapika, Leorio, and Killua. Can Gon pass this formidable hurdle, the Hunter Examination, to become “the Best Hunter in the World” and eventually meet his father?

Humans are nearly exterminated by giant creatures called Titans. Titans are typically several stories tall, seem to have no intelligence, devour human beings and, worst of all, seem to do it for the pleasure rather than as a food source. A small percentage of humanity survived by walling themselves in a city protected by extremely high walls, even taller than the biggest of titans. Flash forward to the present and the city has not seen a titan in over 100 years. Teenage boy Eren and his foster sister Mikasa witness something horrific as the city walls are destroyed by a colossal titan that appears out of thin air.

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REPORTAGE

After an intelligent yet cynical high school student begins to cleanse the world from evil with the help of a magical notebook that can kill anyone whose name is written on it, international authorities call upon a mysterious detective known as “L” to his efforts. The purpose of the Death Note is to take human life, thereby increasing the lifespan of the Shinigami who uses it. Many rules are governing how the Death Note can be used, though the most pivotal rule is that “the human whose name is written in this note shall die.”

Okabe Rintarou, a university student who refers to himself as Crazy Mad Scientist Hououin Kyouma and his lab’s members work on a microwave device that can transfer messages to the past. Without getting captured, they should get it working to beat the evil organization, CERN, and stop their evil plans. As they research the phenomenon, they are joined by the renowned genius girl Kurisu Makise, and together they discover the dark truth behind a worldwide conspiracy lead by a secret organization.

Two brothers lose their mother to an incurable disease. With the power of “alchemy”, they use taboo knowledge to resurrect her. The process fails, and as a toll for using this type of alchemy, the older brother, Edward Elric loses his left leg while the younger brother, Alphonse Elric loses his entire body. Edward vows to search for the Philosopher’s Stone to return the brothers to their original bodies, even if it means becoming a “State Alchemist”, one who uses his/her alchemy for the military.

In a world populated with superhumans, the superhero-loving Izuku Midoriya is without power. However, after the Quirkless dreamer, Izuku inherits the powers of the world’s best superhero, All Might, his hopes of becoming the top hero are now possible. Once enrolled in the high school for heroes, U.A., Izuku soon discovers being a hero is much more complicated than it appears. You will see the feelings. You will see love and protection. You think that we can’t see the feelings but trust me, you will. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime#History , https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1910272/?ref_=ttls_li_tt , https:// www.imdb.com/title/tt0877057/?ref_=ttls_li_tt , https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426719/?ref_=ttls_li_tt , https:// www.imdb.com/title/tt0421357/?ref_=ttls_li_tt , https://deathnote.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=my+h ero+academia&fulltext=Search&scope=cross-wiki&ns0=1&ns14=1#

VOICES - 13

МИСЛЕЊЕ

The weakening of language’s power: social media, communication’s noises’ and superficial relationships I am always amazed by how much art can make us reflect about life in different angles, and also by how much discussing about it - whether it is a painting, a movie or a book - with other people allow us to expand even more our points of view and thoughts.

D

ue to social distancing on account of coronavirus, I tried other means of being close to my loved ones, and one of the best ones turned out to be through art. Every week, each one of us chooses a movie and after watching it, we share our thoughts and feelings about it. It has been so nice to do it and happily expect the movie discussing day, from which always come out long life learnings that I’ll carry along forever.

In one of the past discussions, the chosen movie was “Anomalisa”, a stop motion adult animation directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. The movie goes over a man who is a customer service expert who went to Ohio to give a lecture about his field of expertise. At the hotel where he is staying, he meets a woman who is going to turn his world upside down (or not). I am not going to tell you much more of the story, because I dare to say it is a good movie to watch without knowing much about, just to be aware of the fact that it is a mind blowing masterpiece, very well written and directed. However, the main point is that our main character, Michael Stone, is clearly tired of superficial relationships,

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talks and people. For him, everyone looks the same and are not individuals with their own personality. Thus, it made me think a lot about human communication, especially after all gadgets that supposedly allow us to communicate more and better, besides being able to show “our true self” on social media.

Don’t you have the impression that most of the times we greet people, either on the street, at home or in the elevator, we are simply recognizing each other, but not deeply talking about anything? Don’t get me wrong, I still think this recognizing ritual is great, because I am saddened when no one answers my good morning greeting, for example. Nevertheless, I feel social media worsened this type of superficiality and indifference in our interactions: instead of looking in people’s eyes and giving them a smile, we spit out words we don’t even remember we said with our eyes sticked to our phone screens. Our lack of attention with other people’s feelings and with what they have to say seems to be increasing, because we are so worried with what popped up on our phone that we don’t notice a big part of what is happening next to us.

Opinion This problem severely bothers me, and it concerns me how we are losing our human ability of being gregarious. Friendships and family/love relationships lose their blooming potential every day in account of online news, likes and captions that even though they may seem real and fill your day, they end up making you feel empty every single time you lie your head on your pillow. For sure, we don’t seem to be trying to create genuine human ties anymore, but just living relied on our digital image, based on what we post. Indeed, beautiful particular universes, in screens, don’t shine as bright as they can, people are unique essences with no perfume.

In addition, we do not give permission for other people to talk, and consequently silence ourselves to hear, especially the minorities. After social media’s boom, many people started to think minorities would have more space and more power in their voices, and it really can be so in specific situations, but it is definitely not yet majority.

The system of paying to push posts in order to achieve a bigger public maintains the same old structure of who has money, has voice. Is social media really a democratic space that gives voice to everyone equally? Who is really able to talk and more than that, to be truly listened to?

From here onwards, another thought I have is that with so much noise and so many people talking - yet not being heard at all on the internet, we also do not have space for silence in our life. Due to that weekly interaction of discussing movies, I ended up watching a few Studio Ghibli’s movies. All of them have a special feature that is hard to find in mainstream cinema: moments of silence, contemplation, specifically defined by “Ma”, a japanese word for Emptiness.

For Hayao Miyazaki, famous director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, in interview to Roger Ebert, “What really matters is the underlying emotions — that you never let go of those”.I can see how much the viewer can comprehend better the movie through this

emptiness, by having time and a slow pace to realize small but important details about the story and the characters. Also, the viewer has more time to mature his reflections that would not come out if the scenes were filled with strong action.

Likewise, in our daily life and eyes sticked to screens, we do not allow ourselves to enjoy silence. We seem to be losing our capacity of reflecting on our actions, thinking about our feelings and understanding ourselves and the world better. We lose bit by bit the small but significant kindness of giving more smiles, saying more “thank you”s and returning back the received love. We are missing all the details, that are exactly the ones that matter the most. We are more shortsighted, impulsive and heartless. I wonder if instantaneous likes and comments are worth everything we are losing.

In the episode 19 of “How Did I Get Here”, a podcast I often listen to, Diane, the cohost of the show (hosted by Jae, guitarist of the south korean band Day6), said that we should be a good audience for each other. This echoed in my head and I see how much all the technology noise I talked about disturbs us from being a good audience for each other and for ourselves. Are we always standing up while the movie is going on to whatever distraction that comes up? Are we only watching films with our heads on the clouds, not even interested about the scenes, the richness of dialogues and the characters interactions? Are we going to the movies only to take a picture and show to others that we are, in theory, living? I sincerely think we should reflect on which type of audience we are, in order to seize life and its plentiness better, to nurture truer relationships, more full of presence and care. To live more lovingly and more peacefully, with ourselves and those around us.

Júlia dos Santos Acerbi Design: Kirsi Suomi

Source: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/hayao-miyazaki-interview

VOICES - 15

наука

"Change the world and help humanity"

- Elon Musk

Space, the final frontier. Last month there was a historical event, the first human orbital spaceflight launched by a private company. Exciting moments as NASA and SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule with two U.S. astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, in a history-making flight to the International Space Station.

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SCience

O

n Saturday the 30th of May was the launching of a space rocket Falcon 9. It lifted off at 3:22 p.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its mission was to transport astronauts to the international space station and the mission was completed successfully. It was the first launch from American soil in almost ten years, the last crewed flight was in 2011.

This is an exciting event in many ways, it’s letting us further to explore space, bringing possibilities out among the stars. The launching was already rescheduled once earlier because of bad weather conditions which intensified the excitement around this powerful event even more. Earlier this year in May, another rocket called the Starship SN4 exploded during its static fire testing.

So indeed, people who were following this event were gasping their breaths when the engines were turned on.

And this feels it’s just the beginning of a new era when it comes to the future of space traveling. The rockets are of higher quality than before, with all sorts of gadgets that make it feel like something from science fiction stories.

And what makes SpaceX’s rockets special, is that they are trying to make them as reusable as possible which is going to save a lot of money and work in the future.

During the next years, we are definitely going to see more impressive achievements. More launches, rockets going around the moon and crewed flights to Mars, exploring the possibilities to go even further, to expand the consciousness of human life.

Kirsi Suomi Sources: https://www.spacex.com/ https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-astronauts-launch-fromamerica-in-historic-test-flight-of-spacex-crew-dragon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W36QKRS_t5k

VOICES - 17

ЕРАЗМУс+

VCS - TEHV - EU AID VOLUNTEERS Volunteers Centre Skopje is part of the EU project “Towards Effective Humanitarian Volunteering”.

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ERASMUS+

T

he main objective of the project is training for certification of organizations for the EU Aid Volunteers program, which is aimed at providing practical support to the humanitarian aid efforts, and at contributing towards strengthening the local capacities in countries affected by disasters. In this way, EU Aid Volunteers enables European citizens to practically help the affected communities. In order to achieve this goal, the volunteers are highly trained to acquire the necessary skills for effectively dealing with the consequences of the natural disasters.

ADRA from Slovakia is the organization which is responsible for implementing the project, and apart from Volunteer Center Skopje, other participating organizations are from Kirgizstan, Armenia, France, Nepal, Cambodia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Lebanon.

VCS is the first and only organization from Macedonia, which participates in the certification process. Thus, VCS continues its active participation in various humanitarian actions, and remains dedicated in the sphere of volunteering and offering assistance where it is needed. With this project, the human resource capacities in the organization itself are enhanced, but it also contributes to raising the public and civic awareness of strengthening the democratic structures and cherishing the humanitarian dimension in society through cooperation and affirmation of the young.

Due to the latest situation with Covid-19 pandemic, the training and the meetings were taking place online, during which VCS acquired the necessary knowledge, tools and skills to complete the certification process.

The practical training started on the online Zoom platform, and was held by the ADICE organization from France, which introduced us, step by step, into the process of completing the necessary documents, tools and forms. They indicated the need to create policies compatible to the EU Aid Volunteers regulations, connected to security, data protection, equal opportunities and non-discrimination, protection of children and vulnerable categories and code of conduct.

After each meeting, we had “homework assignment� to work on the relevant documents, which were supposed to be completed by the following meeting.

This dynamics helped us to complete the documents in time and regularly and to implement the remarks that were noted by the organizers.

During the training, we were told that if we manage to complete all documents and procedures, we would be able to apply for the yearly project for deployment of an EU Aid volunteer as a host organization. This gave us an even stronger motivation to complete the obligations in the given time frame, and we managed to apply for certification and for the project for deployment at the same time.

Volunteers Centre Skopje will hold seminars, presentations and workshops in Macedonia, where it will inform the young people and all those interested in volunteering about the program EU Aid Volunteers and all benefits that result from it.

This is an excellent opportunity for Volunteers Centre Skopje and Macedonia to become a part of the great European humanitarian concept aimed at helping countries that want to increase their local capacities, which are affected by various natural catastrophes and social crises that need professional help in order to deal with the consequences.

The organizers offered a great help during the entire course of the training, they mentored us and gave us support in completing the documents and were always ready to respond to our questions.

Although the whole training was taking place online, we the participants led discussions and exchanged experiences, and in such a way got close and developed friendships. Several trips are envisaged to the countries participating in the project, but when they will take place depends on the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that we will have the opportunity to also get to know each other in person, thus continuing and deepening our friendship and cooperation. #euaidvolunteers #euav

Josip Gegaj Andrej Naumovski VOICES - 19

ТЕМА НА МЕСЕЦОТ

Танцуваj со мене на Месечината Танцот е начин да се создаде страст помеѓу двајца и тоа на каков уметнички начин... Кога танцувате со вашиот партнер, уште во првиот момент влегувате во свет кој се состои само од вас двајцата. И за надворешниот свет вие зборувате на непознат јазик кој е безгласен но сепак разбирлив по неговата убавина.

О

вој текст воглавном ќе се задржи на друштвен танц (ballroom dance) и потеклото на овој жанр, како и на поделбата и краток опис на истите. Самото име ballroom dance се поврзува со ball каде главната забава е, секако, танцувањето. Во секој случај, називот доаѓа од латинскиот збор ballare, што едноставно значи “да се танцува”. Потребни се двајца за изведба на друштвен танц. Едниот од нив секогаш води, дава знаци на партнерот без зборови за наредниот чекор што следува. И колку подобро го познавате својот партнер, толку поразигран ќе биде танцот. Исто како да си ги читате мислите еден со друг и го правите точно тоа што вашиот партнер го замислува, без да го кажете тоа гласно. Како да имате страствен разговор во кој изгледот и телата говорат. Модерната форма на друштвениот танц доживува процвет во 20-от век, кога привилегираните класи започнале да увежбуваат танц со партнер на истакнати балови или други игранки. Сепак, пред тоа и пониските класи организирале игранки, развивајќи различни типови на друштвени танци. Некои извори јасно ни покажуваат дека друштвениот танц во неговата првична форма пристигнал во градовите од селата и периферијата. Друштвениот танц тогаш се развил во една поелегантна форма. Напливот на друштвениот танц е исто така поврзан со сѐ поголемата популарност на џезот во 20-те години на 20-от век - многу танци како валцер или свинг се измислиле да се следи ритмот на џез музиката. По Втората Св. Војна, се создаде простор друштвениот танц да се наметне на светот и да се развива и понатаму.

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Друштвените танци се воглавном поделени во две групи на танци: стандардни и латиноамерикански танци. Најлесен начин да се разликуваат двете групи е да се опишат стандардните танци како релативно поспори и поелегантни, додека латиноамериканските танци се побрзи и поенергични. Кога гледаме натпревари во танцување, забележлива е исто така, и разлика во облекувањето помеѓу овие две групи на танци. Кај стандардните танци стилот е поелегантен, мажите носат долги палта, а жените долги, понегогаш тесно прилепени или фустани како прицези во поспокојни бои. Кај латиноамериканските танци пак, има повеќе слобода во изгледот, фустаните се пократки, често со рабови или перја на краевите, а боите кај двајцата партнери се поживи, светлуцави, со сјајни нитни. Значи, има две поголеми групи на танци и секоја група понатаму, има пет различни танци. Стандардните танци се Англиски и Виенски валцер, танго, квикстеп и фокстрот. Латиноамериканските танци се самба, ча-ча, румба, џајв и пасодобле. Ова е главната категоризација и сите погоре споменати танци влегуваат во натпреварите во друштвени танци. Постои и трета група на танци која ги вклучува танците како салса, бачата, кизомба, меренге и многу други. Светот на танци е навистина богат.

Извори: https://wformie24.poradnikzdrowie.pl/treningi/ taniec/taniec-towarzyski-podzial-i-charakterystyka-tancow-towarzyskich-aa-M4N9-umga-3hhK.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballroom_dance

topic of the month Англискиот валцер, исто така наречен бавен валцер, доаѓа од Англија и е поврзан со Виенскиот валцер, од кого и потекнува. За првпат е изведен во Лондон, во 1910 година. Англискиот валцер е секогаш првиот кој ги отвара натпреварите во друштвени танци. Впечатокот за валцерот може да се протолкува како паровите се издигнуваат и одат надолу како водени бранови. Приказната раскажана преку овој танц е многу романтична и чиста како првата љубов. Музиката е сонувачка и елегантна, честопати звучи како да е од старите филмови или бавни варијации на класичниот џез.

Од стандардниот танц ќе се префлиме на латиноамериканскиот и првиот за кој ќе зборуваме е Бразилска самба која има африканско потекло. Кога ќе помислите на самба, го замислувате Карневалот во Рио, со танчери во колоритна облека, прекриена со реси и пердуви како се тресат во ритмот на музиката. Самбата е брз танц, базиран на енергични движења на стапалата и колковите. Изгледа како да е танц за поврзување на луѓе кои штотуку се сретнале, што се обидуваат да го покажат најдоброто за го привлечат вниманието на другиот.

Виенскиот валцер е побрз тип на валцер и цел еден век постар од Англискиот, како и најстар од сите друштвени танци. Првпат бил презентиран на Конгресот на Виена во 1815 година и уште од почетокот имал прилично бурна историја. И бидејќи танцот е замислен партнерите да во близок и цврст контакт, се сметало дека е неподобен за изведба во јавност. Денес претставата за Виенски валцер повеќе е како снегулки да лебдат во воздухот околу двајцата танчери. Зависно од фантазиите. И да не ја заборавиме убавината на музиката за валцер, како Јохан Штраус - „Синиот Дунав“ или Чајковски - „Валцерот на цветовите“.

Одиме на Куба! Од таму потекнува ча-ча. Заедно со самбата, ова е уште едно флертување преку танц. Брза и силна работа со стапалата, ги вклучува и колковите - би требало, ако правилно се танцува. Она што е најтешкото во ча-ча е постојаното свиткување и исправување на колената.

Тангото е класифицирано од УНЕСКО како суптилно културно наследство. Тоа се развило во Буенос Аирес, Аргентина и Монтевидео, Уругвај, во доцниот 19 век, од луѓе од пониските класи. Самата историја на Тангото е доволно богата за да се напише засебен текст, а исто така долга е и листата на стилови. Секој стил на Тангото има нешто посебно, но заедничко за сите е што се огнено страствени. Сите слатки и тажни моменти на љубовта може да се изразат само преку еден танц - возбуда, радост, страст, љубомора и очај на напуштениот од својот љубовник. Уште еден танц кој потекнува од Англија е квикстепот. Проследен е со многу растрчување и весели потскокнувања, и наспроти тоа што изгледа безгрижен и забавен, сепак е елегантен и префинет. Се добива впечаток дека партнерите кои танцуваат за целото времетраење се над подлогата за танцување. Фокстрот е постар брат на квикстепот и доаѓа од Америка. Наречен е „најтешкото чекорење на светот“ и потсетува по малку на убаво време. Она што е карактеристично за фокстрот е што танчерите го менуваат темпото од брзо во бавно.

Румбата е наречена танц на љубовта. Тоа е бавна и сензуална игра помеѓу партнерите, каде главната тема е заведувањето. Потеклото е од афричките племиња од Куба и датира од 1886 година, кога на ропството му беше ставен крај. Луѓето кои си ја повратија слободата се преселија во перифериите на градовите и создадоа мали заедници наречени solares. Од таму започнале забави со танцување наречени румба иако денешното натпреварување во румба е многу поразлично од она што се играло во solares заедници. Сегашната румба е развиена на источниот брег на САД, но во музиката сеуште може да чуеме афро-кубански тапани и ритми. Пасодобле доаѓа од Шпанија и е преполн со страствени претстави од коридата и фламенко, истовремено. Во овој спектакл, едниот е секогаш матадорот, а другиот - неговата наметка или бикот. Ритмот на танцот изгледа како да е параден марш. Џајвот потекнува од Америка, од првата декада од 20-от век и првпат беше претставен во Европа од американските војници, 30 години подоцна. Претходно познат како „џитербаг“ каде „џитер“ значи „нервозно скокање“. Џајвот е брз танц со карактеристични движења како скокање и клоцање. Секако дека треба да сте во форма за да можете неколку минути да скокате и клоцате. Тоа беа неколку кратки стории за танците но не треба да се биде брз во изборот што ќе танцувате едноставно пробајте ги сите!

Евелина Хањска Преведувач: Горан Галабов VOICES - 21

репортажа

HERstory:

Margaret Hamilton Have you ever thought who stands behind such a big success of humans like stepping on the Moon?

Probably we all know Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut who was the first human to stand on the Moon, but we might not always think about many other people who were part of this big event.

22 - VOICES © Image: Wikipedia, Margaret Hamilton - restoration

REPORTAGE

There was no choice but to be pioneer

- M. Hamilton

H

ere we are with Margaret Hamilton, another great woman and such amazing achievement, which probably is not often mentioned and well known. And while talking about next NASA missions to the Moon or Mars, it’s good to remind her amazing contribution to one of the biggest technology success which was landing human on the Moon.

people who surrounded her, because Hamilton’s husband was working at Harvard University and like any other women, she was expected to serve at his side. In some interviews she sometimes mentioned how she had been asked during those times why she is not at home with her children.

And she would have said that everyone should take care of their own.

She was born in 1936 in Paoli, USA. Even though her career was rich in many different achievements, she became famous (or not) due to her crucial contribution to the success of human kind first step on the Moon. She was a director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT (Michigan Institute of Technology) Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed first on-board software for NASA’s Apollo mission. Someone might ask what it meant for the very popular Mission Apollo 11 and why was it so spectacular. Just before landing on the Moon, several computer alarms were triggered.

It was displayed as an error which was never supposed to show up and which hid the priority alarms needed for safe landing. However, this was something that Margaret Hamilton predicted, while constructing her software system and thanks to that Mission Control could gave the order to land. The astronauts could land and then Neil Armstrong could take the first step on the Moon.

And it could become such a success because of many integrated systems all working together. She was part of many great projects after that as well, writing softwares for a satellite tracking projects.

In 1976 she co-founded company called Higher Order Software, which main focus was to develop ideas about error prevention and fault tolerance in softwares. Ten years later she founded Hamilton Technologies, her own company.

Someone could say she dedicated herself only to career, but no. During this very crucial moment of human’s history, she was a working mother. She dedicated herself to a role of mum but also to her dreams which she wanted to follow. She said that she wanted to be a part of the history. And she became it. What’s absolutely fascinating is her endless motivation and curiosity. History should never forget about people like her.

Margaret Hamilton wasn’t only a software engineering pioneer. If we take a look and consider her life in a deeper social context, we can find out that it wasn’t very popular for women during those times to work and to have a career. That’s why Margaret Hamilton was also part of one of the very limited group of women, who decided to combine career with family life, which she had. It must had been very unusual and maybe inspiring for

Wiktoria Moritz

Together with Grace Hopper she was honoured

by Barack Obama with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, which is the highest civilian honour in the United States. Moreover, she was awarded with a NASA Exceptional Space Act Award for scientific and technical contributions with a highest financial award ever gave by NASA. There are still many countries, where women are victims of social systems, where they are not allowed to follow their dreams, where their education is limited or where cultural expectations win with individual desires and dreams. That’s why there should be significant place for women in history, which they were part of. The history, which reminds all little girls and little boys that they can follow their dreams and be part of the world’s development, no matter their sex or social expectations.

Design: Selina Niemi

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYCZPXSVvOQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOUNjytHhNI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(software_ engineer) https://www.forbes.pl/technologie/ladowanie-apollo-11-naksiezycu-kim-jest-margaret-hamilton/lc9ypcp

VOICES - 23

КУЛТУРА

VENICE(S)

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culture Did you think there was one and only Venice in Europe? If yes, then you might want to read what comes next! Actually, several cities featuring canals claim to be defined as the Venice of their geographical area. Let’s have a brief overview of a few of them, a glimpse into this exhaustive scope of travel opportunities. These ideas might ignite a spark, a willingness to explore unknown territories!

F

irst my favorite, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, in northern Germany. I warmly invite you to spend heaps of time in this outstanding city with a very dynamic and independent spirit. For instance, the Elbphilharmonie is just beautifully impressive. The city center is incredibly diverse in terms of atmosphere, with its wide diversity of neighborhoods. By the way, have you read the novel “A Most Wanted Man”

by British author David John Moore Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré?

Should have extra motivation for exploring the far ends of Germany, you could board a train and end up further north in the city of Flensburg, located in the neighboring Land of SchleswigHolstein near Denmark. Over there, you can experience a genuine crossborder identity, with German and Danish cultures and languages coming together.

Then Bruges, in north-western Belgium.

I just went there shortly to board a ferry for Scotland in the frame of a highschool trip. I had only a glimpse of it, so dedicating more time to explore this lovely city is definitely well-ranked on my to-do list. One piece of advice: you should definitely beware of the bicycles which are the kings in town! By the way, have you seen the movie “In Bruges”, starring talented French actress Clémence Poésy?

Finally, the town of Colmar with its neighborhood called “the little Venice”, in north-eastern France is very charming.

Twhis is one of the highlights of Alsace, a French area bordering Switzerland on the one hand and Germany on the other hand. While wandering in its alleys, there is a fairy tale atmosphere. Also, why not spend some time either in Strasbourg or in Mulhouse, formerly known as the “French Manchester” as a foreword or an epilog to your trip?

And last but not least, La Ferté-Bernard in north-western France is also part of this surprisingly long list, as the so-called Western Venice. I am especially keen to discover this place as I do not know well its area, Pays de la Loire region.

This is quite fascinating so many cities share this designation. But after all, this makes tellingly sense, as water has this reputation of being the essence of life!

Jules Striffler Design: Jules Striffler Sources: http://hamburg-companion.com/hamburgs-canals/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_Carr%C3%A9 http://www.perche-sarthois.fr/Decouvrir/Activiteset-circuits-pour-les-groupes/Planifiez-votre-sejour/ Laissez-vous-conter-la-Venise-de-l-Ouest http://www.perche-sarthois.fr/Decouvrir/Activiteset-circuits-pour-les-groupes/Planifiez-votre-sejour/ Laissez-vous-conter-la-Venise-de-l-Ouest Floch, M. and Martaguet, P., 2019. Hambourg, L’appel Du Large. Paris: Ambassade d’Allemagne.

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ЕРАЗМУс+

KA3: MOMENTUM Meet the participants of the project: “European Youth at the frontlines of active citizenship: A Roadmap towards a collective South-North-East-West Momentum” organized

by Volunteers Centre Skopje and supported by European Commission due to Erasmus+ European Youth Together programme and see how they will change society.

Stefanija Stefanoska (Macedonia) Stefanija is a student of psychology and she believes that any society could change if everyone works on their mental health. For her, working with youngsters would be most beneficial, because they are in the process of physical and emotional development and because they are the people in which’s hands our future is. The goal of her project is to teach youngsters about techniques for recognizing stress, stressful situations and considering their further effects and influences as well as recognizing the consequences of emotional stress transfer on partner relationships.

Razvan Cimpean (Romania) The problem that Razvan wants to solve in his project is the low level of interest of young people to play sports in nature, a problem that has as consequences the high risk of mental and physical health problems. His project consists of building a mountain biking route in the surroundings of Bălan. The challenge he faces is to get help from local authorities to create a legal route. He aims to contribute to the development of the city in the future and wants to motivate as many people as possible to do so. His message for those who want to become active citizens is to start change with small things.

Marianna Parmatzia (Cyprus) Marianna is an art educator from Cyprus, who believes that art could be used as a medium for communication, by creating a universal language that everybody can understand. As an Art teacher she decided to organize a workshop, which is called “What’s Your Story?” - encouraging participants to share their stories through artistic methods by taking part in a project-week she organizes. The idea of the project is to collect the participants’ artworks in the end of the workshop and exhibit them in public. It’s about an intercultural communication exchange, where people feel free to express themselves in any way they want: through performing, sound, pictures, illustrations and many other media.

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ERASMUS+

Marija Ristova (Macedonia) Marija is a student in a high school and her aim of the project is to make her voice and actions about raising awareness about environment to be heard.

Since she was a little girl she always cared for the environment, so that’s why she would like her hometown to be more clean and nicer place for living. At the lake close to the city, she is planning to plant trees. When she started the project, her wish was as many people to come and participate in it and take action together. But when Marija will finish the project, her expectation is people to be touched and take action as she did.

Krisztina Kerekes (Romania) The goal of her project is to create a nonprofit association which promotes sport activities for teenagers and improves their mental health and wellbeing, connected with the Erasmus+ youth exchange projects, because in the present in her town and in the surrounding areas the teenagers have limited access to this kind of activities.

Andria Spyrou (Cyprus) Andria’s project is about Fast Fashion Industry and how the current fashion business model has brought an excessive production of garments at a great cost. The project aims to uncover the dark realities behind the fast fashion industry and garment manufacturing in respect to the environment and human exploitation, which are not directly observable by the consumer. The goal is to inspire people into conscious consumerism and consideration of the impact our habits have on the planet and humanity overall.

Sara Jazadziska (Macedonia) Sara is a film worker/director born In Skopje. From a very young age, she has been involved in the film industry. Sara was accepted for the project “European Youth at the frontlines of active citizenship” and the topic she choose was Cultural Heritage and the focus of the story – the City and Lake Ohrid. The motivation to stand behind this topic is that she just moved to Ohrid which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but it might lose that status soon. Sara believes that losing that support and protection is a big red flag that we’re doing things wrong and at some point, it’ll come back to bite us.

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ЕРАЗМУс+

Ionut Barb (Romania) The main goal of his project is the legalization of the access with nonmotorized boats and kayaks on the Mesteacanul lake from Balan for greater diversity of sports and for recreational purposes. He believes that after finishing the project, it will be a greater diversity of sports that can be practiced, increasing the tourist interest and attracting potential investors in the area.

Christoforos Hadjiandreas (Cyprus) Christoforos is a global health enthusiast and a future physician who aspires to advocate for public health and empower other students all around the world to actively participate in health care matters. He believes that within non-formal as well as peer-to-peer education, more young people will not only self-develop but also enhance their skills and be further motivated to work on Public Health for the ultimate vision of achieving safe and high quality healthcare access for all people worldwide. His project aims to concern everyone for needs of Global Health.

Petar Stevanovic (Macedonia) Petar is a student and a big fan of nature. He remembers that since he was a child, he was spending a lot of time in his grandpa’s village. Now, his project is about raising awareness about taking care of nature’s health as much as taking care of our health. He wants to change the behavior and habit that people have while they are spending time in nature exercising, running, hiking or just relaxing in the nearest national park or mountain.

Petar hopes that with his project we can show to people that we can’t have healthy life if we don’t have healthy nature.

Vera Romanu (Romania) The goal of her project is to help young international Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies students once arrived in Bucharest, to get some help and guidance in university and social life. Main project objectives are: to create a video series guide that will help them with integration (through this video guide she will explain to the new coming students all the aspects of student life, what should they do, what do they have to do, where can they ask for help, who is going to help them...). Vera will try to gain the support of university decision makers to fasten the inclusion of the foreign students.

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ERASMUS+

Marios Limnatis (Cyprus) Through his project Marios will try to show to people that we can have a different point of view about business and economic systems. He wants to prove that businesses can give back to the people, to the society from their net income and still do well. Marios and his partner, Nikolas, have a webpage. Their new project is to start an online shop, as a part of that webpage. They are planning to donate to charity a percentage of the net profit. His message to the world is that we need to fight for our future, for a better future of our children.

Jana Oltovska (Macedonia) Jana is a fifteen year old girl from Skopje and is a scout already for 7 years.

She noticed that people only care about what the majority needs or wants and put aside what the minority asks for. That’s why she will make a project for helping autistic people to join the world of scouting. She believes that project will bring a lot of benefits such as developing empathy between the members, the scout leader will be more mature and improve in many ways, the autistic member will learn important life skills and socialize more and the whole team will grow mentally.

Daniel Oprea (Romania) Daniel’s project aims to decrease the suicidal rates among teenagers through an inspirational message. The objectives are to attract the attention of young people from Harghita county on the availability of the psychological help and to increase the degree of involvement of the decision-making leaders. Activities are based on the maintenance of a dialogue within the local council and students council about suicide prevention, and the making of an inspirational documentary. The impact consists in lowering the suicide rate and the school dropout rate.

Michalis Georgiou (Cyprus) Michalis studied electrical circuits and renewable energy technologies at a local institute. Growing up, he remembers from high school that he was getting angry when the other schoolmates didn’t throw their plastic bottles to the recycle bin. That’s why the idea of his project is to create a recycle bin in the shape of a fish and to install it on the beach at the sea. The goal of the project is to raise awareness about single use of plastic bottles in an artistic and cool way. His main challenge is for how many years this structure will be solid and if people are going to follow this idea and throw their bottles inside it.

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МИСЛЕЊЕ

Дали кога ќе пораснеме срцето ни умира? Во последно време, ме мачи оваа идеја, која потекнува од филмот “The breakfast club”. Дали кога ќе пораснеме сите ние, младите, ќе ни умре срцето, ќе заборавиме што значи да бидеш дете и тинејџер и така ќе станеме копија на нашите родители и ќе ги прифатиме нивните лоши однесувања?

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Opinion

С

метам дека, сите ние, младите, на некаков начин сме осакатени од нашите искуства досега, најмногу од нашите родители поради било каков недостаток во нашето детсво. Познато е дека, најчесто раните создадени во раната возраст траат доживотно, а кој е со нас во нашата најрана возраст? Нашите родители или оние блиски до нив, кои се грижат за нас. Некои родители ги игнорираат своите деца, некои ги тепаат и ги навредуваат, други пак едноставно не им даваат доволно љубов и сигурност за децата да можат со самодоверба да осптојуват во светот, а потоа доколку тие деца се пожалат, овие не можат, ниту сакаат, а ниту пак се обидуваат да ги разберат. Некои родители си го изживуваат она што не го доживеале самите, преку своите деца, им го контролираат животот и имаат огромни очекувања за свето дете, а детето, се разбира, ќе си помисли дека доколку не прави како што му е кажано- не вреди да биде сакано. Дали овие родители и многу други, со најразлични негативни однесувања и приказни, се сеќаваат дека имало време кога тие имале 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 18... години? Зашто секој еден од возрасните луѓе во овој свет, еднаш бил дете и тинејџер. Сите овие родители еднаш, ги презирале своите родители и се прашувале зошто се такви и можеби се заколнале дека никогаш нема да бидат како нив. Сите овие родители еднаш, биле многу збунети и единствена желба им била некој безусловно да ги сака и гласно и јасно да им го каже тоа. Па, што се случило? Можеби со текот на годините, се здобиле со поинаков поглед на светот, толку се фокусирале на решавање на проблемите кои ги носи животот што ги заборавиле чувствата што ги носат првите 20 години од животот. Заборавиле како е да не поднесуваш авторитет, кој е авторитет само за да им пркоси на младите, како е да сакаш и да веруваш дека ќе го смениш светот на подобро, како е да не бидеш сериозно сфатен за ништо, само поради тоа што ,,си мал и зборуваш од памет”и ,,со текот на времето ќе видиш дека не си во право”. Дали и на нас, младите, ова ќе ни се случи? Дали и јас, иако сега го пишувам овој есеј и стравувам, по 10 години ќе гледам наназад и ќе се смеам на сегашниве проблеми и нема да си ги подржувам сегашниве емоции?

Сум приметила, дека со луѓето помлади од мене, во одредени моменти, се однесувам како што моите родители се однесуваат со мене. Сум приметила дека кога гледам наназад, кога се присетувам како беше да се има 8 години- си ги осудувам тогашните желби, знаења, емоции, однесувања... Ова е многу разбирливо, да се однесуваме со децата, слично на нашите родители. Има смисла тоа однесување да ни е потсвесно врежано, но како да се бориме против тоа за да не ги повторуваме истите грешки наново и да не ги сакатиме идните генерации? Можеби е природно, но ние, како луѓе, сме способни да им пркосиме на негативните однесувања кои ни се наметнати од страна на природата. Како да имаме симпатија и емпатија на начин на кој нашите родители немале и да ги прифатиме само нивните добри особини и однесувања? Веројатно, секоја генерација, се обидува да биде подобра во воспитување на младите од претходната, но зошто толку бавно се одвива таа транзиција кон подоброто? Како да не ни умре срцето? Верувам дека е возможно во срцето да се остане дете засекогаш, зашто Џон Хјус и самиот е како Петар Пан, никогаш сосем не пораснал, односно , не заборавил како е да си дете, тинејџер,а доказ за тоа се неговите филмови, кои различните генерации ги наведуваат на вакви размислувања од важност. Веројатно единственото нешто што може да направиме е да не заборавиме, ништо, никогаш и да не дозволиме предизвиците од секојдневниот живот со кои ќе се соочуваме како возрасни да ни го зацрнат срцето.

Дафина “Даффне” Веселиноска Design: Ewelina Chańska

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МИСЛЕЊЕ

The absurdity of the marriage proposal and of what follows it

T

imes are changing. People are on the streets, all over the world, protesting in huge numbers against a racist structure that unfairly gives people different life opportunities and life threats according to their skin color. Since 2017, the #MeToo movement connected millions of people across the globe against sexual harassment and assault, leading them to speak up about their share of the suffering of this kind of violence. Supreme courts worldwide are being asked to pass bills against all sorts of discrimination against LGBTI+ people - and passing them. Though it is mistaken to make generalizations, since there is still quite a bit of resistance and even indifference to these themes, we can arguably say that we are growing more and more aware of the historical cleavages that divide us, favoring some and oppressing others, and also becoming less and less collectively tolerant about them.

This is fabulous and we should celebrate it. However, we cannot be naive or innocently confident about it - there are still many imbalances in place that must be broken, there is still much to fight for. Today, I would like to reflect on one of these “little” injustices of our Western social life that are not often in the limelight. The symbols of the marriage proposal and the ceremony after it.

For, when a man gets down on his knees, offers a ring in

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a velvet box to his darling chosen one, and pops up the famous “will you marry me?” or one of its variants, isn’t it the perfect scene of happiness that promises a brilliant conjugal future? And when a bride, in virginal white and veil, walks the church or hall’s corridor in the arm of her father towards her about-to-be-husband, isn’t this the embodied image of how to commemorate a proper ritual of passage to such a happy conjugal future?

Well, maybe it was for our grandparents, but it definitely isn’t for me and I dare say it isn’t for you either. Because the marriage proposal, from one party to another, reserves the initiative of the question for the first and the reaction of the answer to the other, in a very asymmetric active-passive relationship- that, presumably, nobody these days wants to actually live in the course of life together in the relationship itself. And because the walk down the aisle, where the bride leaves the arm of the man who accompanied her thus far to the arm of the one with whom supposedly she will spend her life from then on, puts her in a position of the object, if not propriety, of men, almost like in a transfer of a car in a contract, from one owner to the next. As if she wasn’t an autonomous individual, sovereign of her life, deciding of her own will and in a consensual agreement to join her path with that of this other autonomous individual, sovereign of his life - her equal in every sense.

Opinion

Maybe you think that I am being drastic, because nowadays, these rituals and scenes are nothing more than that, since couples actually have their own independent lives and jointly decide to live them together in a marriage, after much horizontal talk and considerations, on life goals, values, finances, and so on and so forth... But I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of these symbols and images and traditions, and the necessity of their erosion, for the simple reason that they matter. A lot.

They represent the ideas and values we wish to experience, reproduce and tell others we agree or identify with. This is powerful. This shapes how people see marriage and all that surrounds it, what we associate with this institution and way of life, what we consider acceptable and normal in its frame.

And if, indeed, we no longer live, adopt, identify with or find legitimate the model of society and individual (the woman not allowed to manage her own life or indeed to have one of her own, being tutored all along the way, the need of agreement of the men about her marriage) that originated these symbologies and rituals, why do we hang on to them, anyway?

Alongside the importance of symbols, rituals, and representations, I also believe this is a discussion we should have because outside of non-standard sexual orientations and life arrangements that is in heterosexual, monogamist relations - people seem to think there is not much alternative to the traditional package. People seem to assume that by getting into it, we’re accepting and going to live all the socially constructed hegemonic behaviors, norms, roles, projections of life in time, space, possibilities that are or have been predominant in it. Which doesn’t have to be the case.

To sum up, if each couple of partners decide their own style of life freely and in a horizontal decision process, if

the world stands up against all sorts of oppression and we have established in theory and struggle in everyday practice to refuse the patriarchal and sexist society that created the traditional marriage proposal and wedding ceremony of walking down the aisle)... it is really time we ditch them both.

Why not replace the first with a marriage decision, in a spring cycle around a park, each one in their bike, looking the other in the eye, saying let’s do it (as in let us, we both), and then coming home together to celebrate it? Why not replace the second with a dance, to the liking of the couple, where they are led to each other by their friends and family (as they have been by life) and then decide to dance together, in the center of a circle (as they are in that day of celebration of their union)?

If we want to live differently, we need to dream differently from our magical moments and rites and see them portrayed differently in movies, books, and friend’s talks. Let us then say goodbye to the misplaced, antiquated absurdity of the traditional marriage proposal and wedding ceremony with a walk down the aisle with different imaginations and experiences of them.

Vitória do Santos Acerbi

Design - Dogukan Sever

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ЕРАЗМУс+

ВЦС - TEHV - EU AID VOLUNTEERS Волонтерски Центар Скопје е дел од ЕУ проектот “Towards Effective Humanitarian Volunteering”

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ERASMUS+

Г

лавната цел на проектот е обука за сертифицирање на организации за програмата EU Aid Volunteers, која има за цел да обезбеди практична поддршка на напорите за давање хуманитарна помош и да придонесе кон јакнење на локалните капацитети во земји погодени од природни катастрофи. На тој начин EU Aid Volunteers им овозможува на европските граѓани практично да им помогнат на погодените заедници. Со цел ова да се постигне, волонтерите поминуваат низ обука за да стекнат потребни вештини за ефективно справување со последиците од природните катастрофи. Одговорна за спроведување на проектот е организацијата ADRA од Словачка, а покрај Волонтерски Центар Скопје, учествуваат и организации од Киргистан, Ерменија, Франција, Непал, Камбоџа, Чешка, Србија и Либан. Волонтерски Центар Скопје е прва и единствена организација од Македонија која учествува во процесот на сертификација. Со тоа, ВЦС го продолжува своето активно учество во различни хуманитарни акции и останува посветена во сферата на волонтирањето и помагање секаде каде што има потреба. Со овој проект се зголемуваат капацитетите на човечките ресурси во самата организација, но и се подигнува јавната и граѓанска свест за потребата од зајакнување на демократските структури и негување на хуманитарната димензија во општеството преку соработка и афирмација на младите. Поради најновата ситуација со пандемијата на Ковид 19, обуката и состаноците се одвиваа онлајн, каде што ВЦС се стекна со потребните знаења, алатки и вештини за комплетирање на процесот на сертифицирање. Практичниот тренинг започна на онлајн платформата Zoom и го одржуваше организацијата ADICE од Франција, која чекор по чекор нè воведуваше во процесот на комплетирање на потребните документи, алатки и формулари. Тие ни укажаа на потребата од креирање на правилници компатибилни со регулативите на EU Aid Volunteers, поврзани со безбедност, заштита на податоци, еднакви можности и недискриминација, заштита на деца и ранливи категории и кодекс на однесување.

Во текот на тренингот ни беше соопштено дека доколку успееме да ги комплетираме сите документи и процедури ќе може да аплицираме и за годишниот проект за распоредување на EU Aid волонтер како организација домаќин. Тоа ни даде уште поголем мотив да ги завршиме обврските во зададениот рок и успеавме да аплицираме за сертификација и за проектот за распоредување истовремено. Волонтерски Центар Скопје во Mакедонија ќе одржува семинари, презентации и работилници на кои ќе ги информира младите и сите оние кои се заинтересирани за волонтирање за програмата EU Aid Volunteers и сите придобивки кои произлегуваат од неа. Ова е изворедна можност Волонтерски Центар Скопје и Македонија да станат дел од големиот европски хуманитарен концепт кој е наменет да им помогне на земји што сакаат да ги зголемат своите локални капацитети, кои се погодени од различни природни катастрофи и општествени кризи на кои им е потребна професионална помош со цел справување со последиците. Организаторите пружаа голема помош во целиот тек на обуката, нè менторираа и даваа поддршка при комплетирање на документите и беа секогаш спремни да одговорат на нашите прашања. Иако целата обука беше изведена онлајн, ние учесниците водевме дискусии и разменувавме искуства, и на тој начин се зближивме и развивме пријателски односи. Предвидени се и повеќе патувања во земјите-учеснички во проектот, но кога ќе се изведат зависи од ситуацијата со пандемијата на COVID-19. Се надеваме дека ќе имаме можност да се запознаеме меѓу себе и во живо, со што би го продолжиле и продлабочиле нашето пријателство и соработка. #euaidvolunteers #euav

Јосип Гегај Андреј Наумовски

По секој состанок, имавме „домашна задача“ да работиме на соодветните документи, кои требаше да бидат завршени до наредниот состанок. Ваквата динамика ни помогна навремено и редовно да ги завршиме документите и да ги имплементираме забелешките на кои ни беше укажувани од страна на организаторите.

VOICES - 35

SCience junior

Admit it - you are a fish!

D

id you know that our true ancestor is an amphibian? What amphibian you may ask?

Well it is the Diplocaulus. Of course, it predates the dinosaurs and is thought to be their ancestor even closer than birds. It is thought to be the ancestor of 63% of modern life on Earth. Crazy, right? Wrong. It is thought to have had both lungs and gills. Which means that fish could have evolved from it. And if it evolved into a fish and into humans that means that we are somehow related to fish.

David and Damjan Veselinoski

David and Damjan are 10 years old brothers who are fascinated by dinosaurs and animals.

And by far are the youngest writers for Voices.

36 - VOICES

НАУКА јуниор

Д

али знаевте дека нашиот вистински предок е водоземец? Каков ќе прашате? Тоа би бил Diplocaulus. Се разбира, тој бил претходник на диносаурусите и се верува дека бил нивни предок поблизок дури и од птиците. Се мисли дека бил предок на 63% од модерниот живот на Земјата. Звучи лудо, нели? Сепак не е така. Се верува дека поседувал и бели дробови и жабри, истовремено. Тоа би значело дека и рибите би можеле да еволуираат од него. И ако навистина еволуирал во риба и во луѓе, тоа значи дека на некој начин сме роднини со рибите. Давид и Дамјан Веселиноски

Давид и Дамјан се 10-годишни браќа кои се воодушевени од диносаурусите и животните. И тие се далеку најмладите текстописци за Воисес.

Признај - ти си риба!

VOICES - 37

Wanna write for voices?

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