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January 2014

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LINK

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editorial

For us, as for many people, the new year is actually starting in September. This is the time we are making our resolutions for our work, projects, people. However the “real” New Year is giving us the opportunity to think about ourselves. To sit back, preferably near a fireplace, drinking a warm cup of tea and reflect on our lives. Most of us are lost in the routine. Working all day or being anxious to find a job. Worrying about tomorrow and running to catch up with our lives. Either we are working in a social structure, either in a company having a creative job or a typical one, we are sharing some basic needs. One of them is the idea of changing some-thing in the personal or the so-cial context. This idea some-times is becoming a will.

Everything seems right, while sitting near a fireplace, drinking your tea and making dreams for your future change. But how many of us are actually trying to fulfill our dreams. I mean re-ally trying... The most of us, we are returning to our daily lives, working like crazy, running like crazy, killing ourselves physical-ly and psychologically. And what about our dreams? How can we try to make them real?- Grab the opportunity- Be part of the action- Think out of the boxDifficult; No!It is so simple as to take the de-cision to do it.

Happy New Year!!!

Filaretos

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Editor: Amaia Vilas

dEsign: Lina Šuminaitė

CovEr Photo:Lina Šuminaitė

staff MEMbErs of KanE:Filaretos VourkosFotini ArapiGeorgia Giannakea

Long tErM Evs:Melina SavvidisFiachra Mckeever Carmelo MárquezEda TandoğanAhmad AyyashAmaia Vilas Erika FunaDanae LehmannMehmet Ali ŞirinUğurcan PehlivanAbdurrahman ErmişLina Šuminaitė

ContaCt us:K.A.NE.SociAl Youth DEvElopmENt

youth CEntrE of KaLaMata

plAtEiA othoNoS 10KAlAmAtA

24100GrEEcE

tEL: +302721110740

E-MaiL: [email protected]; [email protected]

urL: http://www.kentroneon.wordpress.

com

http://www.ngokane.org

faCEbooK PagE: http://www.facebook.com/kentro-

neon

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ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΕΡΓΑΣΤΗΡΙΩΝ ΚΕΝΤΡΟΥ ΝΕΩΝ ΚΑΛΑΜΑΤΑΣ

ΑΝΟΙΧΤΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ ΕΩΣ ΠΕΜΠΤΗ

ΩΡΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ ΩΡΑ ΤΡΙΤΗ ΩΡΑ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗ ΩΡΑ ΠΕΜΠΤΗ ΩΡΑ

Λιθουανικά Σκάκι Σλοβένικα

Latin

Γαλλικά

ζογκλερικά

Χορωδία

Γεωργιάνα

www.ngokane.org - ΤΗΛ. 2721110740

1ος όροφος

2ος όροφος μεγάλη

2ος όροφος μικρή

1ος όροφος



1ος όροφος



1ος όροφος



17.00 - 18.00

salsa για παιδιά

Ισπανικά αρχάριοι

17.00 - 18.00

R&B για παιδιά

Κιθάρα Για Παιδιά

αρχάριοι τμήμα 1ο

17.00 - 18.00 Καλλιτεχνικ

ό Εργαστήρι

17.00 - 18.00

International Latin

Aγγλικά ομάδα

συζήτησης

Τούρκικα προχωρημέ

νοι

17.00 - 18.00

18.00 - 19.00 Ισπανικά

προχωρημένοι

Τούρκικα αρχαρίων τμήμα 1ο

18.00 - 19.00

Σύγχρονο αρχαρίων

Μουσικοκινητική

Αγωγή Για Παιδιά

(τμήμα 1ο)


18.00 - 19.00

Παραδοσιακοί χοροί αρχάριοι


18.00 - 19.00

yoga τμήμα 1ο

Ρώσικα προχωρημέ

νοι

κιθάρα για παιδιά


18.00 - 19.00

Βιωματικές Ομάδες

19.00 - 20.00

Μyuai- Thai

Κιθάρα για Παιδιά


19.00 - 20.00

Οriental



(τμήμα 2ο)

Ελληνικά για ξένους αρχάριοι

19.00 - 20.00

Παραδοσιακοί χοροί


19.00 - 20.00

Μyuai-Thai

Αγγλικά αρχαρίων

19.00 - 20.00

Ρώσικα αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Κιθάρα για Ενήλικες αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Σύγχρονο προχωρημέ

νων

Γερμανικά αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Αραβικά αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Νοηματική τμήμα 2ο

20.00 - 21.00

21.00 - 22.00

Salsa αρχάριοι τμήμα 1ο

Κιθάρα για Ενήλικες


21.00 - 22.00

Νοηματική αρχάριοι

Γερμανικά προχωρημέ

νοιΡώσικα

αρχάριοι

21.00 - 22.00


Εισαγωγή στην Τέχνη

του Flamenco

Νοηματική Προχωριμέν

οι

21.00 - 22.00

Yoga τμήμα 2ο

Αραβικά προχωρημέ

νοι

21.00 - 22.00

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ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΕΡΓΑΣΤΗΡΙΩΝ ΚΕΝΤΡΟΥ ΝΕΩΝ ΚΑΛΑΜΑΤΑΣ

ΑΝΟΙΧΤΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ ΕΩΣ ΠΕΜΠΤΗ

ΩΡΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ ΩΡΑ ΤΡΙΤΗ ΩΡΑ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗ ΩΡΑ ΠΕΜΠΤΗ ΩΡΑ

Λιθουανικά Σκάκι Σλοβένικα

Latin

Γαλλικά

ζογκλερικά

Χορωδία

Γεωργιάνα

www.ngokane.org - ΤΗΛ. 2721110740

1ος όροφος



1ος όροφος



1ος όροφος



1ος όροφος



17.00 - 18.00

salsa για παιδιά

Ισπανικά αρχάριοι

17.00 - 18.00

R&B για παιδιά

Κιθάρα Για Παιδιά


17.00 - 18.00 Καλλιτεχνικ

ό Εργαστήρι

17.00 - 18.00

International Latin

Aγγλικά ομάδα

συζήτησης

Τούρκικα προχωρημέ

νοι

17.00 - 18.00

18.00 - 19.00 Ισπανικά



18.00 - 19.00

Σύγχρονο αρχαρίων



(τμήμα 1ο)


18.00 - 19.00

Παραδοσιακοί χοροί αρχάριοι


18.00 - 19.00

yoga τμήμα 1ο

Ρώσικα προχωρημέ

νοι

κιθάρα για παιδιά


18.00 - 19.00

Βιωματικές Ομάδες

19.00 - 20.00

Μyuai- Thai

Κιθάρα για Παιδιά


19.00 - 20.00

Οriental



(τμήμα 2ο)

Ελληνικά για ξένους αρχάριοι

19.00 - 20.00

Παραδοσιακοί χοροί


19.00 - 20.00

Μyuai-Thai

Αγγλικά αρχαρίων

19.00 - 20.00

Ρώσικα αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Κιθάρα για Ενήλικες αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Σύγχρονο προχωρημέ

νων

Γερμανικά αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Αραβικά αρχάριοι

20.00 - 21.00

Νοηματική τμήμα 2ο

20.00 - 21.00

21.00 - 22.00


Κιθάρα για Ενήλικες


21.00 - 22.00

Νοηματική αρχάριοι

Γερμανικά προχωρημέ

νοιΡώσικα

αρχάριοι

21.00 - 22.00


Εισαγωγή στην Τέχνη

του Flamenco

Νοηματική Προχωριμέν

οι

21.00 - 22.00

Yoga τμήμα 2ο

Αραβικά προχωρημέ

νοι

21.00 - 22.00

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ΜΙΚΡΕΣ ΑΓΓΕΛΙΕΣWith the Youth Centre opening again its doors to the public, for the 5th year, there are still some things, where we could use your help!!!For the beginning of the work-shops, and throughout the year, the Youth Centre needs:

* CHairSStrange as it may sound, the Youth Center is in need of chairs! As the Youth Centre acquires more and more members, and the use of the chairs is extensive, our poor old chairs are break-ing down. As it is, it is impos-sible to have all the chairs that the workshops need. If you have any chairs that you do not use, or you think that you can spare, you can bring them!

* MarKerS for the white boardAs all of the language workshops make use of the white board, we consume approximately 3 mark-ers per week!

* PeNSYou can never have enough of

those!

* CoMPUterSUnfortunately, the Youth Centre at the moment has only 1 work-ing (almost) computer to be used in the info-point. Temporar-ily, and only for the registrations, volunteers of the Youth Centre have brought their computers from home… however, eventually they will need them back… We need at least 1 more computer to be used in the dance workshops and 1 more for the outside activi-ties… :(

* GUitarSAs we are very musical this year, if you have any guitar that you do not need anymore and can give it to the Youth Centre, please do

* MirrorSThis may be a bit of a longshot but we also need full-length mir-rors for the dance room.

We know that it may be unlikely that people have spare full-length mirrors lying around in their ga-rages at home, but then again,

if you don’t ask, you’ll never re-ceive!

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Pure nature, mountains, sea-side, lovely street cats, bit-ing horses, barking and killing dogs, crazy sheeps, squeaking pigs, little acrobatics … No, I’m not talking about a circus, I’m talking about my lovely EVS project that is more a hobby than a work for me. Three days per week and two times per day Carmelo and me are cycling the long beach road along to our Coordina-tor’s home enjoying the sun or freezing into ice. In the idyllic

the therapeutic Horse riding

By: Melina

garden full of orange trees and other fruits and vegetables a small black and especially crazy dog is expecting us. His name is Kefdes and his gender is actually still unknown. All together we make our way to the horse riding place close to Verga that is owned by Agnes. A small mountain chain and citrus trees are surrounding our working and riding place.Next to this you can find the homey place of the horses. The horse that we are always

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using is Prima. She is very lazy and if she doesn’t want to trot (her steady mood), for sure she will let you know through a quick bite in your arm. Since there are a lot of crazy ani-mals in this place, Prima be-comes scared very quickly

and that can cause a lot of problems. So you (in this case me) have to take a lot of care and keep her calm. Whereas I take mostly care of the horse, Carmelo is taking care of the

children. Also this can be a really dangerous

job: Often the small acrobat-ics hit you with the stick, the ball, and the hammer to wake you up or just pull your hair! But next to all those danger-ous risks we take, we also have a lot of fun with the children and learn a lot. Every child has

its special needs and is every time in a different mood. That means we are doing individual exercises for each child. Some of them need more gymnas-tic exercises, some of them exercises to make them con-centrate and so on. It is also

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very interesting and impress-ing to see how the child is de-veloping and to realise that they develop so fast just be-cause of such simple things. Just sitting on the horse, feel-ing the movement and imi-tating can improve the child’s whole movement. We also have a couple of very active and noisy children who only start to relax on the horse. Simple things like cleaning the horses or just to finish an exercise makes them feel proud of themselves and very happy. To see the children like

this makes us even happier! The fact that we are work-ing with animals and children which are having all the time a different mood, makes it al-ways very exciting because you never know what is go-ing to happen. For sure there are always coming out a lot of good anecdotes! For me, and I think for Car-melo, I can say that we are very happy about our project to play such an important and necessary role and that we are doing something so effective!

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Project Re:Think was inspired by and essentially created through the serious wasted problem that faces our city, es-pecially in the last 4 years. The older uncontrolled dumps, and particularly the current dump of Maratholakka in the Natura region of Taygetos, demon-strate that there has been no institutional progress in the field of integrated waste man-agement.

By: Kostas

re-tHiNK By: Uğurcan

I have never seen like it be-fore. In my country we throw the food wastes with other wastes. and the easy think is throw and don’t think. But we are living in the world. Re-think project about the food wastes becoming compost. This is the best way I think. Because you throwing the food waste in the composting box and it’s be-coming compost then you can use for your plants. You don’t pay for peshicides. Before to throw food waste please RE-THINK.

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“So how was your Christmas?”A simple question, often asked in the first weeks of the new year when people reconvene after the holiday season. A typical response elicited by this question is: “Good man. I ate a lot of turkey, drank a lot of beer, had fun with my friends and family...” et ce-tera et cetera. Rarely, if ever, however do you recieve a re-sponse such as this: “Grand man. I ate a lot of turkey, had fun with my family, drank a lot of beer, had a great laugh with my friends to the extent that I was on my hands and knees on the foothpath, con-vulsed with laughter. It was all fun and games until I got ar-rested or it. “We’ll go for a pint he says. Be grand he said.”An atypical response indeed. How, very rightly you may ask, does one go, in a matter of minutes, from being in fits of laughter, from having literally harmless, victimless fun with

JUStiCe for roSSBy: Fiachra

friends to being unceremo-niously escorted away from the scene of the craic by our ever-beloved ‘protectors’. This is exactly what happened to a good friend of mine in Ireland, Ross. He went out one night over Christmas, got drunk as we all do, had a playfight with a good friend of his and mine, was laughing from it, got ar-rested, taken to court the next morning and fined €1,000, to be given as a ‘donation’ to the poor box (as a side note, I’d

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love to know if that money is as traceable as Irish beef). Good for the poor, bad for Ross. And justice in general.

Why justice in general? Well, in a report that appeared in a local newspaper back home, the prosecution (ie the Po-lice) stated that they arrested him “for his own safety”. How magnanimous of them. But as someone on the internet dis-cussion of this incident quite correctly pointed out, “Surely a lift home would have suf-ficed”. I couldn’t agree more.Now I have had some experi-ence with An Garda Siochana in Ireland, and while I have found many of them to be

pleasant and in possesion of honourable inten-

tions, it has to be said that a good few of them can be right little egotistical, power-hungry, condescending arseholes who think that a blue uniform and a high-vis jacket elevates them from the rest of humanity and gives them an excuse to ren-der into reality their pseudo-sadistic and domineering fan-tasies. And I am sure that this aforementioned opinion of mine, to which I am perfectly entitled, is shared by many’s the man, woman and child, in let’s be honest, almost every country. It is of course no sur-prise that this particular civil ‘service’ attracts people of this inclination; they do exist and the the police force is a logi-cal destination. Society can not fuction properly if there is a state institution that nurtures fascists-at-heart, allows them to thrive and permits them forego common decency and the respect for fellow humans that is expected of anyone not in possession of a shiny badge. “Look at my shiny badge, now dance because I say so.”This kind of an institutionalised

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and artificial seperation of people, their respective rights, benefits and the behaiour that is tolerated is abhorrent and an insult to the concept of jus-tice. So a man gets arrested for his own safety, fined €1,000 for laughing in the street and countless scandals involving police officials (not to mention politicians, clerics and bankers, Jesus don’t get me started on that shower) go unreprimand-ed, thereby further incubating and legitimising croneyism and undermining justice.No, they would rather look like they are doing society a fa-

vour by cleaning the streets of happy, fun-loving people and forcing them to pay money for it (again, to whom exactly?). This situation is far too trans-parent altogether.So what do we do? I suppose we could, and should talk about it, write about it, sing about it. Information and publicity for the issue of inappropriate use of police and judicial power needs to be spread. Stranger things have happened in this world than a small incident having a big impact. Let’s start the discussion, maybe we can change the world! #JusticeForRoss

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Name Mariliana diamantaki

We Know that you start-ed one project with some friends, tell us?Yes, I started one cooperative here in Kalamata, Προσεχώς κοινσεπ, with 6 friends, but only 3 of us we are there work-ing day by day. The project has 3 parts: first Fair trade, second exchange of knowledge and workshops and the third one is selling the coffee in which we use from the fair trade to help us on the financial side.Tomorrow we will have been opened for one month but we have been organising it since last April. We have a European funding that is the part of de department of Unemployed Women.

We know a little bit, but tell us which kind of phi-

interview with a local VolunteerBy: Amaia

losophy do you have in the cooperative?Our name explains our philos-ophy, Προσεχώς means “com-ing soon” because we want to be in continuous movement, working with new producers, new workshops, and at the same time support local pro-

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ducers and fair trade coopera-tives like coffee from Zapatista.

How is it going so far?The evaluation is positive but is so soon, in one year we will see.

about you, how long have you been involved in the Youth Centre?Is my second year now, last year I was helping in the cre-ation of occupation for chil-dren and this year as a mentor. As you know this year, unfor-tunately, I´m not so involved with the Youth Centre, but with the cooperative we are going to take rematch in the near future.

explain us what is the roll of a mentor?The mentor is supposed to be the connector of the new vol-unteer with the local commu-nity. I like it and for me feels a natural position, I was doing it last year and this year is more official.

Have you been collabo-rating with others socials centres?Yes, I used to live in Thessa-loniki and I used to participate in a Social Centre for Refu-gees and immigrants “ Στέγη Μεταναστών ” .

What kind of activity’s were you doing?I was working in legal health for refugees and teaching Greek and other languages, comput-er skills, some activities for chil-dren and campaigns about the immigrant’s rights trying to con-nect with the local community. I started participating in social projects from the age of 16.

from Spain, in the area of social movements, So-cial Centres and differ-ent Social Platforms we have Greece always as a reference, as very orga-nized people and involved. is this right? “Yes in one way we have been very organized for some pe-

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riods of time... Such as the students movement of may of 2006 that reached 300 de-partments occupations all over Greece... And of course the December of 2008 that after the murder of a teenager in Exarxeia from a policeman that started a big period of youth movements....”

do you use to participate as an activist with another group?Yes, in the assembly of my University (Biology). I used to participate in a pirate radio of my University too. I was in the area of news and against news and some other departments it depending of the year.

one dream?In my 50´s I would like to have a van to travel around the world, visiting friends.

one dream that you have made real?The project Προσεχώς κοινσεπ, last year we didn´t really be-

lieve that was going to happen and still we tell ourselves “We have a shop!!!.”

one Hero?Loic (one of our last EVS) that was a hero, not a common hu-man been.

one anti-Hero?In general, people how hate the others.

When you were a child with what did you dream of?I was changing every year, but I wanted something related to animals (a vet, a farmer,..) And finally I became a biologist, so I´m good enough, I made it real.

thanks so much to Marili-ana

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What is your name and how old are you?My name is Uğurcan Pehlivan and I am 18 years old.

What is your project?My project is about take care

interview with a eVS volunteer:

Uğurcan from TurkeyBy: Ahmad

of a farm and the composting material.

What is the most thing make you happy?Play music and dance.

Who is the most close person to you?My (kanka) Abed Al-Rahman.

Why you choose Kalamata?I search about Kalamata in internet and I like the picture and I like the place here when I see it.

How much you like your job from 10?9.9

What about your work-shops?I make Turkish lesson and mu-sic band.

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What is your dream?I want to be a great musician, and to buy house, to have a big garden.

Do you find love in Kal-amata ?Not yet.

How you want your dream girl look like?I want a girl like Megan Fox.

Uğurcan please give us some words that you be-lieve in?Uğurcan says “if you want to find the right things ask your heart first”

*the editor opinion of Uğurcan?Uğurcan have a good heart and I am sure that he will be good and creative person in the future, and I wish for him a good life.

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Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle on the way...and Santa Clause is coming to town!! On Friday, the 20th of December, the fa-vourite event of many people of the Youth Center took place: The famous Christmas dinner that we all had heard so much about from the people who participated in it before! The tables were brought in, cov-ered in white table cloth, and candles of all scents and co-lours were put in the middle. The lights were off as we came in, so the candles shaped like stars and flowers were provid-

Christmas dinner

By: Erika

ing the warm light and the cozy homey feeling. Slowly, people started gathering, each with a tray or two of home made delices. Some brought savory, some made sweets, and of course there was nobody who would forget a small present for the draw that was about to follow the dinner. The little gifts wrapped in shiny paper were placed under the lovely Christmas tree in the corner, right next to the heater that somehow gave the impression of a fire place. The whole room was decorated, twinkling

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in colourful lights, and filled with Christmas tunes. People came all dressed up and were greeting each other, singing, hugging and taking pictures together. Some even danced! In the meanwhile, the deli-cious looking food was piling up on the other table, tempt-ing everybody with hevaenly smells! The plates, cuttlery and glasses were brought and finally, the lids were removed from the pots and the feast could start! Oh, the sight of it! All the tastes and aromas! So many things to try it was hard to decide what to choose first! Everybody did an amazing job. And we had all the time in the word to relax and en-joy it. Nobody was in a hurry. It really looked like a scene from a movie, except the feel-ings and the senses were real, which is what made it so spe-cial and beautiful. Everybody was there, the Greek volun-teers, the EVS mentors, the K.A.NE. people, and of course us, the EVS crew. There was

chatter, there was laughter, everything a dinner

is supposed to be. And after it, everybody pulled a paper with a name from a hat and discovered whose Santa they were going to be. The looks were searching the room for the person to give the gift

to, the little surprise bags ex-changed and opened with the looks of joy and expectation. A hug, a thank you, kisses on cheeks and smiles of delight everywhere...not so much because of the presents, but more because of a lovely eve-ning spent together. And that is what matters most, afterall.

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That day was so important for everyone. There were so many impatient people be-cause they were waiting to

Christmas dinnerBy: Abdurrahman

give their presents to eacho-ther. Everybody brang some meals, wines, drinks and ev-erything… Tables were full of with meals and drinks. And finally diner has started. They took their diner and had seat around the tables. Everybody was so happy because of the importance of the day. Every-one had fun and laugh during the diner. Everyone was shout-ing with “yamas!” with their drinks. And finally we finished the diner ceromony and start-ed to give our gifts one by one. Everyone was so happy with the gifts because every gift has a special meaning. It was the last event of the night, af-ter the gift ceromony night fin-ished. I am Abdurrahman Er-mis. I wish peace to all around the world and have a nice year to you all. Happy new year!

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More than half of voluunters left from Kalamata after the enjoyable and incredible deli-cious youth center christmas dinner. But some of them was thinking that they are not lucky so much like other volunteers. They had to stay in Kalamata when others with their family. But one of them was so lucky because she found her Greek family in Kalamata. That is me Eda, and this love-ly family is my dear mentor

Chrisa and her perfect fam-ily. I have never been

tHe PerfeCt CHriStMaS diNNer WitH PerfeCt faMilYBy: Eda

in a chrismas dinner. When Chrisa invite me first time that was first reason for my excite-ment and other one also the first time I was dining with a Greek family. My first impressions com-pletely hospitely, smiling faces, friendly people, a perfect table everything was so reposeful. They had thought of every-thing, sweets, delicious foods, fruits even though normally I am not drinking alcohol be-cause of taste and they had brought sweet cherry liqueur

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for me and that was also so kind. I felt again how I am lucky. And after perfect table and con-versation (of course with my dear Chrisa’s translation) we sit near to fireplace and start to play cluedo game Chrisa me and her lovely mother. It was so funny and beneficial, because we discover a lot of common words with Greek and Turkish. I saw one boat they had put christmas lights and they try to explain it. Surprisingly the Christmas Boat tradition has only become popular in the mainland in and around the last 30 years and is comparativley new compared to the Christ-mas tree. The reason for this is

that the Greeks are aware that the Christmas tree is not tra-ditonally part of their culture and was actually imported by their first king, Otto of Bavar-ia. They wanted to begin their

own tradition using the boat, and by the number of people that seem to have taken up this tradition it has been very sucessful and now just couple of people are using, they told me. And when we was playing the game, one of turkish seri-ous was on the tv and at this moment I felt completely like home. They were my first but I think I start with the best..

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On the 13th and 14th of Decem-ber the youth center offered some activities for children on the main square of Kalamata. Some of us volunteered to sell Amaia’s beautiful self-made candles and help the children with making Christmas cards/drawings. The most popular activity though, definitely was the face painting. So both days for six hours we painted Aigios Vasilis, Christmas trees, snow-men, Christmas presents … on a lot of very cute little faces. Also on Sunday Giorgos came to our Christmas house on the square to make some awe-some creations out of balloons. A big crowd of children gath-ered around him and wouldn’t

let him go until every single kid got some of his

Christmas activities with childrenBy: Danae

balloon art. After those hours us volunteers were a little bit exhausted but also happy to have brightened up a lot of chil-dren faces and to have spread some Christmas spirit.

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To a greater or lesser degree, we have all studied or read in the press about the various genocides in Europe (Tur-key, the former Yugoslavia, Central Eu-rope...), but can one of you, dear read-ers, tell me about the brutal genocide in Africa? Hang our heads, face it. Let’s be honest. We don’t know more than a simple shadow of the reality in Africa. Of course, part of this is our own fault, but especially, the information on the southern continent leaves much to be desired.This kind of basic discrimination against African people and Africa’s problems is what I will deal with in this edition of ‘Link’, breaking with this cloying atmo-sphere of boring articles (mostly) with little content and less reality. More so, in the Christmas editions. We are vol-unteers, young and with many tools at our fingertips, fuck! I don’t say that necessarily we should write about sad and hard things, but I think we should look around us. For example, I have not read any articles about what hap-pened to our friends Abdi and Uğurcan during their first week in Kalamata. –

“So, do it yourself, Carmelo” – you will think. If I haven’t done it, it’s

been for two reasons: my

Opinion Piece“law of silence” in africaBy: CarmeloDecember 27th 2013, San Fernando (Cádiz)

English is so bad that it would be a tre-mendous injustice to write about this subject, and, as I said, I didn’t see a place in this magazine for something so serious. I’ll try to break this dynamic of sweetness with this opinion piece about the imaginary construction of the Afri-can people by the media and stereo-type as a form of knowledge. No, the next paragraphs will not deal with the just deceased Mandela through pre-cious words. You are warned. You can stop reading if you want.It really is easy to find news in the me-dia dealing with: “250 people have been killed today during heavy fight-ing between rebels and those who support the regime, northeast of [...] UN observers found 90 mutilated bod-ies yesterday just, the most of them belonging to women and children”. Hundreds of dead people that already have become just a number to add to the list. There aren’t even names. And yet, “we’re lucky” that a generalist me-dia grant twenty lines or thirty seconds. Sadly, you cannot ask for more than that. And we don’t bother searching between his few lines, the actors of the event, the causes, the consequences, the context ... because it would be a

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chimera to pretend that the media will provide us with such information, so basic and fundamental, on the other hand, to understand the fact.However, brevity on this topic - “Africa” – is not as absolute as it’s ability to rep-resent the “shutter” and “diaphragm” of western eyes focusing on Africa. I mean the usual dynamics of the gate-keeper does not go beyond republished information provided by an internation-al agency or generally performing the famous “ctrl + c - ctrl + v”. “Wild, vague, irresponsible for having chil-dren, tribal, unstable, amoral, protago-nists of constant wars, dirty, smelly, uneducated, doomsayers, ignorant, slaves, lower... in a rare, strange, des-ert, poor, without natural goods, dark and without history, continent.”With the passing of history, these ste-reotypes and prejudices have taken deep root in the western collective consciousness. And unfortunately, the media continue to transmit such preju-dices or simply don’t work to separate them from the social mind. From Africa cannot come information that is not about disasters, famine, disease, mar-ginalization and war… Never a minim of positive signs about the towns of Africa and it’s people. That’s what we have from Africa daily. That, or reports that deal with exotic, unique traditions. Perfect for the masses, the Europeans, hungry for “circus”, novelties, animals and different places where it can test the steal-of-a “seven million” megapixel new digital camera with Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi incorporated. It’s true that, with the Internet, there are more specialized variety of media, respectful and honest information with

various “hidden” and “silenced” issues in the mass media. However, it’s clear that Internet forms part of the neolib-eral globalization in which the new god is “the market”. Globalization which has transformed the way in which it’s re-ported. Today, censorship isn’t based solely on the deletion of information, but also the saturation of the receptors with colossal amounts of information, due to the constant and huge techno-logical, cybernetic and digital develop-ments. A “legal censorship”. Similarly, that at the same time today democracy is a “legal dictatorship implied”. An en-tire power structure that obeys the laws of the market.The reality annihilated by a false jour-nalism. Eternal question. The only real journalism will have some sense if it provides to society the key information necessary to draw conclusions and criti-cal reflections. In the world, there really aren’t good or bad ones. There aren’t simple answers. But of course, this is very hard to take for the fearful, lazy and stupid masses. They don’t want to see beyond, their consciousness awak-ening. They don’t want to think of a complex reality and, thereby, don’t for-get their date with “TV circus”.To be above the state and private (not public) interest is the way that journal-ism must recover in order to be able to explain the complexity of the world and all the many and varied relationships that exist within it. Until then, the media will not leave this profound coma. With much sadness and with little hope, I cannot conclude this article, but rather think that the darkest part of Africa has always been our ignorance of it.

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offiCe:

WHo

Weare

loNG terM

eVS:

Filaretos Vourkos / Last 7 years I am working in the field of non formal educa- tion as a volunteer, youth worker and youth trainer. 4 years ago, I decided to create the Youth Centre of Kalamata, in order to initiate the youth work in Kalamata and promote active citizenship as factor of change.

Hi my name is Fo-tini Arapi and I am project manager at K.A.NE. organisation. I started working here in September 2011 and fell in love with the Youth Cen-tre, its dynamic and most of all its incredible team of foreign and local volunteers! See you around :-D

Hello to everyone! My name is Georgia. I am 25 years old and I live in Kalamata. I spent the last 5 years in Ath- ens doing my Bache- lor in Management and Business Administration and the last year in the Netherlands continuing my studies for a Mas-ter’s degree. I am glad to be back to Kalamata after all those years. I am happy to be part of K.A.NE.organization.

Hello, my name is Fiachra (the English transla-tions are: hunt-er/tracker or raven), I’m 26 and I come from Ireland. Here at the youth centre I teach music, English, make good frappes in the café and bad jokes in Greek. Χαίρετε!

Erika FunaFrom Slovenia (half Greek), 26 years old, uni-versity gradu-ate (English, Philosophy)Likes: be-ing outdoors, languages, art, nature, yoga.

Danae Lehmann/ 20 / GermanyI like being around people, photography, greek lifestyle, good food, swimming in the sea.I’m volunteer-ing at the youth center from October 2013 to June 2014.

I’m Uğurcan Pehlivan. I’m from Turkey. I’m working in ecological farm. I’m playing bas guitar. I will be in Greece until 31 of July. My name become to my country and the meaning is Ugur - fortune and Can - soul.

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My name is Amaia and comes from Basque roots, since my mother is from San Sebastian, the meaning of my name is “the end” but in turn is an war-rior woman of Basque mytholo-gy. But I born in a beautiful land north of Spain, Galicia, Atlantic ocean.

Hi everybody! My name is Melina/18 years old/ half german/ half greek and I’m working in the Therapeutic Horseriding and in the K.E.F.I.A.P. I love chocolate and to dance, so I teach Salsa for children and Latin and of course German! And all of that I’m really enjoying!

Lina /28/ Lithu-ania/ volunteer in K.A.NE. Youth Centre from August 2013 to July 2014. Teaching lithu-anian and art. Hobies: design, history and mu-seums.

Hi,My name is Ahmad Ayyash and I am from Jordan iam 23 years old I love to play chess and football.I am fan of Real Madrid club and I am a construction engineer. My proj-ect is about autistic children.

Abdurrahman ErmişI am Abdurrah-man. I am from Turkey. I am working in eco-logical farm. I am playing drum. I will be in Greece until 31 of July.

I’m Mehmet Ali Şirin. I’m from Turkey. I’m work-ing in ecological farm. I’m playing elektro guitar. I wil be in Greece until 31 of June.

My name is Eda Tandoğan. I am from Turkey. I am 21 years old, still a university stu-dent. My project is about disabled people in kekyka-mea.

Γεια σε όλους! My name is Carmelo Márquez. I am from Cadiz, a city of Andalusia, in the south of Spain. I’m 25 years old and I have finished my career in journalism. So, like good Spanish, I love flamenco, football (my team is F. C. Barcelona), sea and his waves, philos-ophy, literature, music... My work here in Kalamata, besides teaching Spanish and Flamenco in KANE center is to help as pos-sible to workers KEFIAP (center children with dis-abilities) and equestrian therapy until June 2014.. Τα λέμε.

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The volunteers responsible for this publication are hosted in Greece in the framework of the European Youth in Action programme, Action 2- European Voluntary Service.

This project has been funded with support from the Eu-ropean Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, anvd the Commis-sion cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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