parexcellence . farewell issue

30

Upload: robin-janasek

Post on 28-Mar-2016

218 views

Category:

Documents


4 download

DESCRIPTION

8th Czech Forum in Pardubice

TRANSCRIPT

After four days of hard mental and manual labour for the press team, we are defi nitely too tired to be bothered with writing a proper editorial for the Farewell Issue. But we suppose that in our fi nal editorial we really should actually make some insightful and pensive remarks about the session. So we decided to make it easy for ourselves and simply print off the notes for our speech at the Closing Ceremony as a substitute:

BY RANDOLF AND ROBIN

FROM THE DIARY OF A YOUNG DELEGATEBY ANNA KAMPFMANN

23.11.11

Dear diary,

Tomorrow is the day. At 9:23 a.m. my train departs for Pardubice, to my very fi rst session of the Euro-pean Youth Parliament. While I was packing my suitcase and didn’t really know what to take along, nervousness overcame me. Th e EYP: What is it all about? Who are the people behind the scenes that spend so much time and eff orts in the project? My curiosity made me research on the Internet – all I could fi nd was some general information: “Th e European Youth Parliament (EYP; in French, Parlement Euro-péen des Jeunes, PEJ) is a politi-cally and religiously unbound non-profi t organisation, which encourages European youth to actively engage in citizenship and cultural understanding. It involves 40,000 youngsters from all around Europe in its events and has around 5,000 active members in the diff erent countries. It was established in 1987 in Fontaineb-leau, France.“ Obviously I am more or less inter-

ested in national as well as Euro-pean politics – but am I really the right person to participate in a session of the EYP? Am I pre-pared for debates on the Arab spring, youth unemployment or the war against drugs?Instead of agonizing I should go to bed now – in order to be prepared for tomorrow, to do my best.

Goodbye!

27.11.11

Dear diary,

Right now I am sitting in the train – exhausted, nostalgic and con-tent at the same time – on my way back home from Pardubice. Th e past few days were an experience I can hardly fi nd words to describe for. Awesome, unique, fun, adven-turous – whatever word comes to my mind just does not seem to live up to the feeling. It all started on Th ursday. We were standing on the schoolyard waiting for something to happen, waiting for the session to begin. First shy interactions, unnotice-

PAREXCELLENCE 2

able eye contact between one or two strangers. Th at was the moment when I noticed that I am not the only one facing fears, who did not know what to expect and was quite sceptical about what was going to happen next. We were all sitting in the same boat. Teambuilding – what seemed weird and awkward at fi rst glance turned out to be a whole lot of fun! Having played games like “Pass the Orange” or “Drunken Bottle” we were ready for the more serious part of the session: Committee Work started. Initial reservation and incertitude were replaced by heated discussions resulting in an innovative resolu-tion everybody in the committee could agree on.Aft er another almost sleepless night we were prepared for the highlight of the forum, General Assembly. Th e excitement when I stood up in order to speak in front of those 100 people… my heart was in my boots. However, I tried and succeeded – that single feel-ing makes all that eff ort and work worth it. As I am refl ecting on the session, the people, and the atmosphere, I already feel that so-called Post-EYP-Depression coming up. My symptoms: Spending loads of time on Facebook, desperately looking for an upcoming session to partic-ipate in, daydreaming and replay-

ing moments from the session in my mind.However, it feels like this isn’t the end for me – it was just the begin-ning of a new and exciting jour-ney. EYP challenges people on very diff erent levels; it forces us to go beyond our limits and the well known. Now aft er having experi-enced the “EYP spirit” I see why people dedicate time, money and energy on the organisation – what you can gain is priceless.I want to take the chance and get in touch with my National Com-mittee in order to be part of all this. I realised it isn’t diffi cult to continue in EYP, to go on a jour-ney and explore new paths.

See you soon!

FAREWELLISSUE3

BY LIA PACHLER

It is us, the European Youth Par-liamentarians (EYPers), who sim-ply adore discovering the world, thus always looking for the cheap-est possibility either to come to a session or to make holiday. Apart from the journey, most of us will think of hostels now, but there is a new trend towards staying at a stranger and ’surfi ng on his/her couch’. Not only exists a closed Facebook group for EYPers, which off ers its group members hospi-tality exchange, there is an offi cial oraganisation called ‘CouchSurf-ing’ that aims to change the world, as they mention on their homep-age. With three million members in over 230 countries and territories

around the world, CouchSurfi ng is blazing the trail towards a bet-ter and friendlier world where people who are diff erent from one another can fi nd their simi-larities. Th e concept is quite easy: people should be able to have an accommodation for free around the whole world, while becom-ing friends with others, who share their interests. If you now ask yourself how that genius system works and how YOU can be part of that organization, just read on.First of all, register yourself at the homepage www.couchsurfi ng.org. Simple as it is, this is everything you have to do for being an offi -cial member of the CouchSurfi ng community. Now it is up to you

PAREXCELLENCE 4

COUCHSURFINGHUMANITY WORKING AT ITS FINEST

how much information you want to share about yourself, but the more detailed you present your-self, the better chances you have to fi nd a host or to get a host request. Aft er that you enter the place where you want to go and choose between diff erent ‘CouchStatus’. Do you want to stay at someone’s place or do you just want to go for a drink or coff ee with him or her? Or do you prefer both? Usually, you are spoiled for choice, espe-cially in big capitals as for instance London (919 results for possi-ble couches is a lot to go through, actually).When staying somewhere, you do not have to pay for it, but it is some kind of ‘unwritten law’ that you bring some small present, which are typical for your home coun-try. Additionally, you can return the favour by helping with house-keeping. However, what you give cannot be compared to what you get, when thinking of the fi rst-hand information locals can pro-vide you with about your destina-tion. Travel guides contain loads of information about a foreign city, but I am quite sure that there will always be that special hint you can only get from local people. Furthermore, as a ‘typical’ tourist you would never get the chance to enjoy real typical homemade food, meet other local people with the

same interests, get to know beauti-ful hidden spots and the cheapest and cosiest restaurants. Nonetheless, I assume that you are wondering about safety and that you might be afraid of being hosted by a criminal or an oth-erwise disagreeable person. But fi rst of all, always bear in mind that you choose for yourself where you want to stay and who you are going to host. Secondly, there is the system of reviews. Aft er some-one ‘surfed a couch’, the host and the surfer write a review on each other’s profi le, which is impos-sible to remove aft erwards. Th at way you can determine which couch hosts have a good reputa-tion among their guests and place your requests accordingly.So, can you imagine a world fi lled with people who have a feeling of connectedness, committed to helping each other out? Can you envision yourself as part of a crit-ical mass of people extending hospitality, sharing knowledge, spreading tolerance and support-ing each other as we strive to meet our collective needs? If you have answered these questions with a convinced ‘Yes!’ then you should seriously start thinking of becom-ing a part of this remarkable net-work that I strongly recommend you to.

FAREWELLISSUE5

Editors’ Note: Actually these pages were meant to contain a review of the Fare-well Party. But strangely enough all of the journalists’ memories of the event are too blurry to compose a sensible article.So instead. we’re leaving these pages blank for you to use the space to write down your very own best moments from yesterday’s party, or from the last four days as a whole - or even better, let your fellow delegates write down their favourite memories here for you to take home with you.

PAREXCELLENCE 6

FAREWELLISSUE7

TERRYFIED, HARMLESS LLAMASBY LIA PACHLER

I proudly present you, regretta-bly for the very last time, AFET I, which proclaims itself as a sustain-able team. Ecologically-friendly speaking, they recycle everything that can be reused (excluding chewing gum) and always think twice before getting a new post-it. As you may have read in the sec-ond issue, this committee is made up of athletes. From my point of view, they should build up a sports team together because they do great in working as a team, respecting each other and stick-ing to their Golden Rules. How-

ever, in the meantime AFET I turned from a sporty commit-tee into a musically skilled one. Although they all enjoyed team-building a lot, they are very fond of EYP songs, both classic ones and ‘recently appeared’ ones. It goes without saying that the llama song makes their hearts beat faster. What may be even more remark-able is the gorgeousness of AFET I, because the boys had a hard job choosing the ‘hottie’ of the committee, but in the end they decided on an obviously pretty

PAREXCELLENCE AFET I

girl called Lenka. Unfortunately, offi cials were not given as an option, because otherwise Harm would have won the competi-tion according most of the girls. What is more, AFET I showed to have great expectations about the pyjama party, and most of them expected Malek and Petr to rock it the most, but I’m quite sure that everyone had loads of fun, because Jan was said to be the one with the best sense of humour. Nevertheless, this lovely commit-tee would have never turned out into such a productive team with-out their charming chairs guiding them through the whole session. Even though Terry usually tends to mix up names, she managed to remember nearly all names shortly aft er the fi rst name game. Her co-chair Harm was surprised by having spent the last 4 days in Central Europe, because he assumed that the Czech Repub-

lic is a part of Eastern Europe (but maybe he didn’t change his mind yet, and maybe he’s right). Taking everything into account, I honestly enjoyed spending time with my beloved committee on Foreign Aff airs I and hope that all the expectations they arrived with were fulfi lled, or even out-classed. Furthermore, on behalf of the offi cials, who were partying in the journos’ room last night, I want to express our thanks for the big pizza you gave me aft er Com-mittee Dinner - it contributed to an even more pleasant atmo-sphere (and now they all know that AFET I is way too awesome!), especially because it was the pres-ident’s favourite kind. My dearest delegates and chairs, Th ank you for being llamas so enthusiastically and spitting ideas for the general view on your work during the session!

FAREWELLISSUEAFET I

YES WE CAN!BY ANA MARIA CROITORU

AFET II’s motto: “I disagree with what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it.” - VoltaireIf you want to discover the enchanted world of Walt Disney you should enter the room of the AFET II committee. It is defi nitely the best place for you to have an idea with the Disney Method that kept the discussion process dynamic, their committee work

well structured, their time man-aged and their interest on topic awake.With blood pressure levels raised up and their brain gearwheels turning faster thanks to their favorite teambuilding games, Street Fighter and Abigail’s Story, the committee’s transition to the committee work came natural.Th e creative process of form-ing their resolution took place in

PAREXCELLENCE AFET II

4 diff erent corners: One corner for brainstorming where all the ideas are presented but not dis-cussed, one where the best ideas are selected, a third one where they develop and discuss them in a constructive rather than a destructive way and last but not least the corner where the phras-ing takes place. Th eir personal opinion about themselves is that they are an interesting committee that can combine seriousness and funni-ness while dealing with their very diff erent ideas on their outra-geous topic. It is not easy to make people understand how the EU’s intervention in the Arab World should look like or what exactly is there to be done in order to fur-ther the development of democ-racy and its values for a good sup-port of sustainability. Th e EYP spirit seemed to be the one to help

them bring together the best ideas that 7 youngsters could think of in the last two days in order to build up a comprehensive, smart and well-researched resolution.Th eir chairs, Jan and Dominic, seem to have, according to AFET II’s collective opinion, the char-acteristics of the perfect chair: “A funny but also serious buddy who stays involved in EYP sessions and helps his delegates without infl uencing their opinions”.Quick side note: With 3 of 5 male delegates named Ondřej and with 2 girls on board, the committee on AFET II decided unanimously that the fl uff y blond haired Ondřej is the hottest guy of their team, while the decision on the girls remained still pending…Grazie AFET II! Fu un piacere giocare con voi! Ci vediamo a EYP session!

FAREWELLISSUEAFET II

CULT OF HANDFUL / SOME PLAY OF WORDS…BY DANIEL STEINDLER

Rainy morning. Th in beams of light penetrating through the clouds outline a walking fi gure. With a gloomy look in his face the guy enters into a psychiatric asy-lum. He waits in the hall, look-ing down in contemplation. Aft er a while he gets admitted into the doctor’s offi ce. Th e doctor asks him to tell his story. He adjusts his thoughts and begins to speak:

“I was once in a youth organiza-tion session. I was a journal cov-ering cult. Due to the fact that I had been kept out of the com-mittee room for their fi rst day of

its work, I had no clue what was going on in there. Th e moment I walked in I was overwhelmed by the amount of colorful post-ers full of facts all around, there-fore I had to leave and get a coff ee, so I would be able to grasp all the information. It was clear that the defi nition of delegate (quote: ‘the one who is trying to do stuff ’) was clearly understood here. When I came back the whole group was showing off their collective appre-ciation by chorally singing in the ‘train of love’. I sat down and looked around for clues about the work being done. Th ere had been

PAREXCELLENCE CULT

established some kind of basic law system which, above all, enforced the ‘right to go to the bathroom’. To support friendly mood in their committee, both chairs sat down to make the delegates feel more welcomed, their eff ort has already showed in ‘Golden rules of the cult’ which advises to ‘respect and love your chairwomen and each other’.

I remembered the night before, when, while treasure hunting, I asked the delegates a few ques-tions. Th ey answered some of them wittily. Th e adjectives cho-sen for their group were crazy, awesome, and (interestingly) self-ish. Also, while voting for the hottest guy, the girls collectively decided that each of the guys is extraordinary in a way and picked Paul’s hot body, Ondřej’s awesome hair and Daniel’s great smile.

Suddenly a noise woke me up from my pensive mood. Shouting “Fruit salad!” all of them stood up and started to run around, picking a new chair to sit on, which reminded me of the ‘Mad Hatter’ in the book ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Although weariness showed up few times when dele-gates leaned back their heads, the group’s productivity did not ease up and they almost always fi n-ished on time...”

When he fi nished he looked up toward the doctor, who studied him with a fi xed look, and waited for his diagnosis. Aft er a while the doctor said: “And what is the trou-ble you came here with? What can I help you with?” Th e guy looked up with weepy look in his face: “Th ey forgot to sign up for the National Selection Conference!”

FAREWELLISSUECULT

LA PICK, LA CHOCK, LA EMPL!BY LYUBOV DVORETSKAYA AND DMITRIJ GLADKYY

EMPL started the session with a creative touch of art and laugh-ing a lot. Over these days they progressed into really produc-tive team of bright individuals, equally enjoying both working and playing parts of EYP. Th is, of course, was no surprise for an observant eye, as also their chairs make a perfect balance of active, funny, creative and charm-ing Richard, and calm, confi dent, patient and charming Enno. Th e delegates of EMPL proved themselves to be 10 people with really diverse answers to ques-tions we had for them. However, they all in unison agree on the fact that they are awesome,

funny, great, extraordinary, com-petitive, friendly, hard-working, cool and totally legen - wait for it - dary. And they proved it! Coin Game competition? Piece of cake! Street Fighter? Too simple (they just had to add a creative touch with “tiger from Africa” instead of boring old “tiger uppercut”)! Por-trait drawing? Van Gogh would be proud! “What can you take to the bunker?” No stopping until the last one of them fi gures it out. Th at’s a team spirit, baby! Th e favourite teambuilding game, however, cannot be defi ned as there are just too many options. Th ey seem to like them all: Go Banana song, pass the ball, “Prin-

PAREXCELLENCE EMPL

cess and Dragon”, “Fruit Salad” and practically any game that has a hard-to-fi gure-out point. However the game they all defi -nitely consider to be their trade-mark thing is “La pick, La chock”. I think that actually for EMPL it’s not just a teambuilding game, it’s more like a motto: “La pick, la chock, la Richard, la Enno, la Iva, la Martin, la David, la Kaja, la Klara, la Tomas, la Adela, la one more Tomas, la Chris, la Ha My, la cosana, na na na na, na na na na” Th ey even made some brave peo-ple sing and dance it with them during the Treasure Hunt. Treasure Hunt in itself came as a natural part of committee dinner. A warm and cozy Indian restau-rant somehow gets everyone in the mood for mind-working, play-ing the “Who am I?” game. Th at balanced on the verge of intellec-tual debate about the authorship of “Little Red R” and just laughing

out loud, rephrasing “some kind of Jesus” into Santa Claus. Even despite the fact that no one in Pardubice seemed to want EMPL to do a good deed for them, the Christmassy atmo-sphere and warmth of the shop-ping mall made them believe in miracles again. Aft er long inner debate on why they can’t put their own names as the obvious choice for the hot-test committee member, the sur-vey shows that all girls of EMPL are hot, but there’s only one Mr. EMPL - Martin. Actually though, the true hottie of EMPL is the cut-est creature named Gingerbread. Evaluating the fulfi llment of ses-sion expectations, EMPL dele-gates got a stable 4,27 out of 5. And I hope that rereading this and remembering all the fun they had at the session EMPL will get the top score of 5.

FAREWELLISSUEEMPL

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS I BY NELA GÁBRIŠOVÁ

THE SYNCHRONISED LIBE I

Having interviewed the lovely LIBE I delegates, I must conclude that the menstrual synchrony phe-nomenon* might not be com-plete nonsense. Th e whole com-mittee (including boys) has got so startlingly synchronised dur-ing the session that even opin-ions of all members are almost the same. However, the phenomenon apparently does not apply only for

women and menstruation, but for ways of human thinking too.

Nearly everyone found the problem-solving teambuilding games especially enjoyable. Not only beating the limits in passing the tennis ball was mentioned, but also traffi c jam or the (unsolved) human knot. Challenges are simple appealing to LIBE I. Furthermore, the vast

* A phenomenon reported in 1971 that proved that the menstrual cycles of women who lived together (in homes, prisons etc.) reportedly became synchronized over time. Th e existence of menstrual synchrony has not been defi nitively established, and studies investigating it have been controversial.

PAREXCELLENCE LIBE I

majority of delegates has the identical great expectations which are: To improve in English and meet new people. Fortunately, in contrast to Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, these have been rather more than less fulfi lled so far.

Considering the adjectives that best describe the committee, funny and interesting are the most expressive ones. Moreover, they perfectly describe the members of the committee too. As one attrac-tive person is just too few, there are three elected hotties in LIBE I: friendly Lucka the Lonely, outgo-ing funny Láďa and cute Natálie. Furthermore, the committee con-sists of the same number of peo-ple who rather listen than talk as of those who are rather talkative and thus it occurs to be very well balanced.

THE MALL HUNT

During the committee dinner curious Petr just could not wait anymore to discover what the Treasure Hunt was supposed to

be about and interrogated every-one around about that matter. For common relief and pleasure, Gio soon gave away the secret of hunt-ing. However, the goal turned out to be “Let’s go to the mall!” instead of “Let’s go fi nd the treasure!” On the way there, LIBE I managed to scare, surprise, embarrass, but also amuse and make smile doz-ens of people in only an hour. A great achievement for such a short time, is it not? Without being spontaneous like Olga, we would not be that successful.

ABSOLUTELY SPOTLESS

When dealing with the issue of minorities segregated from soci-ety, apart from the obvious impor-tance of raising employment rate and level of education, the com-mittee revealed the essential “state of cleanness”. It goes beyond doubt that living in a proper order increases your standard of living as well as social status. Be as spot-less and inventive as LIBE I and help the others to get integrated by supporting their resolution.

FAREWELLISSUELIBE I

“INDIVIDUALLY WE ARE ONE DROP. TOGETHER, WE ARE AN OCEAN.”BY ANNA KAMPFMANN

It has been raining during the past few days, the drops fall all over – Matěrina, Petrkéta, Dani-nik, Filistýna & Katka – merging into a continuous body of water, a small sea and unique committee.

Who is it? LIBE II considers itself an inno-vative, active, diverse, and enthu-siastic committee – not surpris-ing, as they presented themselves as the unoffi cial presidential com-mittee two days before. To say it with Matouš’s words: “Our group simply is the best one!”

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”During the past few days, hours, minutes, one could not miss the sparkling eyes of each and every delegate, their excitement and evenness – even though some unpleasant or plain awk-ward moments happened to occur. Brainstorming – by drop-ping this word and handing out the post-its to the delegates, the chairs Míša and Nemanja man-aged to put nearly each and every delegate out of countenance for several minutes. However, even

PAREXCELLENCE LIBE II

that was just the calm before the storm! Imagine a discussion on the topic of terrorism amongst future jet fi ghter pilots, lawyers and scouts… Off ence or Defence?From my point of view, I can tell that it really was interesting and exciting for me to listen to your lively and sometimes even heated debates.

“Honey, tell me that you love me!”While thinking about the ques-tion of who is the hottest, the most attractive fellow delegate, one might have noticed a slight uncer-tainty and shy smiles passing their lips. Who fi nally won the compe-tition? Hilary Duff and Tintin.

5 out of 5 pointsCzech Village was one of the very highlights at the 8th Czech Forum for a majority of LIBE II. What they liked best? Besides the home-made Czech cherry liquor, the words “orgasmus” and “cmunda” were dropped. Speaking of culi-nary experiences - let me just drop some words about the won-derful committee dinner: Because

of all delegates actively taking part in the conversation, the relaxed atmosphere, and the heart-warm-ing toasts, your chair called it “her favourite moment of the session so far” - I agree.

Moreover, what became quite clear during the few minutes of conversation is that they all got ignited, got inspired by the “EYP spirit” in some way or another – 9 out of 9 people responded pos-itively to the question whether they want to continue in EYP or not – fi gures that speak for them-selves.

See you soon, somewhere across Europe!

PS: Have you heard about the Dead Sea? Th e salt lake that never lets you drown but carries you on the sur-face of the water instead, whatever happens?Th ere actually is something about this lake that reminds me of the Committee on Civil Liberty, Jus-tice and Home Aff airs II…

FAREWELLISSUELIBE II

LIBE IIIBY JIŘÍ POUR

It is 10:37 on the 26th of Novem-ber 2011 and LIBE III is going through a surprisingly calm and focused discussion fi nishing up its solutions on drugs and their legal regulation. Suddenly some-body cries “Where is Honza?” “How long has he not been here?” “Five minutes? Half an hour? I don’t know”, responds another one. While watching this scene I remembered a strange answer of one of the LIBE III delegates when having to say three adjectives suit-able for his committee. Among

other things he described it as drugged. Of course it was proba-bly just a joke referring to the res-olution topic but he was closer to the truth than he might have thought. Th is committee really is drugged. Drugged by their topic, drugged by their desire to fi nd solutions for the problems they have already described and agreed on the day before. Th ankfully Honza was fi ne and came back in a moment. But there is more to appreciate about LIBE III than just focus and enthusiasm, shown

PAREXCELLENCE LIBE III

in the little story above. It is fas-cinating how they work together, listen to each other and seem to share a same sense of humor aft er less than three days.

But being a committee is not only about working together, it is also about having fun and getting to know each other better. Having fun and meeting new friends were by the way some of the most com-mon expectations of the LIBE III delegates before the session. Last night was a night of commit-tee dinners and treasure hunting, both activities that fi t ideally to fulfi lling those expectations. Start-ing with a waiter in the restaurant, who had the skills and face of an experienced mime and used them every time he got to our table, fol-lowed by Nata’s amazing ability to learn and reproduce his facial art using her own face, the night was a continuous chain of laughter, sometimes on an edge of a health hazard.

It is 13:34 on 26.11.2011 and I am still sitting in LIBE’s com-mittee room. Th e resolution is done. It is the time of distribu-tion of the roles at GA. Th at is a very diffi cult, revealing and some-times even painful moment of the session. Th e group spirit is con-fronted with personal ambitions of the delegates and their self-con-fi dence. I am very happy that as I am writing this paragraph, LIBE III managed to fi nd an agreement that all of them seem to be satis-fi ed with.

It will be Sunday aft ernoon when my dear delegates from LIBE III hold this article in their hands. Th ey are probably very tired and, I hope, having a feeling of accom-plishment. Th ey should. No mat-ter how the GA went, they took a long path from awkward moments at the beginning to being able to stand up for their opinions and manage to write a good resolution together.

FAREWELLISSUELIBE III

BY ANA MARIA CROITORU

Th ere is a warm fuzzy feeling that goes trough your veins once you have tasted the spirit of an EYP session. It is as if EYP would be a box of matches that lights a fi re that raises your expectations of yourself, of others, of Europe. But in order for this fi re not to fade away one has to do more than simply attend EYP sessions; one has “to get involved, stay informed and spread the word”. It was the need of the young peo-ple to express their opinion con-cerning the socio-political issues of the society we live in today that gave birth to the European Youth Polls. Th ese polls’ aim is to bring together the opinions of the young people around our conti-nent and to make their voice be heard at a national and interna-tional level.But even though young Euro-peans wanted to make them-selves be heard, the fi rst poll on the European Dept Crisis turn out not to be the success every-one was expecting for, since only 1231 people were interested in fi lling in the o the surveys. But as the word was spread, the next poll on Immigration and Asylum

policy was already taken by 2352 people. Th e number impressed the MEP Kinga Gal of Hungary and made him discuss the results and opinions of the youngsters in the European political debate over Schengen. We proved that we can; now it’s your turn!Do you want to be an active Euro-pean? Prove it! If you want to have your say check out the Face-book European Youth Polls page, where all the pieces of informa-tion on new polls are released then share it with at least 5 friends of yours. Not content with the polls released or you have an idea that could make a poll? Send it to [email protected]! As Monet would have said, “Don’t be an optimist; be determined” and only then you will be able to change something .

PAREXCELLENCE 8

BE A “YOUROPEAN”! HAVE YOUR SAY! TAKE THE POLL!

BY LIA PACHLER

vehicle. Heading to Napoleon’s country of origin, one may not address one’s pig as “Napoleon”. Additionally, if you happen to get in the situation of killing someone, avoid doing it with an ashtray, since they are treated as a deadly weapon in court. Possibly you were falling in love with a romantic Frenchman/-woman and you want to continue your travel together; in this case I would not recommend you to go by railway because unfortunately kissing there is illegal. I hope you will remember those facts when travelling through the above-mentioned countries, because otherwise you may fi nd yourself spending your stay in the police’s custody.

Navigating Europe’s legal redun-dancies.When thinking of pointless laws the fi rst that will probably come to your mind is the notorious story about an American woman who fi led a lawsuit against the pro-ducer of her microwave for not warning her about the dangers of putting a cat in the microwave - and she had the law on her side. However, it is not only the Amer-icans having plain old ridiculous laws, they are also widespread among the Europeans. Imagine travelling through Europe or liv-ing in another country for some time and getting arrested just because you did not know about a foolish law. For avoiding this in the near future, read the following instructions carefully. When going to a restaurant in Denmark and ordering a free glass of tap water, make sure there will be no lemon slice or ice cubes added, because otherwise you may have to pay for those. Aft er fi nishing your drink and getting back to your car, pay atten-tion to the bottom of it, due to the fact that it is illegal to start a car while someone is underneath the

FAREWELLISSUE9

BIG GOVERNMENT. SMALL BRAINS. DUMB LAWS.

BY LYUBOV DVORETSKAYA

Th e only thing in EYP that I myself feel very sad about is the fact that almost at every session you meet people that become important to you, and once the session ends, there always comes the time to say g o o d -b y e .

Very few people are good at say-ing goodbs, and honestly speak-ing, it’s not a thing you want to be good at. yeAft er a fi rst session it may seem that you are not going to see

your new friends anywhere but Facebook, but let

me assure you, that no one in EYP ever says

good bye forever. Th at’s one of the wonders

of European Youth Parliament. Once

you’re in, you don’t want to get out. And it doesn’t take any

sup e r n at -ural pow-ers to pre-

dict with a 90% prob-ability that you’re bound

to meet your EYP friends at some

session, somewhere in Europe. You never know when will it

happen – next month, or next year, but it’s worth the wait. Th e incomparable feeling of joy

PAREXCELLENCE 10

IN EYP, NEVER SAY “GOODBYE”, ALWAYS SAY “SEE YOU SOON”.

from the surprise meeting (it still feels like a surprise birthday pres-ent, even if you knew about the upcoming meeting) can be com-pared to a one of a family reunion. Actually it is a family reunion – of an EYP family. Th ere’s never a ses-sion where you don’t know any-one. It’s always ”Hey, you were in my committee once!”, “You were Journo at our Nationals last year!”, and Chairs simply never forget their delegates, so you’re guaran-teed to receive a warm welcome from your former Chair wherever you meet them. Sometimes, it can even be like, “Oh, it’s so good to see you again! You must still have my USB stick from the previous session”. Happens to family mem-bers all the time, right? Of course, everything is in the hands of fate and unexpected meeting with friends is always a

good thing, but actually, there’s something you can do to ensure that your fate will lead you the way you want it to - meaning, to the right people. All it takes is to just keep track of the sessions that are planned in diff erent countries and APPLY. Or, if you are brave enough – become an organizer at a session and invite your friends to come to you. At some point you’ll notice that you feel like home in any EYP country. Th at’s a real way to become a citizen of united Europe.It’s totally worth it, as you know, sometimes, some people who live in another country or city some-how become closer to you than those you sit at one desk with at school. And meanwhile, In Facebook we trust!

FAREWELLISSUE11

NEWSFLASH 27.11.11BY ANNA KAMPFMANN

PARDUBICE | 8th Czech Forum participants celebrate Farewell Party

+++++ In the meanwhile +++++

EU | Controversial “eurobond” plan being set out- Jose Manuel Barroso’s proposals for common Euro-area bonds to handle the current debt crisis attracted harsh criticism, especially by the German gov-ernment.

FRANCE/GERMANY | Police in continuous service on 1,100 kilometres- Despite numerous protests and demonstrations, 11 CASTOR wagons of nuclear waste have crossed the Franco-German border on their way to Gor-leben.

EGYPT | Violence returns to Cairo’s streets- Activist killed in Cairo as thousands of people demonstrate in Tahrir Square

PAKISTAN | Troops killed by NATO helicopter strike on Afghan border, says country’s military- Helicopters from Afghanistan fl ew across the border in northwest Pakistan and attacked checkpoint, 24 soldiers were killed

PALESTINE | Hamas and Fatah agree on “May poll”- Leaders of the two rival Palestinian factions concluded negotiations aiming at a reconciliation to end a long-standing contention.

LONDON | World’s fi rst video game urinals?- Nintendo is presenting its latest innovation: Th e fi rst urine-controlled video games. Going to the loo has never been this much fun.

PAREXCELLENCE 12

8th Czech Forum Pardubice EYP Czech Republic 24.-27.11.2011 Záštitu převzali:

Miroslava Němcová, předsedkyně Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu ČR Mgr. Jindřich Tauber, náměstek primátorky statutárního města Pardubic Ing. Jana Pernicová, členka Rady Pardubického kraje