Issue III

The SaloOn

11TH NOVEMBER 2012

Editorial

Issue II

is brought to

you by:

Tuusa Eriksson (F

I)

Harry Heath (U

K)

Eoin Hennessy (IE

)

Fredrik Hultm

an (SE)

Ayda Jodayri (

FI)

Jessin

a Nieminen (FI)

Valtteri V

altanen (F

I)

Maja Zalewska (P

L)

Elisa M

artinelli (

IT) - E

ditor

2345678910

ContentFelix: A Lynx-Bobcat’s TailEU Crossword PuzzleInterRailPeace out!GMOs, Frankenfood or the future?Finland & The EU, a Grizzly IssueWhat does regret taste like?What to do after your fi rst EYP session?EYP-Horoscope

Dear delegates,the session is coming to an end and I hope you’ll manage to have an amazing debate during the General Assembly.

I’m sure you’ve already started un-destanding the unique experience you’ve been thrown into.From your smiling faces I can tell that you had loads of fun during this week-end and I’m therefore confi dent that most of you will come back to EYP in some way or another.

In the meantime I wish you a nice trip back home and hopefully, well, see you soon somewhere in Europe.

Elisa Martinelli

PS: even though the mascot of the Session is a lynx (or bobcat?!), please give some love to little pandas as well!

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Felix: A Lynx-Bobcat’s Tailby Harry Heath (UK)

Young Felix was born many years ago in the mystical, legendary land of France, in a little town known as Fontainebleau. He was the secret lovechild of a Lynx and a Bobcat, so despite the fact that he might look like Lynx, I can assure you that he is part Bobcat. Life was not easy for a young half-lynx half-bobcat. Initially he had few friends as no one knew that a half-lynx half-bobcat could even exist - but I can assure you that it most defi nitely can, don’t question it!

After he left school he attended Mascot University in Brussels, probably the most prestigious mascot university in the world. Here he learned the key skills that every mascot needs to know, such as ‘cheering in tune’ and ‘how to cope with being loved by millions’. It was a tough education, but Felix al-ways knew that being a mascot was what he was born to be - he could not just be a cuddly toy mass-produced in China. He was destined for more.

Whilst at university, Felix developed a deep rivalry with a rival mas-cot, namely Hamtaro, the ‘evil’ hamster. They both dreamt of be-ing the mascot at the 14th Regional Session of EYP Finland in Salo - a dream held by the majority of students at Mascot University.

When they received their mascot degrees it turned out that Felix had done better than Hamtaro and won the right to be Salo’s mascot. This, however, made Hamtaro very angry - he began shouting at Felix: ‘A Jap-anese hamster is the most fi tting symbol of that session, rather than a half-lynx half-bobcat, I mean who’s even heard of a half-lynx half-bobcat?’.

Hamtaro then attacked Felix and put him in a box and sent him by ship to Tahiti in the South Pacifi c. When Felix broke out of the box he realised he had to get to Salo as soon as possible, so he swam across the Pacifi c and the Atlantic and got to Salo just in time. Hamtaro was caught and demoted to vice-mascot.

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by Jessina Nieminen (FI)

EU Crossword Puzzle

It is always important to be informed and to know some facts about the EU. In this way you can impress everybody with your incredibly amazing knowledge. Here you can find a wonderful opportunity to test yourself, what are you waiting for?

Across1. The European Union was created after ____3. Who composed the European Anthem?5. The EU has 495 million ____6. How many stars are there in the circle of the European flag?8. In which city do the most of the meetings of the Council of the European Union take place?10. What’s the biggest EU country according to surface area?11. Who was the first person who put forward the ideas behind the European Union on 9 May 1950?14. Who is the current President of the European Council?15. The EU is the world’s biggest exporter and the ____ biggest importer.

Down1. Which country is the EU most important trading partner?2. The EU has 23 ____4. What is the smallest EU country by surface area?7. A programme for student exchanges.9. One of the fundamental values of the EU.12. How many EU countries have adopted the Euro as their currency?13. Which institution of the European Union drafts and implements EU legislation?

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Whenever the summer holidays are approaching, we all once again stand before a hard decision. Where do we want to go? What do we want to do? With whom do we want to spend those days that will never come back, but can stay in our memories forever? We all are young and thirsty for adventures. We all want to experience an once-in-a-lifetime adventure that we could share with our grandchildren one day, just like our grandparents told us stories about their lives when they were “young, brave and stupid” as they tend to say.

For me, the best way to experience something unusual, something extremely memorable, some-thing original and exceptional is to go on an In-terRail trip. If you listened carefully to what had been said during the Opening Ceremony of this session, you should have already at least have a vague idea of what InterRail is, but still let me explain in once again. To put it simply, with one InterRail ticket you can travel with all the trains in all countries of Europe, except the one where you have the residence. You only need your ID card, Passport, some money, a camera to re-cord all the beautiful memories you will make, a backpack with necessary change of cloths and of course, last but not least, good attitude, which is the basic condition of enjoying the adventure that is yet to come. InterRail is a very conveni-ent method of travelling, best suited for people who like to act spontaneously, but also perfect for those who prefer to plan every detail beforehand.

How do you want to experience it really depends on you. You can go to any place that comes to your mind, if only there is a railway connection there. Thanks to EYP and all the friendships that you have formed or you will form in the future, you do not have to worry about your accommodation. You might not be given a kingsize bed, but you can al-ways count on at least some free space on the fl oor.

InterRailwith train not only through all of Europe, but also through life

by Maja Zalewska (PL)

I myself have been on an InterRail trip, unfortu-nately, only once yet, but I am already thinking of doing another one. As for now, I consider that holidays, the best, adventure ever, apart from EYP sessions. The feeling of not worrying about any tickets with fi xed dates, the freedom of choice, whenever you’re on the train station, the thrill of just hopping on the fi rst train that arrives and go-ing wherever it goes. It is something that simply adds sense to your life, or at least it had to mine. I hold all those memorable moments from that time truly dear to me and I treasure them a lot.

There is but one thing that I consider essential for making the most of this adventure. You have to fi nd a person, who understands you thorough-ly, with whom you will not argue about useless stuff, a person to be your perfect partner in crime. And I had one back then when I was InterRail-ing, who made the whole experience even bet-ter. They say, if you share happiness and joy it becomes more and that is exactly what happens when you travel together with someone close to you. However, it might be also quite thrilling to travel alone and just hope for meeting inter-esting people during your journey, but I would not recommend it for fi rst-time InterRailers.

InterRail is for sure an exceptional way of spend-ing your time; it is a way to discover plac-es you never thought existed, a way to meet many people from all over the Europe, a way to change and challenge yourself and to experi-ence an adventure you have always dreamed of.

by Fredrik Hultman (SE)

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Peace out!

On the 12th of October the world was shaken by the news that the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to the European Union. The Nor-wegian Nobel Prize Committee announced its decision through its chair, Thorbjørn Jagland, who just like the four other committee members has been elected by the Norwegian parliament.The motivation to award the prize to the European Union was for having “for over six decades contributed to the advance-ment of peace and reconciliation, de-mocracy and human rights in Europe”.

When the EU was founded, it was a mere trade union known as The Coal and Steel Union. Its aim was to stop wars between France and Ger-many that had played leading roles in two world wars. The idea was that if countries had traded with each other and shared resources they would have not been able to fi ght war against each other.

As the EU has expanded, the whole region has been stabilized and no wars have ever taken place between members of the union. The se-lection criteria for the EU also forces member states to uphold fundamental human rights.

This idea is still contested, as one might ar-gue that some countries with not democratic forms of government never started any wars against each other anyway and that the EU has not played a fundamental role in that process.

The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee has been criticised before for selecting unexpected winners such as when they chose Henry Kiss-inger in 1973 for his role in negotiating the peace agreement for War in Vietnam, a war where he was involved from the very beginning.

But in spite of earlier controversial deci-sions and the disputable nature of this one, the EU can now call itself a cham-pion of peace, whether you like it or not.

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In the near future humankind is facing a global problem: food shortage. It is not going to be only about an uneven global distribution of food anymore; the world’s population is rapidly growing and farmland suitable for agriculture is becoming increasingly diffi cult to fi nd due, for example, to erosion and urbanization. There exists one possible solution: GMOs or genetically manipulated organisms. GMOs are already used in agriculture to a certain degree. Will genetic modifi ed food be our savior?

GMOs, Frankenfoodor the future?

Why should we use GMOs?

Because of the diminishing farmland we need to get more out of the plants we grow and ge-netical manipulation is both an effi cient and innovative way to do that. GMOs are already being used in many ways: In the USA, 86% of maize (corn) and 93% of cotton is genetically manipulated. In Hawaii, the state’s entire papa-ya production was saved from a virus through genetical modifi cations. Golden rice, one of the most famous GMOs, has been a crucial factor in helping people with serious Vitamin A defi ciency. It is also fundamental to notice the importance of biotechnology in the future and acknowledge the benefi ts of mutations to scien-tifi c research.

Why shouldn’t we use GMOs?

It is possible that GMOs contain dangers to people and the environment: sometimes not enough research is conducted on these custom organisms. There could be unexpected prob-lems and hazards when using GMOs, especial-ly if they get released into the wild. We do not know what kind of an impact a GMO would have on non-manipulated organisms. There are also many religions and philosophical views that are against GM: some people think that it is unnatural and unethical to mess with nature in such a profound level as genes. For various reasons some people are also very skeptical to-wards having this so-called “frankenfood” on their plate.

When using GMOs, are we “playing god” or just being foresighted? It will be an important topic in the near future, and it is up to each and every person to make up their mind on this matter.

by Valtteri Valtanen (FI)

Golden rice, GMO product

Normal rice

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Finland & The Euro, a Grizzly Issue

Do you remember the 90s? I do. I remember the walkman, Westlife and even hair that split in the centre. I also remember the birth of the Euro. It was a great big teddy bear that we all loved. It was so big and fl uffy and cuddly. It was just too warm and safe to fail. Now it seems that the impossible has happened. In our infatuation and affection for this big Eurobear, we forgot that a bear, when angry, can tear the fl esh from our bones and feast upon our chewed-up carcass.

The conception of the Euro represented yet an-other great bold step in the push for greater Euro-pean harmonisation and unity. The prospect of a unilateral interest rate dictated by a European Central Bank provided the possibility of main-taining sensible credit provision, not to mention reducing the opportunity for monetary corrup-tion when dealing with the rates. Commercial transactions would become more straightfor-ward. At last we had a chance to leave our fears of currency devaluation wars and hyperinfl ation behind us and snuggle up to our big bear.

For a while times were good. We spent long hazy summer days playing with our furry best friend. Small diffi culties crossed our path from time to time, but we could do anything when we were with our bear. We could trump all adver-sary, slay any foe. We were happier than ever before and we were sure it would last forever. In the world of economics however, and indeed in the world of a wild bear, nothing stays the same.

The Euro, unfortunately, was always destined for failure. The currency was never built to endure a monumental crisis. So as you can imagine, our big bear was far from pleased when less than a decade after its foundation, the global econo-my was hit with the largest economic downturn since the great depression. Our adorable com-panion became unrecognisable. He unleashed a wild savagery upon us. What had we done to deserve such a fate? We thought the bear would always protect us, now he was much bigger than ever before. Roaring and snarling, he lunged at us with bared teeth. We could no longer feed him so he was going to eat us.

by Eoin Hennessy (IE)

When times are good, you can get away with countless mistakes. It is only when the good times come crashing to an abrupt end that we realise our fl aws and begin to sluggishly address them. The simple fact is that in every aspect of life, from shoes to interest rates, one size can never fi t all. While low interest rates on bor-rowed money suited the European economic powerhouses of France and Germany, the needs of peripheral eurozone states like Finland can never be met as well as those of the big players on a European level. Finland has fared better than most states in the crisis. Credit rating agen-cies have maintained a positive outlook on their AAA rating and despite the recent troubles with Nokia, they are still perceived as being one of the few healthy eurozone economies in a supra-national entity struggling to cling to its very exist-ence. In joining the Euro, has Finland burdened itself with the problems of others? Now I don’t doubt for a second the magnanimous nature of the Finish people, but I wonder if they would be better off by themselves.

In a world of mass confusion, one thing has be-come glaringly obvious. Our bear turned on us a long time ago. We fl ed through the forest, duck-ing and dodging beneath the branches, doing everything and anything to buy ourselves some precious time, but time is a fi nite construct. The time for running has come to an end; it is time to stand our ground and fi ght for the European dream, fi ght for our future. People, ‘It’s time to tame the bear.’

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What does regret taste like?

We all have thousands of dreams and hopes in our lifetimes. Whether your dream is to attract the at-tention of someone you like or to change the world, dreams are vital to happiness. To dream is to have aims in life. Without dreams we wouldn’t really be able to process our expectations about the future. Dreams can be wonderful, but sometimes they can also be unrealistic. Let’s say there is a 150 cm tall girl who dreams of being a runway model. The fulfi llment of her dream is extremely unlikely. It’s often hard to try to decide which things are worth fi ghting for. If there is even a teeny tiny chance of you reaching your dream, does that mean that you should do whatever you can in order to do that? Or are you just setting yourself up for colossal hurt by thinking there is a possibility for you to be someone you prob-ably will never be? Not all things are possible for all people. Like in the case of the girl who wants to be a model, the fact that her dream is nearly unreachable is not her own fault, but rather because of the standards of the fashion industry.

Some dreams are just too big. Admitting your disappointment to yourself and to others can be diffi cult; it makes your hit against reality. Sometimes you just can’t be what someone else wants you to be. It becomes a question of whether or not you are willing to change yourself to achieve some goals. On occasion, it just comes down to trying to choose the option that will leave you with the least amount of regret. It’s a very personal matter; some people regret trying things and failing them. Maybe it would have been better not to try at all.

I would say that I belong to the other group of people. The ones who will be left wondering “what if”. For me the worst thing is knowing that you will always regret not taking that leap of faith.Some people think that unfulfi lled dreams are an obstacle to living at the fullest. But maybe there is a purpose behind it all. If your life was idyllic and you had everything you have ever wanted, all of it would probably mean nothing. At some point in life we are all bound to fall short of some expectations and when it happens you have to try not to be too hard on yourself. You shouldn’t worry too much if some of your wishes don’t become reality; you’ll fi nd new ones and get new opportunities to make your dreams come true.

Personally I like to think along the lines of a very wise anonymous writer. He once said: “Sometimes you have to walk through your nightmares to reach your dreams.“

by Tuusa Eriksson (FI)

“Sometimes you have to walk through your nightmares to reach your dreams.“

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What to do after your first EYP session?by Ayda Jodayri (FI)

Everyone of you is probably now thinking about staying in-volved in EYP. It actually also depends on what are you interest-ed in and you’re able to do. You may want to continue as a del-egate or to try something new and perhaps more challenging. For attending another session you need to fill an application and while you’re doing that you have to explain what are your main strengths and why you stained involved in EYP in the first place.There are different kinds of sessions: Regional, Nation-al and International sessions. The European Youth Parlia-ment organizes over 120 sessions each and every year. The next Finnish National Session will be in Joensuu where many delegates of Salo will have the opportunity to meet and discuss again about the main issues faced by the EU. You won’t regret being involved in EYP. Either if you were forced to join the session by one of your teach-ers as happened to our journalist Fredrik or you actu-ally fell in love at first sight with it, you’ll soon notice that you can never get enough of this amazing association.

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EYPHoroscopesby Jessina Nieminen (FI)

Libra (September 23 – October 22) You are famous for your great personality and your amazing language skills. Eve-rything will go better than you’d ever imagined. However you should be care-ful since you will not make a reputation if you’re not participating the committee work whole-heartedly. This time, Pluto and Mars are there to help you to reach your goals. You can now use this great opportunity to improve appearance in the GA.

Scorpio (October 23 – November 21) Something has been quite challenging for you and it’s very likely to be something related to the session. But don’t worry! Life will get easier, and you will soon come out on top. Now things are different and easier and the heaviness of the situation has gone. Time to move forward.

Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21) Coffee breaks are refreshing as well as a great opportunity to meet new peo-ple. You will find your soul mate who will have a great influence on your fu-ture. Your language skills as well as your knowledge about EYP will im-prove a lot. Remember that you won’t get much sleep at the session.

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19) Your ambition, your mission and your position as a session partici-pant were something you used to find quite challenging. Now it’s all get-ting easier to you. There are no difficulties with the committee work. It takes a few weeks to get used to the fact that everything about the future will be different! The EYP -world is full of choices; he future looks bright.

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18) It takes a while to accept that life might be back to normal! After this amaz-ing weekend in Salo, you are completely sad to leave the session behind. How-ever, this doesn’t mean the end of your EYP career. You are now qualified to attend other EYP sessions. You have your future as a great speaker ahead.

Pisces (February 19 – March 20) As Venus is moving closer to Jupiter, there will be great EYP spirit in the air. You’re examining the situation and figuring out how to keep up the great EYP spirit in your committee. Right now, or at the latest, after the GA it’s the time to think how you’re going to move up your EYP -career ladder. Sun-day is a lucky day to you, as you are going to gain your best EYP memories so far.

Salo 2012 - Regional Session of EYP Finland is supported by