‘ Bunga Bunga’ : Misrepresenting Italian politics

‘’ Bunga bunga is a phrase of uncertain meaning that dates from 1910 if not earlier. By 2010 the phrase had gained popularity in Italy and the international press as well, when it was used by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to refer to his alleged sex parties, which caused a major political scandal in Italy. ‘’

A caricature of Berlusconi related to his alleges sex parties

Maybe we can be thankful to Mr. Berlusconi that he brough clarity to that term, but I know that many Italians are not happy with their prime minister, nor with his numerous scandals, that would normally put any other normal guy to prison for good.

I see my Italian friends making fun of this situation. Once I was in a bus with some Italians, and they were entertaining themselves, acting as if they have a call from Berlusconi, the boy taking off his shoe and putting it next to his ear like a phone, saying something like that:

‘ Silvio, how are you? What, bunga bunga tonight? Ok, we are coming. Are you looking for girls? ‘

Then he starts pointing to girls in the bus asking ‘ How old are you? ‘

After all the ages he hears are above 18, he ‘ says ‘ to Berlusconi ‘ sorry Silvio, these are too old. ‘

Even though it is funny at that moment and I appreciate that they laugh at a situation which is really awful in fact, when you look at it, it is a shame that the ‘ leader ‘ of a very influential, strong country with big historical importance is mocked like that, which is completely his fault, by all his actions and decisions.

What is even more sad that, he completely creates this stereotype against Italian politics and politicians, which every one mocks, from the average citizen to a lobbyist in Brussels. This is really sad, while Italy gave birth to many prominent political figures, from Spinelli to Prodi, from Napolitano to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi…

"I've never paid a woman. I never understood where the satisfaction is when you're missing the pleasure of conquest".

I will not comment on Berlusconi’s political achievements or failures, while I am not fully competent in his history and I believe achievements and failures can be relative. But what I know is, even though he might have achieved some things, his personal ( thus reflecting his professional ) choices and scandals eclipsed all of them.

May you ask: ‘ Why Italian people still vote for him, if he is that bad?’

An italian colleague said this:

‘ There is no counter-figure to him, so we are obliged to vote for him. ‘

As a politician of a prominent country, he did not manage to do the biggest sacrifice; to keep people’s interests in front of his own. As a visible figure, he showed a bad example towards all the world, and created extremely strong negative stereotypes about Italy, which is to loss of Italian politics, politicans and most sadly, to its people.

While history will remember many politicians with his achivements, he will be remembered with his ‘ bunga bunga ‘ parties.

So one can ask to ‘ Silvio ‘, if all the fun was worth it?

Recognition for our talents, or achievements?

Please read the wonderful e-mail I received from a very close and respected friend, who sent this to me around 1,5 years ago. There are many lessons to be learned from this wonderful piece. It is a constructive criticism on my work in general, which I would especially recommend you to read the parts on bold.

 

———————-

‘’ First of all, you are doing a great job, but of course there is room for improvement – to discover this room we are in AEGEE. ………

 

…… All the things mentioned above can still be improved and developed. Not that it would be very urgent, but as a perfectionist I know that you want to be always better than you were before. The only real criticism I can think of, but which I cannot direct to you because I make the same mistake all the time, is that you want to do too many things at the same time, that you overestimate capacities (you own as much as others’) and that you underestimate the amount of work it takes to make things as perfect as you would like them to be. You/we should be more thorough in planning everything in advance…….

 

……Like me, you are a kind of dominant personality. When we develop an idea, first we think really much about it, we want to cover all aspects and develop a complete picture of it, and as a result we are very convinced about it and we want to convince others. This is the quality of a leader, because only if you can convince people of your ideas, you can strive for big achievements. But in a team, where everybody is equal and you need to find a common ground, this approach does not work. We know this, but in some moments our ideas take possession of us, and we start convincing people at a time when we should rather be listening to others a bit more. We need to learn to be even more aware of ourselves and our position related to the people around us. A leader among leaders is still a leader, but it is a situation where listening is more important than convincing.

 

…..You know that you have talent, but you want to have recognition and appreciation all the time. And when you don’t get in a moment where you think you deserve it, you start insisting……. This is what we need to be aware of, that you can be an important person in general, but that in specific moments, other things and other persons count more and are in the spotlight, and there is no point in trying to get your share of the glory.

 

I thought about this a lot during my life, and I discovered that the main reason for my own narcism is an attitude that I already mentioned before: that I want to do too many things at a time. And in turn, the reason for me to want to do too many things at a time is that I am a dreamer. And you are a dreamer, too. We are dreamers because our heads are faster than our hands. We are intelligent and we recognise what needs to be done, and we recognise this faster than we can actually implement it. This way, more and more ideas gather in our heads, but we don’t have enough time to implement them, because new ideas appear much faster than we can handle the old ideas. But of course, it is unacceptable for us that we just drop some of these ideas. All our ideas are valuable and worth implementing. Therefore, we try something that is impossible, namely to implement all of them. Even though we didn’t finish the old project, we already start two new ones.

 

Again, what we need to learn is to pick our most important ideas, and concentrate all our available forces on it. This can be a bit painful, because sometimes it will mean rejecting good ideas just because of time constraints. But there is no other way, if we really want to achieve the full implementation of our ideas – of some of them.

 

The same story with our talents: we have different talents, but not enough time to develop them all. I could be a professional violinist or football player or writer or politician – but if I continue like this, I will end up with nothing. I never focused enough on any of these fields to be as good as I know I could be. And when I meet people who actually focused on one of their talents, who are as good as they could be in this one specific field, I could die of envy. I know that I missed this chance, and I would have loved to develop this talent in the same way, but I never did, even though I could have done so. This is where narcism is born – I want the recognition for something that I know I COULD be, but AM not. And this is true for talents as much as for ideas, initiatives. We want the recognition for our talent, for our ideas. But we only get the recognition for our achievements. Because talents and ideas are not measurable. We should keep this in mind….

 

Chair meeting Bxl, 16 – 18 September

Dear AEGEE member,

Below you can find the blog about the chair meeting that took place in Brussels, between 16-18 September, where we have worked 3 days non-stop to prepare for our next meeting, AGORA Skopje, where 750 members will come, share ideas, discuss, meet, vote and learn.

Enjoy the blog that is composed by our chair team members.

You can find Percin’s post about the arrival day, Yvonne’s, Alberto’s and Alma’s post for the overall meeting ( from different perspectives ) and Edu’s post on JC point of view.

Percin – Arrival

Before I was on my way from Brugge to Bxl, for my last chair meeting, I had this sentimental feeling around me. But I also knew that this meeting carried another meaning to our new JC members and lovely Yvonne, whom I was going to meet soon, while it was going to be their first meeting, especially for Yvonne, who is a candidate for chairperson.

When I arrived, Edu and Ermanno were already there, whom I immediately invited for a short meeting. We went upstairs for the meeting, amongst eyes staring at us, to be working that late. We started going through the proposals and comment on them, while there was Alfredo’s b-day going on downstairs. After some while, Yvonne joined us, finally finding the house after missing stops.

We have continued our meeting for 1 more hour, and was done for that night. After I went through the programme of Saturday and Sunday, we went down to join the party, getting ready for the other day:)

First day – Yvonne

The next morning started way too early. We slowly got into the kitchen, cleaned up the remnants of the Presidential birthday bash, had breakfast (with some sweet stuff for our Alberto and Ermanno of course) – and got back to work. We discussed and selected workshops, improved the voting procedure, were impressed by the most silly invalid voting ballots Edu found in the dust of the CD archive,  and of course selected each and every participant. This meant a lot of mouse clicks for Percin and Alma, the Secretary General who is practically also a member of the Chair family. It also required some discussion with Jüri, the current Network Director, and sending lots of emails to people whose applications were faulty. Even if it means that you need to spend your short break on writing lots of emails to people, we always know: Chairing is caring.

2nd Day: The panic! Or: Fixing the agenda – Alberto

It started off like the day before but this time with Rob was sleeping in the guest room instead of Percin.

After breakfast Alla and Percin joined the rest of the team who were already waiting and we started the most important, longest, and hardest part of our meeting.

First of all, the online meetings with organizers and responsibles of the AEGEE/Study Fair took place where we discussed logistics and organizational aspects of the event. Then we had a quick lunch and went back to work on the toughest part (In madrid this was soooooo exhausting it took us 5 or 6 hours and Rob lost his perfect British accent ): arranging the agenda! Since this agora will not have as many elections nor as many proposals as we had in Alicante, this process was much faster and took us only a couple of hours (you could follow it on the Chair Team’s twitter and my facebook) so we had some free time in the evening.

This day ended of corsos with a night out of the 3 best members of the Chair Team and the only non-pussy member of the CD (meaning Rob, Yvonne, Gizem, and I). We got the most expensive cookies in our lives ever and saw a nice light and music performance at the Grande Place. After that we went to some clubs in the city but we didn’t like any of them too muchos. In the end, we were going back to the metro when we heard some nice music coming from a club so we went there and it was toooooo muchos great, so muchos that we were there until the club closed!

Thank you guys! it was an awesome night

Last Day see you soon somewhere in Europe! 

The Chair meeting was already over, but Rob, Yvonne, Edu, Ermanno, and I were still at the house so we decided that we had to have some fun and nothing is better for fun time than reorganizing the archive! We started to search among all the old files and versions of SU booklets, K2E’s, and members manuals and put everything in order -yes yes- We all are AEGEE nerds and we love it!

But of course we are social animals as well so when Alla and Olga were ready, me and Rob went to the city center with them. Unfortunately, Rob had to go straight to the train station and poor me had to stay and have lunch alone with the two pretty, hot girls

After lunch it was me who had to run to the house to pick up my luggage and say goodbye to everybody and run back to the bus and to the airport.

The chair meeting was over and, just like during the previous ones, I came back home with the extraordinary feeling that I had left back great friends, not only the Chair Team which I already knew, but also Yvonne, our new Secretary for this Agora, the new CD members, the JC and some guests as Olga or Julien (I’m still waiting for the Wii).

My adventure didn’t finish there. It took me more than 30 hours to get back home, but that’s another story

Last day – Alma

The last day of the Chair meeting was supposed to be the longest and toughest one but in the end, it wasn’t. We had the meeting with the organizers where we talked about some issues, asked for more information about the accommodation, rooms for plenaries, workshops, and prytania sessions, transportation, and so on. In the evening, the moment I had anticipated (due to stories I heard from the Chair meeting in Madrid) was finally there: arranging the agenda! It was not at all that tough and exhausting. What a pussy Chair team (except Yvonne of course who was not there in Madrid)

Finally, the Chair meeting ended and I had to start getting ready for my next mission, the NWM in Odessa. I did not have time to miss and cry for my dearest Chair Team, but they left a huge mark in my cold Latvian heart
JC perspective of the meeting

When the JC goes to the Chair meeting !

What a pleasure to come back for a weekend to the CD house to meet friends but also to experience a new kind of AEGEE meeting ! Indeed, it was for us our first participation to a Chair meeting. But as we were lucky during the previous term to be both JC subcommies, our collaboration was since the beginning really fruitfull. The good atmosphere, the involvement and the professionnalism of every one since the Agora Alicante has a lot contributed to an efficient meeting in which an important part of the work has been done. The next weeks will be as always challenging but we trully believe that this event has contributed to develop our team spirit which will for sure help us to complete all our tasks for Agora Skopje !

India – impressions

In this part, as I generally do, I will write about my impressions in India, trying to cover as many aspects as possible, from their culture to sports, from music to eating habits.

First of all, there is not ‘an’ Indian culture. There are millions. This is a place of great variety and difference, in language, religion, ideas, ethnicity and much more… And this is what makes this place unique. It is impossible to see everything in this country, while there is something worth to see in every corner.

Unfortunately it seems like Indian people do not value what they have. You can easily find a ‘ Ankur loves Priya ‘ carving, in Taj Mahal, one of the 8 wonders of the world. Or you can easily smell piss in a temple in a holy city.

Since I havenot been everywhere, I ll only write about my general impressions from my experiences. I have been to New Delhi, Bangalore, Mangalore, Kundapura, Goa and Hampi during my stay.

Religion

While the majority of the Indians are Hindu’s, there is also a big Muslim minorty and a small number of Christians. Yet, the Christian effect is big, with many churches around. There were always clashes of religions in India, especially between Hindu’s and Muslim’s, but as time passes, people tend to understand that living together is better than fighting against each other all the time.

Yes, there are millions of Gods in India. But actually this does not mean that there are millions of different Gods in India. It means that there is a God, and it is in millions of different forms. It is in a tigers body, in a cows soul or in a statue of an elephant. It is a piece of paper, it is a tree and it is a temple. God is in many forms and in every part of our lives. This is what they believe.

Music

Who doesnt know about Indian music? Every movie of Bollywood, Tollywood, and other productions always have songs and dances. Mostly about love and pain these songs are, it is an important tool for the leisure of Indian people. Western songs are also very popular nowadays, yet songs of their own culture will always have a place in their hearts. You can even see a car adjusted to playing music, when it goes rear.

Sports

As unpopular it is to most Europeans, cricket and hockey are the most popular games in India, cricket taking the first place. Even though I still do not understand the rules and the point of it ( similar to baseball from what I saw ), Indian people are really fanatic in this sport, and the national team is pretty good.

Sports like basketball, football and more are quite unknown to Indians. Before I came to India, I heard that the reason that India does not take part in the football world cups is that, they demanded their players to play bare foot, which was naturally rejected by FIFA.

Hygiene

Being a country of paradoxes, Indian people are funnily sensitive about hygiene, yet also very careless about their environment and themselves. First of all, you cannot find toilet papers in India, while people use water to wash themselves after their number 2. Also people do not use tissues after sneezing or with a running nose.

In the public places, when water is served on a glass, people do not touch their mouths to the cup, but hold it from a certain distance, pouring it in their mouths. That is because they are afraid of germs and contagious diseases. Mostly they take shower with a bucket full of water and washing machines are hardly existent.

It is very normal to spit on the street for people, hence there are many signs in public places that say ‘ spitting is prohibited ‘.

Indian people tend to eat with right hand and use left hand for drinking and cleaning themselves. You can see curious Indian faces looking at you if you use both hands while eating. Poor left-handed people.

Also forks and knives hardly exist in India, while they eat even the most liquid thing with their hands, something that I couldnt get used to.

Traffic

I shoud write a big ‘ OMG ‘ here, which would summarize the situation of traffic in India, which is exactly the same from its biggest city to the smallest village:

Horrible.

The traffic culture is non-existent in India, while people are really not educated about it. They can drive the car, but things like checking the mirrors etc… are out of the question, which makes the traffic there very dangerous. The solution that the Indians brough to this is to honk each time they approach a car to notify them of their presence. At first I was really annoyed at this continuous honking, but then when my friend told me the ‘ logic ‘ behind it, it was more understandable for me. Still this doesnt justify the noise pollution and the annoyence they cause.

You really should avoid listening to your i-pod or doing anything that would take your attention of your way, because any moment a bus, a motorbike or any other kind of vehicle can run into you. You have to be always vigilant and cautious, while me and my friend was almost ran over by a bus, which decided to steer to the right towards us. I hardly remember how I threw myself on the other side of the road, thinking my friend has been ran over already, and having a big relief when I saw him 20 metres away, breathing his lungs out.

But there are also situations that you can not prevent or escape. When you are in a bus for example, you have nothing to do apart from closing your eyes and playing when the bus tries to overtake every single vehicle and comes back to its line in the last milisecond before they crash with the car coming from the opposite direction. Also with the lack of suspensions in the vehicles, you can jump up to half a meter with the bumps in the bus.

Also, being a country that doesnt value human comfort, it is normal to use every cm2 of the bus, filling it with people. Having no difference from sardines in cans, a long bus trip can be really exhausting, with around 100 people in a 40 people capacity bus and a conductor that sells tickets, squeezing through the crowd.

To be continued…

Percin Imrek – Candidate for POL student representative

Hello dear colleagues,

 

If you have clicked on this link, it means you are somehow interested on what I have to say. Still I want to assure you that I will be very short and precise about some topics that I believe a candidate should address, which I will also touch during the presentations on Monday.

First of all, I think that making campaigns for food or anything else right now is redundant, while it is best when the student representatives are elected ( regardless whom ), and THEN we can have a meeting, put down all the topics we want to address, how we will address them and the solutions we will come up with it.

So first of all, the focus should be on ‘ we ‘, not me, you or she.

 

The main issues that I want to point out are amongst:

-          Food: Clearly there is a dissatisfaction about the food in the canteen, sometimes fair sometimes not. Some people want more salads, some want better meat. Even though it is impossible to make everyone happy, it is possible to come together and bring up the best solution, and present it to the College in a feasible manner.

-          Library: Even though I believe the hours are quite ok, I know that during the exam period, we may need more hours. One suggestion to this can be that ( like in last years ) the students can volunteer being responsible in the libraries, instead of the staff ( this has worked before ).

-          Balance: A student representative shouldnt be a messenger nor only for professors, or for students. In all cases both sides have correct and wrong arguments, and it is the students representatives job to find a balance between those arguments, and to present the best suggestion possible as a solution.

-          Communication: I believe we are communicating quite good, mostly thanks to facebook and our mailing list. Yet it is possible to organize monthly meetings, having an agenda with all the complaints beforehand, with all the students welcome to give opinions and solutions. After coming to certain conclusions, we can speak with one voice, instead of small groups, which will definitely raise awareness and impact.

-          Professors: There has been a case where one professor recently threw a pen to a student, even though not intending to hurt her, the pen bounced off the table and almost poked her eye, if not she wore glasses. This and cases like this require strict ( but professional ) reaction and consequences. This is another important task of a student representative.

-          Socializing: We already have many people and many committees ( bar, sauna, dancing, football ) to organize all these things. It is important to delegate as much as possible to people, and with my colleagues who will be in the boards of those committees, I do not think we will have any problems with that. Also these social gatherings can be used as a good way to socialize and communicate with the professors, assistants etc…

-          Students affairs office: I see the wonderful ladies in the students affairs office as the backbones of this university, thus cooperation, communication with them is really important, while they have easier access to CoE professors and staff, can give expert advice on issues, and can help with their years of experience.

 

If you still did not fall asleep, a bit about me

I am actively working for my NGO called AEGEE ( European Students Forum ) for 6 years, both in local and European level. I have worked in the executive board of AEGEE in Brussels for 1 year between 2008-09, as the projects director, representing AEGEE in the Parliament and Commission hearings and EPC briefings, as well as towards other NGO’s. AEGEE has over 10.000 members all over Europe in 47 countries, from Portugal to Azerbaijan, from Malta to Finland.

I have also founded and managed a project called ‘ Where Does Europe End?’ that aims to investigate the physical and mental borders of Europe, which I will give a workshop about on 18th October in the CoE. We have organized 7 events in 7 different countries, with 40 participants in each event, also hosting some MEP’s, presidents of NGO’s and cabinet members, where I had chaired the round table discussions.

Lastly, I am working as the Chairman of AEGEE, chairing our statutory meetings, where 1000 people attend, twice per year. Even though I am going to finish my mandate at the end of this month, I consider this experience as very valuable in terms of representation and mediation.

 

I will stop giving you a headache now, hoping that you will find me as a suitable candidate to be your representative.

Even though I can work with anyone, from our department, the person that I see our ideas and motivation most fitting is Ilaria Volpe, thus makes her my optimal co-candidate.

Enjoy the weekend

Percin Imrek

Life in Bruges – no time to breathe

Now I understand it better…

When my friends who studied here before were saying: ‘ College is killing me, I do not even have time to breathe ‘, I thought they exaggareted, but…

I believe that it is never the case that you have no time at all, there is always time, it is just about motivation and priorities. But the College of Europe really demands a lot from its students, and you should meet and exceed these demands to earn what you want and to make sure that you realize why you are here.

In my case, I want to perfect my French, improve my knowledge on the related topics, make a network and create good friendships, using my academic and non formal experience here.

If you want to be a full-fledged student here, you should really keep your motivation and energy on top here. You have to be really disciplined and know how to manage your time.

If you lose track here, its really hard to catch it again. That is why, all of us started this marathon from the first day, most of the time 8-9 hours per day, meals in between, library in the free times and going out or having a drink whenever we can.

Even though it has been 2 weeks, it took many things from me. My private life, my contact with my friends, my activeness in AEGEE ( apart from chair work ), my hobbies and much more.. Of course these were my decisions and I am the one who wants to be here, but it is not without a price. Like everything else…

Life here mostly revolves around lessons, conferences, seminars, language courses, meals, library and social life. In the first weeks, there is a huge social pressure on everyone to meet all 300 students and to make a good impression. Because everyone knows, we will see these 300 people every day for a year.

I am very happy with my colleagues, while most of them are very smart, elegant and also sociable. You can see a guy in the library studying hardly, and then in a party dancing ( hardly again )later in the night. Or people who read their asses off during the weekday, knows how to relax on a football match on Sunday.

Our group is really diverse, with people that you can talk anytime about anything. I consider each second I speak with my colleagues as an experience, where I learn something new constantly. That is why, even the lunches, coffee breaks or parties are important for me. Also you never know, maybe the person you have coffee with is the future prime minister of his/her country.

The education is based on the french style in the College, which honestly I do not think the most effective style. It is more theoretical based, and most of the professors come, sit down, and speak 3 hours behind their microphone, hardly asking questions, smiling or changing their tones of their voice. They are all very knowledgable and experts in their fields, but still, it can be much better.

What I cherish most about the College academically is its intense and full programme, while one week you can find a conference from the Foreign Minister of Belgium, and in the other a speech from an EPSO expert, giving information to students on how to apply to EPSO. You can go to your french classes and then take optional dutch, and even study in the library with fancy softwares.

The library, small but cosy, is open till 10pm, and many students stay till then. When you go there and see so motivated people, you also become more motivated.

About the social life, more or less there is something to do each night. The worst case you can find some students in a bar in the centre, watching a match or just drinking. The best case you can go to weekly residence parties, where all CoE students attend, and moving to a bar/disco after 1 am, mostly ending around 4-5 am. CoE students ( mostly ) know how to party, especially the southerns ( as in anywhere ). Afterwards you can wake up at 9am, go to the weekly match at 11am, and get over your hangover. Most of us refuse to headbutt the ball on Sunday matches, after the big headache in the party last night.

College of Europe is very similar to AEGEE in the sense of interaction. Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows what the other person is doing. Gossips and stories spread like a virus and of course, the more the word goes around, the more different shape it takes.

However, the life here is interesting, intense and I feel involved in it already. This is another bubble in my life, and I think this will be my most stable year after 4-5 years. But what I can say is that, it is definitely worth it, and I will make the best out of it.

Life in Bruges

A new chapter in my life begins. One that I have hoped for many years, failed, dissapointed and struggled at first, but at last, achieved.

Although this school is famous for its intense curriculum, difficult classes in both English and French, people also know that all this effort is worth is at the end of the year.

It was nice to hear the positive reactions of many people when they heard that I am accepted to the College of Europe, and the enthusiasm of people who wish to study there for the future.

That is why, I will write this seperate part only about my stories and impressions about the life in college, both to keep them as a good memory and to let my friends who are interested about the life there, know it from an insider’s perspective.

I hope you will enjoy it.

I have taken the train from Bxl to Brugge, with around 40 kilos of luggage on me, not even fitting through the train door without proper manouver.

I was expecting to meet some people from the College in the train, but I have seen none. But as soon as approached the taxi stop to get a cab to the main building, I have seen two young people getting in one taxi, till I stopped them asking if they are students of the College. They confirmed and offered me to join them to the cab.

When we arrived, the registration was much smoother than I expected, and it took around 15 minutes. After meeting some people, I have sat next to a group of people, where I have met two people that live in the same residence with me and offered me a ride to there.

After arriving to the dormitory and taking a tour, we were all astonished by the facilities and the comfort that they provide. The building was restored and in really good condition, each of us having single room with private bathrooms. It really reminded me of a 3 or 4 star hotel, with breakfast included. Also since the lunches and dinners are provided, the students do not have to worry about cooking. This place is really made to make sure that the students focus only on studying and worry about nothing else.

After the welcome party yesterday night and meeting around 200 people in 3 hours, I am quite overwhelmed. I am even more overwhelmed with the classes and introductions we are having since 9.00 am, and it is 18.00 now.

I have already taken French and German courses, both in upper intermediate level, which will be another priority for me: to speak both of those languages very properly, if not as good as my English.

I also applied to be the student representative

 

India – what I have learned?

You do not see a country completely if you only go there as a tourist, stay where they stay, eat where they eat, shop where they shop… If you do not talk with locals, visit a school, eat in a local place, feel the part of culture in your heart, it means you have only been to that country, but not in that country. That is what I am trying to do since the last years, not only visiting the country’s surface, but also trying to get more inside and embedded to it, feeling like someone from that country for a little while.

India was a good prospect for me to achieve that. After buying my tickets to India, where I was going to stay for 1,5 months, working as a teacher, I knew that this trip would mean much more to me than only sightseeing. It would mean much to my soul and mind.

When you see new places, new ideas and new doors open in your mind. When you go deeper into a new culture, you are able to go deeper in your own mind and soul.

When I left for India, everything seemed perfect about my life, that I won the school I wanted with afull scholarship, that I have a great girlfriend, a proud mother and friends. But of course, things are never how they seem like. On my way to India, my head was full of problems with my mother, some bad memories with friends, plans, worries etc…

After coming to India, trying to live the life like an Indian ( not with all aspects ), seeing the situation there and adapting to it, seeing how poor people are happy with how their lives are, I have learned many things.

First of all, I have learned that whatever I have in my mind and heart that bothers me, I should spill it out, and thats what I did.

I wrote to my ex-gf, to some friends whom I had problems in my past, to some people whom I do not care about at all but still their actions affected me and my mother, whom I had some communication problems. I wrote all my feelings and how I think, regarding to the problems I have/had with them. Most of them replied to me in a detailed and nice manner, and most of these problems were solved by communicating and courage from my side. This played a major role in me finding peace in my mind.

I saw once again in India that, luxury and comfort are not things that bring or sustain human happiness. When I m back home, I see many friends with no financial problems, making mountains out of molehills on little problems, such as a bad boyfriend, jealousy, pride etc… Those people never appreciate the comfort, the health they have. But many people in India, living in the poorest conditions possible, can be happy by a little smile, a little gift, or even just taking a photo with them.

When I was cleaning the school of handicapped kids with my friends, I have seen how terrible conditions there can be, while these students literally study amongst smell of piss. Of course this is not the case everywhere in India, but it is also the sad truth in some parts. I have seen how happy these kids became if you spare 10 minutes painting with them.

That is why I believe that us, who were the luckier ones born with health, wealth and support, do not have the luxury to live only for ourselves. Because there are too many people in need in this world, who needs help and support.

This is what India thought me…

Plastic bag ban – Chikmagalur as an example

This article is written by Percin Imrek – A Turkish volunteer who studies Master of Political Science in College of Europe in Brugge, Belgium and Katja Wischniewski – A German volunteer who is a graduate of Environmental Engineering in the University of Berlin. These two volunteers have decided to make a case study trip to Chikmagalore, a city where they implement the plastic bag ban successfully, to learn how they managed this and bring the same implementation to Kundapura, the city they live and work in.
As volunteers of FSL in India, we are trying our best to achieve the most, in the short time we have here. With myself and my colleague Katja, apart from the class we give aboutr environmental education to schools in Kundapura, we also want to achieve something more long term and more concrete.

After some research, we have seen that Karnataka region has implemented the plastic bag ban since one year, but many towns in the region do not follow, including the town we live in, Kundapura. Even if you buy a single orange, they give it to you in a plastic bag, which people throw away afterwards, giving great harm to environment, while it is really hard to recycle and dispose of.

But is it really necessary to use plastic bags for shopping or carrying stuff? We all know about the consequences. The dumpsite in Kundapura grows more and more. But how can we harm the environment less, so that our grandchildrens will not live in a waste city?

The reason that the Karnataka region banned the plastic bag usage is because there are healthier alternatives to it, which will be for the benefit of Indian people in the short and long term. But of course, old habits are hard to get rid of. There are some bright examples however, that managed to implement the ban, such as Chikmagalur.

That is the reason that we are writing this article, after our visit to this nice city, where they give you everything in paper or jud bags, which are a much better alternative for our environment.

We knew it would be a tough and long way to Chikmagalur from Kundapur, 8 hours by bus. When I was on the way, I doubted if the trip would be worth it, and if we would get the information that we needed. But at the end, it was really worth it.

We have visited the head of the anti-pollution office in Chikmagalur, in a very modest but effective office, where we have talked for 1 hour, asking the best practices. He informed us on how they started to implement the ban, their PR campaigns for the promotion, from the meetings with the stakeholders and NGO’s and so forth…

He told ‘’ The plastic ban bag was introduced 2010, and implemented in March 2011. If you are caught by selling plastic bags, you are fined 200 rupees in the first time, 500 in the second, 1000 in the third, and are summoned to the court after the third.’’

He also showed us the videos of the campaigns and gave us hints, so we could help to implement this ban in Kundapura too. Seeing some photos before and after the ban, where we clearly see the cleanliness without the plastic bags laying all around gave us a more clear idea of how important the implementation of this ban is. He also told us about the public initatives, such as prisoners creating plastic bags and shopkeepers drawing posters on their own to tell people not to ask them for plastic bags.

Chikmagalur found alternatives and we think also Kundapura can do this. Alternatives exists:jud bags out of coconut, paper bags and steel boxes. If it rains, leaves help to protect against rain.

In Chikmagalur the natural places are nearly free from plastics.

After the head of the anti-pollution office, we have met with Dr. Gita, one of the leading and most influential figures in Chikmagalur. She is contributing not only to the plastic bag ban, but many other activities for the development of her town, which is all voluntarily. She told us more or less the same things as the head of the anti-pollution office, but after our meeting with her, we have realized that without volunteers and leading figures of the society, it is impossible to communicate with people.

After walking around in the shops and seeing paper bags, we saw that this is not impossible, but just needs effort, contribution from every one, dedication and strict monitoring. After that, there is no reason not to see the same in our Kundapura.

That is why we were more motivated and happy when we were back on our way, because now we know there is a lot of work waiting for us to make this dream come true, but we also know that sooner or later, we will manage.

The only thing we need is the support of you, the people of Kundapur. Then nothing is impossible.

Percin & Katja – FSL volunteers

Kundapur – City of Rain

I have never seen a city that rains so much before, not even Brussels…

 

After surviving the 8 hour bus ride from Bangalore to Mangalore, where I thought several times that the bus will roll over, I have taken another bus from Mangalore to the place where I would finally settle for a month, Kundapura.

It is a very small city of 40.00 people, more like a village, yet since the office of the organization I work with is there, there are also around 30 volunteers, mostly from Europe.

In the bus to Kundapur, I paid around 20 rupees for 2,5 hours ride ( 20 cents ), with the fullest bus ever. They were still taking people in, even though we were all like sardines in a can. It was understandable though, while there were not as many buses going as the need, so they had to take as many as possible.

After surviving this trip, finally I arrived to the hotel we would have the one week training before we start our work, meeting with other volunteers. There are volunteers from Germany, Spain, France, USA, Sweden, Austria and much more. It made me feel more comfortable, while there were many people around with the similar culture, and we would share all our happinesses, sadness, frustrations and amazements together.

As usually, I am the only Turkish person in the group.

This city rains a lot, at least half of the day. I have never seen in another place, the way how it rains here. When you walk on a dry road for a second, the other second the sky is like cut open and it starts pouring down, cats and dogs.

This week was more of an orientation week for the 20 volunteers from Europe and US, who came here for the same reason, who will work here voluntarily, some only for a month, some for more. Therefore, this week was more or less like an AEGEE event, only with less crazy people and no social programme. At the end though, the ladies were visiting our house, where we would chat, play games and drink some beers.

We had really good sessions about Indian lifestyle, the Kannada language, watching some Bollywood  movies, eating Indian food with our hands and getting to know Indian people more.

In the Indian lifestyle session, we were told about how Indians live, their culture and their habits, from how they use the toilet to how they pray. There were many big differences which we had difficulties to understand, while they were saying that all of their actions have a scientific reason. Among some big differences I can count not using the toilet paper, mostly using oriental style toilets, eating with hands even though you can find cutlery anywhere or not using washing machine.

Even though we had 3 lessons of Kannada language, we only managed to learn some words of survival, while it is a very hard and different language in itself, with another alphabet. Yet we saw the benefits of using it in the streets, while people would be very happy and helpful when they see you trying to speak their own language and sharing a part of their culture.

 

It is easy to feel like a celebrity here, with the eyes gazed at you all the time, you feel the attention and interest of people having towards you for one simple reason; you are a foreigner. Luckily almost everyone is just curious and merely friendly. Of course the situation may be different for my female colleagues, but as a man, we are mostly greeted by people, our name, country and religion is asked, we are watched with interest by the old men, and secrecy and giggles by the young girls. This is the first time that I felt being different so strongly and being discriminated ( even positively ) for my appearance.

After the training, we have all dispersed to our host families, where I stay with a couple with a 3 year old boy, another french volunteer accompanying me. It is funny that they treat you like one of the family members, while they are really worried about your safety and make sure you are fed and kept well. There is even a curfew, which starts at 21.30. It was one of the first things that the mother gave us as instruction, that we shouldnt be later than 21.30 at home. The last time I had a curfew was when I was 12 years old. I dont mind it though, because all the volunteers have it, we wake up early and it helps me get in to a certain discipline before my next year.

I am trying to spend as much time possible with the family, while it is a fascinating experience to be right in the middle of their culture and absorb it so deeply, while sharing my own culture. I plan to cook for them, sing turkish songs for them and teach them some turkish games. Because it is especially interesting for them, volunteers coming from Western countries, people who have travelled a lot and can share a lot with them.

There is much more to write, but I prefer to give it to you piece by piece, not all at once…