YASI CHRONICLES Your Young Ambassador Newsletter
OCTOBER 2011
“FRIENDSHIPS THAT NEVER DIE”,
discover it on page 2
YASI summarry can be found on 2nd page
Diary of YASI day by day from page 3 to 13
“Sleeping beauties” Gallery on 14th page
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YASI 2011: “Get inspired by 28 youngsters all over Europe“
On July 4-14th, Luxembourg was the host city for the major youth event - Youth Ambassadors
Summer Institute Seminar 2011 (YASI).
YASI is a leadership program for youngsters aged 16-18, and this year it brought together 28 parti-
cipants from 7 different European countries such as Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway and Poland.
The Youth Ambassadors Summer Institute Seminar 2011 has been a wonderful meeting of future
international ambassadors and leaders. The aim of YASI was to improve participant‘s social, political, diplomatical and cultural horizons and make them reflect on the role of a United Europe, through non formal learning, practical simulations, study visits, teambuilding games and thematic workshops.
All theoretical activities were in tangent with issues which the world and Europe faces now: Inter-
national Affairs, Democracy, Diplomacy, Climate change, New media revolution, Social media and were were followed by practical events such as European Council & N-E-W-S Simulation, Press Freedom Debates, Radio editing, Writing articles, Film editing, visiting EU institutions in Luxembourg (EU Court of Justice, EU Commission in G.D of Luxembourg, Maison de l’Europe) and Brussels (EU Commission, EU Parliament), U.S Embassy in G.D. of Luxembourg, which was an enriching experience for youngsters. They got the chance to talk about the current agenda of European Union and it’s member states, with Members of European Parliament, met with law makers of General Directorate for Youth and talked about European Youth Strategy, more than that experienced real diplomat in action during a talk with Chargé d’Affaires of the American Embassy Luxembourg: David Fetter.
Another important activity was the radio workshop, where professionals from radio ARA together
with fellows made their own radio broadcast, media area was continued with visit to the RTL, the largest media company in Europe, where participants had the chance to talk about journalism ethics, activity and program with famous TV & Radio hosts.
But above all, YASI was that strong bridge where they established amazing and life-lasting friend-
ships, and contacts like this will keep Europe strong, contacts based on personal relation between Youth in Action in all European countries! YASI staff, Aleksandra-Chiara-Daniel-Efthimios-Mads-Sarah
Anunţuri Where you can find us... YASI use New Media tools to reach young audience For more detailed information: Our website: www.yasinstitute.org our Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/yasinstitute email address: yasinstitute@gmail.com YouTube channel: YASInstitute
YASI Diary: Faces of Friends
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Day One: “Get to know each other” & “Official Opening“ On the 4th of July turned out to be a double event day. On 4th of July Americans are celebrating their Independence Day, but in Luxembourg, the heart of Europe, a special event began: Youth Ambassadors Summer Institute Seminar opened its doors to 28 participants from 7 European countries. On that special day, all teams, with the exception of the polish group whose flight was delayed for one day, arrived tired but ready for a real adventure that they expected from our Seminar. Enjoy a collage of happy faces of YASI participants.
Marianne, Norway
Haris, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Patrick, G.D of Luxembourg
Angie, Greece Luxembourg - capital city, 89,000 inhabitants.
Sofie, Belgium
Alex, Moldova
Aksel, Norway
Tom, G.D of Luxembourg
Ana-Maria, Moldova
Vayia, Greece
Sien, Belgium
Marius, Norway
Bartłomiej, Poland
Linn-Aurora, Norway
Arnej, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Paulina, Poland
YASI Diary: Faces of Friends
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Cristina, Moldova
Katerina, Greece
Miltiadis, Greece
Aleksandra, Poland
Arthur, Belgium
Martin, Belgium
Daniela, Moldova
Teuta, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Charles, G. D of Luxembourg
Adna, Bosnia & Herzegovina
DorothĂŠe, G. D. of Luxembourg
Mateusz, Poland
YASI founders: Aleksandra-Chiara-Daniel-Efthymios-Mads-Sarah
5 Day Two: Polish team arrival, “How Do I debate“ , “Press Freedom Debate“ workshop & Stereotype Game After a cancelled flight, trip to a different airport and overnight adventure in a 4* star hotel Polish piece of YASI arrived finally in Luxembourg! All 4 participants were safe and sound and ready to start integrating inside of the group. „We can say we are really disappointed we missed the first night with the rest but we promiss to catch up as soon as possible“ pointed Aleksandra Syjud, polish mentor on arrival. Full o f en er g y a n d enthusiasm (well almost after 24 hrs of travel) and ready to switch to English a nd ca tch their colleagues, „We hope the rest of the project will be as exciting as the beginning of it“ ended Aleksandra.
One of the main activities of the second day were workshops ‘How do I debate?’ and a Press Freedom Debate. In the workshop „we learned, more theoretically, how to debate. We learned how to make a good speech pro or contra, what arguments there are, we learned everything about ethos, pathos, logos, and we finished by having a mini-debate: I got ‘weapons ban’ and had to be contra“, emphasized Arthur from Belgium. During the theoretical session, participants had ten minutes to do some reserches and write down their main arguments and ideas about the debate topic. Then, the subjects were said one by one, and fellows that had the same topic, were „fighting“ with their opponent. For most of them that was the first experience in debating – in English. Theoretical lesson were followed by practical one, three sessions were organised to check abilities that the fellows got during „How do I debate“ session. Participants were divided in groups and played in teams of 3 people according to Karl Popper method. Due to big number of fellows, they were split into sevral roles, such as judges, time keepers, audience in order ti intergrate and feel part of the debate. Thanks to the good weather, we got pretty spicy debates on topics such as „Social media in emerging democracies“, „can public TV/radio be seen as propaganda?“ etc. in the garden of the Youth hostel, where participants respected very well golden rule of every debate „Attack the arguments of your opponent, not the opponent itself“
6 Day Three: “Media Workshop: Radio editing“, “Visit to Maison de l’Europe“ & “Guided tour of EU institution“
Radio Ara is a free alternative radio in Luxembourg, their programs can be characterized by being original, special and multicultural.
During the third day, participants had a pretty tight schedule, the day began together with Sandra Laborier, host at Radio ARA and Radu Burtescu, EVS volunteer from Romania, as well host at the same radio station. They came to talk with YASI fellows about Radio, radio materials & editing, basically they explained to participants how a radio interview should look like, how to talk with people that you are interviewing, and they answered dozens of questions from fellows, starting from „If a non-state owned radio is working on special licence?” and finishing on a question about of amount of people that works at Radio Ara. We want to remind you that Radio ARA was a YASI partner during seminar, by giving the equipment to create radio materials, so later, at second part of workshop the fellows had the chance to create their own radio project assisted by Radu and Sandra.
Our next destionation was Maison de L’Europe ( in translation from french: House of Europe), where we had the chance to talk with the EU representative, Mr. Werner Putsch of the Luxembourgish representation for the European Commission. Mr. Putsch had a long talk, about EU institutions and policies, especially agriculture policy. He explained in details what European integration means and how this process is developed. During his speech he gave a different approach to the problem of united Europe and how EU should develop further, also he spoke a lot about European views on thr policies and the importance of agriculture throughout the history of the EU. In the end, he provided participants with a trip arround the library that is located there and offered various printed materials about EU policies and institutions. After the photo in front of the EU-flags, our group continued the marvelous adventure of YASI seminar.
Next stop in our journey was a visit to the Kirchberg plateau where European institutions are located in Luxembourg (European Court of Justice, the European Investment Bank, and parts of the Commission). We split into two groups and started sight seeing around the heart of Luxembourg.
Our guides explained in details history of European Union and the importance of Luxembourg in this process but more importantly we got a clue why above all mentioned institutions that are located in Luxembourg. After the trip participants were amazed, by how an empty plateau next to Luxembourg-city, was transformed into this new neighbourhood, the pulse of entire Europe.
7 Day Four: “N-E-W-S simulation“, part I, “Visit to U.S Embassy in Luxembourg“ & “Nuclear Disaster Game“ On the fourth day, participants got the chance to participate in the North/ East/West/South Simulation (NEWS), which gave them a glimpse of the life of a real diplomat. In the simulation, the fellows formed the governments of four fictional countries with different political, economical, social and cultural backgrounds and were called to face the problems that their respective countries had according to the storyline. Each nation had advantages and disadvantages, and the members from each government had to use all of their negotiating skills to ensure the best possible deal for their country. The discussions got heated really fast, as everyone was trying to defend the interests of his country, with secret meetings and behind the doors deals happening. Part I, included opening statement from the Government of each country and endless discussions on the possible treaties and unions that could be signed. On the 8th of July, the participants presented their signed treaties, that you can find the story on next page. YASI fellows met David Fetter, Chargé d‘affaires of U.S. Embassy in Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to talk about diplomacy, transatalantic relations and day-by-day activity of a diplomat. “What a friendly man, such an interesting talk, he’s such a good speaker….” These are only some of the good comments the participants made after the talk with David (non formal diplomat from other side of Atlantic). David Fetter: „Europe and America are strategic partners due to political, economical, social and cultural ties. We are the same civilization“
Arthur from Belgium playing the role of young muslim girl. Due to phrase „Good swimmers belong in a good swimming pool“, he won the game. Nuclear Disaster Game turned out to be a fun, interactive, energic and uniting game for the participants, everybody tried to play his role in a right way and to keep his personage in the game as much as possible. Due to big number of fellows, two teams was formed but each had the same charge of fun. The picture above is speaking for itself.
Welcomed with the best cake and cookies ever and a drink, we talked with the diplomat David Fetter about various issues. Not only about the daily life and the tasks of a diplomat, but also about the difficult ethical dilemmas that diplomats face were topics of discussion and even more sensitive subjects like the war in Afghanistan & Iraq. Although not everyone could agree on some topics, it was really interesting to get an American view on US-European relations and on global challenges. Definitely a good sneak peek into diplomatic life for our Youth Ambassadors!
8 Day Five: “N-E-W-S simulation“, part II, “Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute, Youth in Action and Jugendparlament youth initiative presentation“ & “Speak Up“ It began like any other day… After breakfast, all the participants were excited and eager to continue the N-E-W-S Game, see previous page for details. The negotiations were hard. The three democratic countries (South, West and East) were negotiating without the authoritarian North, which was ready to declare a nuclear war. The whole hypothetical world was close to a complete destruction, when sudden news shocked everyone: a food crisis was threatening the „West Union“ and the only one that could help was North. That is why finally, after hard negociations between nations they came to an agreement. Peace was established everywhere and the hypothetical world continued living in happiness - good thing to do in real world?!.
The afternoon started with the presentation of the BFTF (Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer Institute) program, in which emerged the YASI idea. The mentors presented us the wonderful experience they had and also some of their videos, which presented their hard work and devotion to the project. Then followed the visit of Cliff Hever from the Luxembourgish Youth Service, who was glad to inform the participants of everything they need in order to make their own youth project. Then the participants had the chance to talk with Catia Goncalves, who shared with them important information about „Jugendparlament“, the Luxembourgish Youth Parliament.
After all the hard work of the day, the participants needed some free time to relax, have fun and interact with each other. But they had to use it to prepare themselves for the big game of the next day, the EU Council Simulation. Gladly, their day ended with a pantomime game, in which the fellows showed their acting skills and imagination. The fun continued later in the night, when they sang and played various games to get to know each other better… It was really a great day and we all enjoyed it. Exhausted from the whole day, the participants finally went to sleep, satisfied with the achievements of the day.
9 Day Six: “EU Council simulation“, “YASI Love Day“ & “Speak Up 2“
On Saturday, a special event was organised. The fellows participated in a simulation of the European Council where they were debating being representatives of 27 EU nations on specific issue - the establishment of an EU-army and had the final goal to adopt a resolution on this motion.
. „The difficult point is that the Council has to decide unanimously“ recognised participants. During the simulation, participants were asked to dress up formally (suit and tie) and feel themselves „in skin of EU leaders“, because every fellow got the role of the President or Prime Minister of all 27 EU countries, andmore than that, they were provided with statistics and official country position towards EU army. Also they got free time to research, negociate and lobby their own position. Even if the final resolution wasn‘t adopted due to lack of consensus of the EU Council members, this simmulation turned out to be an example of how young people can feel real diplomatic pulse.
10 Day Seven: “Magic Rainy Sunday: Picknik in Historical part of Luxembourg, Tour of the City and Casemates“ This day started slowly and relaxing. We could sleep a little bit longer and the ones who wanted could take breakfast in their pijamas. The polish group and Haris from Bosnia & Herzegovina went for the mass in the Cathedrale. The ones who stayed behind made a evaluation of the program so far and talked about a few ideas for improvements. This took till lunch, when the group went for a picnic in the citycenter. We ate in the gardens of the city where we spent a nice time chatting and shooting group pictures. After lunch we went up to La Place d’Armes where we met 2 guides who showed us the city. We split up into two groups so that everyone could follow the explanaitons without the group getting too crowded. Unfortunately it started to rain right away and so we first went to the orthodoxe church in Luxembourg where our guide Milly told us a little bit about the luxembourgish history. After the tour through the city, which included the Palace, the Cathedrale and the several places in Luxembourg, we went on to the Casemates in Luxembourg. It was very intersting and informative. Milly told us about the ancient times in which Luxembourg used to be a fortress. Because of several anecdotes and personel comments it never got boring or dry. Back at the youth hostel we had some freetime. Some went to sleep while others took their guitars or read a book.
FACTS about Luxembourg >>> Founded in 963, Luxembourg became a Grand Duchy in 1815 and an independent state under the Netherlands. It lost more than half of its territory to Belgium in 1839 but gained a larger measure of autonomy. Full independence was attained in 1867. Over run by Germany in both world wars, it ended its neutrality in 1948 when it entered into the Benelux Customs Union and when it joined NATO the following year. In 1957, Luxembourg became one of the six founding countries of the European Economic Community (later the European Union), and in 1999 it joined the euro currency area. Nowday‘s, Luxembourg is a Constitutional monarchy. Power Branches are divided: Executive Grand Duke (head of state, ceremonial), Prime Minister (head of government). Legislative - unicameral parliament (Chamber of Deputies with Council of State serving as a consultative body). Judicial Superior Court. Political parties in parliament: Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), Socialist Workers‘ Party (LSAP), Democratic Party (DP), Green Party, Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), The Left Party. Suffrage: Universal over age of 18. Government budget (2009): €9.265 billion
11 Day Eight: BRUSSELS trip: “Visit of EU Parliament, Commision & tour of the City“ To have as much time as possible in Brussels we got up at 5 am so that we could leave at 6 am. The outward journey was very peacefull, most people were trying to get some sleep or were just listening to some music (our special gallery on page 14 will help to imagine how it was). We arrived at approximately 9 o’clock in the morning. Our first meeting was with the Belgian representative of the European Commission, Mr. Willy Helin. He spoke about the citizenship and how important voting is. Furthermore he explained his work in the European Commission and that his focus lays on schools. He told us about meetings he had with groups of youngsters who were interested into the European Union. After this first meeting we spoke to a colleague of his. Mrs. Violetta Berzniece. She worked in the Youth Strategy Department of the European commission. Firstly she explained their concept. The goal of the concept, which was divided into many subbranches, was to get youngsters involved in the work of the EU. We took our lunch in the canteen of the European Parliament. In the afternoon we met with some representatives from different countries: Georges Bach from Poland, Kathleen van Brempt from Belgium, Frank Engel from Luxembourg, Marietta Giannakou from Greece and Bart Staes from Belgium. They talked about their views on important political issues such as EU enlargment, foreign policy, energy and lobbyism in European Union policies. An important thing for the fellows of YASI was to compare the different views of MEP‘s on certain issues, as the participants confirmed for themselves EU motto: United in Diversity. We also learnt about the work of the European Parliament and the roles of the MEPs. A special surprise was made for us by Mr. Bart Staes of Belgium, who gave us a tour of the main Assembly Hall and talked to us about how the Sessions of EU parliament are held. To finish our exhausting journey in Brussels we went to do some sightseeing in the city center . We used that precious time to fill ourselves with precious belgian chocolate, belgians fries and Waffels desire. We also saw the Grand Place of Brussels ( „the oldest and most beautifull gothic square in Europe“, how Belgian team stated), some of us went to see Manneken Pis, which was kind of disapointing for the majority of us. It was the regional flemmish holiday so we were surounded by flemmish flags and flemmish nationalists, which was somehow an enriching experience of how in the heart of Europe, some flames of nationalism are still alive, but we finish our day in Brussels eating one of the things that keep Belgians together ... Belgian Fries. The trip back to Luxembourg was marked by a light and relaxed atmosphere, and we arrived at Luxembourg at 11.30 pm and everyone went to bed. Enjoy a marvelous gallery of wthat we did in Brussels, Belgium.
12 Day Nine: “Media workshop: Social Media & Radio“, “Visit to RTL“ and “Discussion evening“
After our tiring and exciting visit to Brussels, we got two media workshops: one on radio, with Mr. Radu Burtescu, where we could do our interviews and such for the two hours of broadcasting time we had. The other one was a workshop on new media/social media. Here we got to define media, learn about social/new media and see some videos (like the girl getting shot during the Iranian protests of 2009 and a video from an artist who filmed people jumping from the Golden Gate bridge). „A debate on the moral side of these videos followed, and we even had a tv-show re-enactment on the Iranian protests, featuring roles of an Iranian official and a Human Rights activist. Now it was in this workshop that I learned more on new media/social media, and for example blogs and twitter“, says Arthur from Belgium, who started a blog after the Social media workshop.
Of course every YASI participant remembers the visit to RTL, the largest European media group, where together with Sara Catani, a famous luxemburgish host we made an excelent trip around the company, we saw editing board, filming plateau, IT and Design Department and touched everything on our way. Also we stoped to talk with Sara about journalists life, how to make a professional reportage, the ethical issues of journalism. On the most of the questions, Sara anwered patiently and with abnegation, in the end she stated that „Being a journlist it‘s not a profession it‘s more a vocation, a vocation that we discover throught ourselves, when we enlarge our horinzons and think free“. Also, one of the most exciting moments was talking with Bob, host of a radio show, at RTL which turned out to be a real experince of LIVE broadcasting intervention from our side. RTL was an amazing practical add to the Seminar. Check our photos.
13 Day Ten: See you soon
„Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos“ Charles M. Schulz Dear YASI fellows, until new Hello! Always yours, Aleksandra-Chiara-Daniel-Efthymios-Mads-Sarah
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YASI Sleeping beauties Gallery: Brussels edition
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Good bye and See you soon! The aim of our seminar was to bring together, youngsters from 7 countries all over the Europe in order to make them more politicaly involved citizens through discussions, workshops and sight-seeing tours concerning media, diplomacy, politics and EU. In the end of the seminar we got more than that, we got an inspiring story for ourselves and 28 motivated young people to bring changes to their communities. Now we are strong network of younsters that apreciate and share such values as Friendship, Trust, Honesty, Courage, Fairness, Respect and Caring one toward another. As great John F. Kennedy said „Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone“, we together with joint actions can built an amazing world for everybody, but first step for that is starting cooperating and feeling warmth of our hearts. That was the story of YASI 2011, be prepared for the next YASI Chronicles until then See you soon!
Our partners
Youth Ambassadors Summer Institute The Youth Ambassadors Summer Institute is a youth exchange bringing together 28 youngsters from 7 different European countries (Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway and Poland) in order to shape them to become more politically active citizens. Participants are taking part in discussions, workshops and sight-seeing tours concerning diplomacy and media, secondly the EU and global problems.
YASI Chronicles It‘s the Youth Ambassadors Summer Institute Seminar Magazine were you can find useful information about seminar itself and activitites that were or will be held. It‘s made and printed by YASI founders team.
Product of:
Editing board:
Daniel Vodă edited by
Aleksandra Syjud Chiara Bleckenwegner Efthymios Skoufas Mads Danielsen Sarah Declercq YASI board
Authors of articles: YASI participants & mentors Address of the YASI: e-mail: yasinstitute@gmail.com web: www.yasinstitute.org This edition is made possible by the generous support of the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Moldova
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www.yasinstitute.org