WAWEL 13TH NATIONAL SELECTION CONFERENCE OF EYP POLAND KRAKOW 2016 SESSION ISSUE CREATED BY PXL MEDIA
KRAKOW’S WAWEL DRAGON KRAKOWSKI SMOK WAWELSKI
This issue is brought to you by the Media Team of 13th National Selection Conference of EYP Poland Editor: Endre Haugland (NO/DK) Editorial Assistant: Annemari Sepp (EE) Video Editor: Martyna Szumniak (SE) Media Team Members: Ans Van Gasse (BE) Anna Khoperia (GE) Oskar Košenina (SI) Maciej Maj (PL) Elina Makela (FI) Camilla Hatling (NO) Florian Schinnerl (AT) Tomaš Pacovsky (CZ) Jan De Peuter (BE) Matteo Vespa (IT)
Layout and design: Annemari Sepp (EE) Oskar Košenina (SI)
Logo designed by: Maciej Kuczyński (PL) All photos used in this issue are taken by the Media Team and belong to the authors.
The 13th National Selection Conference of EYP Poland is organised by EYP Poland.
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EDITORIAL Dearest reader,
This might be the first EYP issue you encounter, or simply one in a line of many. You might be a firsttime delegate, an excperienced official, or even a relative or friend of someone in Krakow. I believe it is only through personal interaction we can actually make a change or an impact, and therefore I encourage you to see beyond the formal setting of this organisation. Treasure the small things; the memories, the faces, the voices. That is what creates the basis for what comes next; personal development, growth, impact.
Reflecting on this belief, the concept and content of EYP, we have tried to balance our academic and interactive content. Regardless of who you are, please use this issue wisely; read its content, put the centerfold on your wall, sign your friends‘ issues, and remember your time in Krakow. It is not what you say, it is what you do that defines you. On behalf of PXL Media, Endre Haugland – Editor
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reflect remember
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WORDS KJELKE UMLEITUNG
iGUDE
KJE MONTE
UNENÄGU
VEGAN JUHUTUTTAV
SZCZĘŚCIE 4
BRUKE
SUPERKALIFRADALISTODEKSPIALITYCZNIE
VOODI FENOMENOLOGIA
TABLA
KIEŁBASA
PINTSAK TABORET
TOWN HALL TOWER WIEŻA RATUSZOWA 5
WHY DO WE USE CIRCLES? JAN DE PEUTER
A circle is a simple closed shape in Euclidean geometry. This is how Wikipedia opens it’s page about circles. But is it a simple shape? Je ne pense pas. Taking into account that the circle has been used since before the beginning of recorded history, it might be one of the oldest concepts in human history. In this article we together go on an adventure, discovering the origins of this mysterious concept and the meaning it has up until today. By doing this I hope to give you a better insight in why you have been sitting in this formation for three days. From Greeks to Inca’s To begin with I would like to point out that the concept ‘circle’ is globally used throughout time and space. In all cultures the circle has got a strong symbolic meaning and although it’s meaning differs from culture to culture,
we can distinguish some clear values of our European project. general ideas. Form a circle; form, form a circle From the Greeks to the Incas the Friday 2nd September 2016. The circle represents perfection. In day that will be remembered Athens people admired it be- by the Krakoviacs, as the day cause of its endless lines of sym- on which 177 people suddenly metry, while the Inca Indians built formed a circle in the middle of massive circular sites hoping to Park Jordana. “Crazy fools” they harvest perfect grains. thought; “Teams will be built” we knew. Besides perfection, circles also symbolise revolution. Would we I think it wouldn’t be an underhave had any of our industrial statement to say that circles are revolutions without the inven- one of the most powerful tools tion of the wheel or mechanical leaders can use in order to build cylinders? Moreover, Copernicus’ a team. But why? Why aren’t we research led us to the realisation sitting or standing in triangles, that the planets are hovering squares or hexagons? Since soaround the sun in a circular (now cial and other scientist have alelliptical) orbit and speaking ready written thousands of pages about space, isn’t almost every on this topic, I will briefly touch celestial sphere circular? From three key words, which in my the sun to the moon, from our so- opinion are the most relevant: lar system’s planets to all the oth- nature, harmony and eye-coners, not to forget the stars. tact. Lastly, circles also symbolise unity and inclusion. Do you already hear the European anthem in the background? I just want to make clear that a circle includes so much more than π x diameter, it also represents some of the core
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Circles are natures favourite shapes. You only have to look up to see proof; do you remember Copernicus and his celestial spheres? I have never seen a square tree or triangles on a leopard. If you extend this rationale
to our teambuilding, you could state that that we’ll feel way more comfortable in a natural environment and that sitting in e.g. a triangle would just feel odd (and look ridiculous). Circle = harmony; Ying + Yang. Lastly and most importantly, I want to mention the most obvious reason why we always use circles for everything. When being in a circle you can watch all your fellow committee members directly in the eyes. This automatically results in an intimate connection, something that counts in teambuilding.
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CONGRATULATIONS,
YOU WON THE LOTTERY!
ANNA KHOPERIA
Does this face look familiar to you? Yep. That’s me, Anna, master of the Jellyfish game. I’m quite an average person, with an average height and average hair colour living an average life. Very
much like an average person, I’m leading a typical average life. Routines, most of the time. But what makes me special is that I won a lucky lottery ticket to this journey called EYP, and I want to
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bring you with me on this journey. Four years ago after studying for a year in the United States, I returned back to my home coun-
try, back to my little hometown with a name you would probably not be able to pronounce. That’s where I felt that I lost myself for the first time. The cultural shock hit me hard. I didn’t know what to do with my life. I had grown to the moon, but the world around me suddenly became the size of a matchbox. And I had no other choice: I started to try to fit in this little matchbox. I managed to make myself smaller again, I went on living my ordinary boring life again until that one moment when I accidentally found
a particularly beautiful picture of my friend on Facebook. I got interested in the picture, where and why it was taken, and that’s when my life changed. That’s how I heard about EYP for the first time; a turning-point in my life. The matchbox was suddenly gone and world opened up for me to the fullest and unexpected extent. Let’s face it, EYP sessions ARE challenging. They push your abilities to yet unknown boundaries, test you in many different ways, and you’ll end up getting really close with caffeine over a very short period of time. Overcoming these challenges require thinking outside the box, because the challenges we face there are not typical ones. For example, you can easily become an expert in macroeconomics or biotechnologies in one night here. All these challenges and the people surrounding you create an experience that gives you knowledge
ST. MARY’S BASILICA KOŚCIÓŁ MARIACKI
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you could never have gotten anywhere else, and something that might be the magical part of EYP. Because of EYP, I started to explore the opportunities around me. Suddenly I saw all my opportunities, I stopped limiting myself, and started experiencing. The EYP experience of teambuilding, committee work and public speaking motivated me and helped to advance in my current job. Because of EYP I travelled 2500 kilometres to a country I knew nothing about, to work on things I had never tried before, with people I had never met before. That experience alone is quite breath-taking. So, on the behalf of EYP “the travel agency”, congratulations on winning that lucky lottery ticket to this journey. Thank you for joining us on this first trip, and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again.
EYP AND EU: WHAT MAKES US EUROPE?
MATTEO VESPA
A thirty years long winter. A barbed-wired wound running through a city. A continent divided in two halves by a heavy curtain. That was Europe in 1987. That year in Fontainebleau, a French little town of less than twenty thousand people, a local high school came up with an idea: to create a space where the European youth could discuss the most important issues affecting the continent. That school project was the European Youth Parliament. Almost thirty years later, the EYP is a network spread in forty countries, from Portugal to Russia, from the Scandinavian North to Greece and Turkey in the south – just in 2015 around thirty-five thousand people took part in one of the almost six hundred events the organisation set up, ranging from the smallest local ones to big International Sessions. While the EYP was growing up, Europe changed its face: the Soviet Union collapsed, the communist governments of Central and Eastern Europe were replaced by capitalist democracies, and the European Economic Community
evolved into the European Union, aiming at the next stage of integration of the people of the continent. In 2004, the EU history saw the expansion to ten new countries, amongst them Poland and seven other states that were previously behing the Iron Curtain – a bridge meant to end the division between the two Europes, possibly for good. But the economic crisis, the refugee crisis and terroris attacks have shown the governments’ incapacity to coordinate and solve those issues that impact on the lives of millions of Europeans. A long wave starting with the rejection of the European Constitution in 2005 and ending with the recent British referendum, has resulted in the return of radical nationalism on our continent. While the European Youth Parliament is growing stronger and healthier, the European Union has been paralysed by an existential crisis. Why is that? The secret behind the success of the EYP is based on a fair balance between the principle of regional representation and a truly European space within the organisa-
tion. On one side, the International Sessions are balanced so that every region of Europe is represented by the participants – on the other side, the selection for every spot is based on talent, and there are no national vetos for the highest positions in the European network. This means that, with dedication, anyone can become what they dream, no matter where they come from. There are no small or big countries, just people. We see dedicated EYPers from all over Europe, and some of the most lively communities come from the Eastern European countries, many of which are often given a little say in this government-led European Union. The European Youth Parliament is a unique organisation: it does not require you to take stances you do not agree with – it is not a roleplay. It is, in its own way, an experiment of transnational direct democracy: citizens across Europe discuss as Europeans, debate and vote on the issues that their continent face. In these turbulent times, young people can still meet, debate, have fun, bond , forge friendships and fall in love. No frontiers other than their own personal stop them. This is Europe in the making. This is the European Youth Parliament.
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The European Youth Parliament is a unique organisation: it does not require you to take stances you do not agree with – it is not a roleplay. It is, in its own way, an experiment of transnational direct democracy.
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FEARLESS ANS VAN GASSE
The 14th of July, 2016. Day of the Bastille. Nice. The first in a seemingly endless line of terrorist attacks on hot summer nights had been executed. Or at least we thought so. In fact, July had already been a month of boiling conflict since day one. A shooting in Dhaka of Islamic State was the most pressing in a series of simultaneous bloodbaths across the world. Western Europe seemed not to bat an eye and remained largely negligent until the firework drama in France. A symbolic attack on Western values, we all said in a state of shock. However, had we forgotten about Paris or Brussels? Of course we hadn’t. They were on to us, attack after attack. Nevertheless, many seemed to forget that the Islamic State region is in fact suffering far more. Day after day is filled with gunshots, hostage – keeping and bombings in a country like Iraq. We all proudly declare our sympathy for Paris by changing our profile pictures, however newspapers remain silent on the everyday horrors of
living in the Middle East. Contrastingly, general opinion does not seem to deny the gravity of the situation. While it is obviously incredibly complicated to report something that is almost systematically happening, the European public would benefit from a higher level of information in the field.
We saw logic in it even though the conflict had far surpassed religious motivations. Nevertheless, extensive use of social media and Western funding have reinforced the presence of terror. Like venom it slowly encroaches upon European land. This can be described best as a plan that backfired: rebellious groups received support After Nice, reporting on terror- in hopes of paving the way to deism rose: timelines of all the gory mocracy. bits and details were posted in newspapers and screened on tel- We are accommodating. Fear, evision. It decreased just as easily, for some people, has become a however, when Europe went back genuine state of mind. War, for to being a relative safe haven. A the world, has become a genuine story from a faraway land turned state of being. We accept a coninto a reality that was disturbing- tinuous flow of casualties and ly close to home in the blink of an therefore skip to the most shockeye. The Middle East, on the oth- ing ones, the ones where we feel er hand, was never entirely safe. completely innocent. We are Continuous religious conflict has however no longer innocent and been prevalent ever since Islam the conflict has already started eswas established, as the opposi- calating long ago. There should be tion between Sunnites and Shiites no surprise. There should be inforis said to have emerged right after mation. The feeling of habit may Mohammed’s death. There was not prevent us from striving for a never a real overpowering major- full view and an understanding of ity, causing the conflict to contin- what has become, in fact, our surue existing. The world was aware. roundings.
WAWEL ROYAL CASTLE ZAMEK KRÓLEWSKI NA WAWELU 18
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