Laax Magazine

Laax Magazine 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Contents

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Editorial

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Forewords to Sustainability

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Re-Think, Re-Act, RECYCLE

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Laax 2016: We Were Sustainable

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Think.

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All or Nothing

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This is Your Reality

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Nora: I Can and I Will

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Sustainable Cities

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What Does Your House Say About You

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State of Emergency

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Feel Good Fashion

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The Plastic State

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The Journey

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Behind the Screens

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Shifting the Energy Norm

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Discovering Laax

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

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Dangers of Laax

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Speak in One, Think in Another

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From AFCO to PECH

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Day of Franka

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So You’ve Missed the Morning Workout...

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U+I

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Popping Bubbles

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Inside the International Office

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History of Sustainability

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Travelling vs Sightseeing

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What Laax is

Media Team of Laax 2016: Journalists: Alyona Vyshnevska, Amber Davy, Andreas Loutzidis, Annemari Sepp, Jasmin Mylläri, Josephine Heinzelmann, Kaisa Virolainen, Luca Draisci, Lukas Burnar, Marsel Szopinski, Matthew Gibbons, Samuel Hönle, Tamer Özgen, Tommy Mallen, Weronika Betta. Editorial Assistants: Klára Scholleová & Sabrina Mellerowic. Editors: Karin-Liis Lahtmäe & Waltter Roslin

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Editorial Dear reader, You hold in your hands the collection of thoughts of participants of Laax 2016 - the 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament. This magazine was created with the sole purpose of documenting the ‘Laax experience’ and showcasing the variety of Laax’ theme – sustainability.

If you are driven enough to read through all 50+ pages of content, you will find yourself taken on a journey that aims to expand your understanding of sustainability; helps bridge the experience that the ‘EYP you’ had with the experiences of the ‘you back at home’; and, most importantly, has you relive everything that Laax was and is.

We sincerely hope you keep this behemoth of unsustainability, only to be supported, inspired and motivated to do better, be better.

And EYP does that - makes you be better without you realising it. The amount of appreciation coming your way in the form of smiles, hugs, high fives, applause, thank yous, is too much for a heart to contain. Appreciation spills over, over to new people waiting to be appreciated.

As Editors, we cannot but appreciate the people around us. The people have not only embodied the collective vision of Laax 2016 and provided the content, but have supported, inspired and motivated one another and us along the way. We are in gratitude to our team: Alyona, Amber, Andreas, Annemari, Jasmin, Josephine, Kaisa, Klára, Luca, Lukas, Marsel, Matthew, Sabrina, Samuel, Tamer, Tommy and Weronika.

We would like to thank the officials who directly contributed to making this magazine possible: Michal (Cookie), Caspar, Gioia, Mahaut, Tom, Lucius, Kate, David, Lukas, Martti, Anya, Nora (Norita) and Franzi.

In EYP, we appreciate, we appreciate a lot. We hope that our magazine will remind you to take this appreciation back home with you.

Live, Love and Laax.

K&W 4

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Forewords to Sustainability Sustainability by itself means nothing. Sustainability needs context.

Sustainability is mostly understood in an environmental context, and Laax 2016 puts an even stronger focus on this understanding of the term. In this context, when we say that something is sustainable, we usually mean that its environmental impact is smaller than the one of its alternatives, or that it even has a positive impact. It can be used to describe large-scale projects and abstract concepts. But sustainability does not only mean hydroelectricity, smart cities and a well-functioning public transportation network. Small actions, actions that you might not even actively think about, also have a sustainability aspect to it. Sustainability also means closing the tap, using a reusable cup and actually taking the train instead of the car.

While there is this almost automatic association with environmental issues at the sound of the word “sustainability�, the term itself is much more versatile than it might seem at first sight. One could even argue that there is a sustainability aspect to lit-

Samuel HĂśnle

erally everything. The concept of thinking about the impact of actions in the long term and on a bigger scale is applicable to much more than just the environmental context.

Managing knowledge sustainably by maintaining a database of guides and best practices can be a great advantage for any company or organisation. A diary can be a form of sustainable experience management, and museums and theatres could be seen as the result of sustainable culture.

In order to create truly innovative ideas for a sustainable future, we need to reevaluate sustainability itself. We need to deepen our understanding of sustainability in the environmental context. We need to go through our daily lives with open eyes. We need understand abstract concepts through concrete examples to be able to apply them to different problems. We need to broaden our understanding of sustainability, both as a term and as a concept. Because without that, sustainability means nothing.

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Re-think, Re-act,

RECYCLE

Andreas Loutzidis

It is undoubtedly true that the term sustainability and its many forms, whether in relation to economy, society or the field of management, have been increasingly used in the last few years. However, environmental sustainability, specifically recycling, claims the first place in people’s minds when speaking about sustainability.

As a result, someone may assume that recycling is adopted by the majority of people. Yet, only two out of five EU citizens regularly recycle. Why is recycling not a universal practice then? Answers to this burning issue are sought in the field of sociology, more specifically in human behaviour.

“People do not recycle because it needs a lot of energy and time from them,” emphasises Schila Labitsch (DEVE). This means that it takes much effort for someone to truly aspire to adopt recycling behaviours and implement them in real life.

It is also a matter of the availability of recycle trash bins. For example, if people want to throw away something that they know to be recyclable, but there is no recycling bin nearby, it is likely that despite their willingness to recycle, they will not go out of their way to find a special bin for recyclables.

In addition to that, many people tend to avoid recycling mainly because they claim that “nothing changes,” there is no actual impact on the environment. People may also feel that recycling does not have any added benefits to their own lives either.

Another way in which sociology helps explain behaviours relates to peer pressure. According to Schila, ‘if she is in an environment where everyone supports and implements recycling actions, it is more likely that she will recycle, too.” In a way, this has been already implemented throughout the session. In addition to the overarching session theme, concrete small and big steps have been taken to ensure that sustainability is reached. As far as recycling is concerned, the session is a paragon of how you can be sustainable.

Commenting on the session’s sustainability action plan (page 8) Mahaut Estier (Organiser) explains the rationale behind the theme implementation at the session: “This is the way how people and society can easily change. By providing the means and opening the dialogue, the participants start to reevaluate their daily habits and to ask questions.”

To sum up, it is obvious that a lot of encouragement and a supportive environment are vital to the success of making people think about adopting recycling. It is up to each and every one of us to act and transmit positive recycling behaviour patterns to the people that surround us.

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Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Laax 2016: We Were Sustainable Mahaut Estier

Laax 2016 has been all about sustainability, not only on an educational level, but also on a practical level.

The organising team utilised The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World – a compilation by the United Nations featuring small actions that a person can take on a daily basis to help reach the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The following is a list of how we, together, put them into practice.

Eating less meat.

Becoming vegetarian, or even simply reducing our meat consumption is one of the simplest and most efficient ways to have a positive impact on the world. Even if you decide to go for only one meatless day per week, you save on average 20 000 litres of water, 20 kilograms of grain, 3 square meters of forested land and the equivalent of 10 kilograms of CO2.

In Laax, more than two thirds of the officials and one third of the delegates chose to embrace the veggie pledge, when in Europe, less than 10% of the overall population is vegetarian. It means that we have all saved over 19 millions litres of water, 19 thousands kilograms of grain, 3 thousand square metres of forested land and the equivalent of 10 thousands kilograms of CO2.

Not rinsing.

If you use a dishwasher, stop rinsing your plates before you run the machine.

When the organisers arrived to Laax, they used dishwashers rather than rinsing their plates by hand!

Not printing (much).

Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees, 27 000 litres of water, 1500 litres of oil and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

In Laax, we have tried to reduce our paper consumption to the minimum, which required finding innovative ways to access the information, without having it on paper. For this reason, we also made sure that the Officials’ communication documents are available online on Mattermost and in Google Drive.

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Turnin g

off the

lights.

Turning off lights saves energy, money and it is one of the simplest habits we can include in our day-to-day lives.

This is also why this was one of the Laax Sustainability Challenges. We systematically turned off the lights whenever we walked out of the room.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Supporting brands that do not harm the environment.

During this session, we were sponsored by many sustainable companies. For example, the fashion show that you saw during the IOIF was brought to us by Mayamiko, a sustainable clothing company that empowers women from disadvantaged communities by offering fair working conditions. We were also supported by Roobars, offering the delicious vegan and organic fruit bars you might have tasted during coffee breaks, and Hauschka, a sustainable company of beauty products that provided us with gifts for session guests.

Using a refillable water bottle and coffee cup.

Every minute, over one million disposable cups are sent to landfills. To reduce this number, all of us received KeepCups sponsored by Greenstyle and we never used any disposable cups during the entire session. For every 2 coffee breaks per day with around 280 participants, we saved more than 5000 cups from being wasted.

Changing the world is not only about creating the largest sustainable company. It is not only about global challenges and big resolutions that governments must implement.

It is about us. It is about the small actions that we can do on a day-to-day basis.

tic, er, plas p a p g in Recycl luminimum. a & glass

Recycling keeps landfills from growing and protects the nature from waste, while reducing greenhouse gasses and overall mitigating climate change. In the entire resort of Weisse Arena Gruppe, there are more than 50 recycling bins that we used thoughtfully. We also creatively recycled cardboards from the local sports shop Meini Sport & Mode to create tables for the Forum Event.

Donating what you do not use.

Local charities will give your lightly used clothes, books and furniture a new life. In Laax 2016, we went a step further. We asked a local bakery from the village to donate their leftovers for coffee breaks. This way we avoided food from getting thrown away and had the chance to taste delicious sandwiches and pastries.

If we want to change the world, we need to change our habits first. So now that Laax has ended, we hope that you will continue with those small and easy actions.

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Think.

Amber Davy

It is right there, clearly typed out on the previous page. A simple outline of the little actions we can take to help further our collective efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. None of them are overly challenging – in fact, they seem somewhat too easy given the lofty aim they are trying to accomplish. Living a sustainable life is more than possible. And with the stakes so high, why is it not everyone’s number one priority?

Simply being in Laax seems to induce this connectivity with our surroundings - the crisp air; the high reaching mountains; the pure, vibrant lakes. There’s no other way to put it – it is absolute-

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ly breathtaking. The surroundings inspire this sense of responsibility to do all we can to preserve this beauty. It is provoking us to think about our actions and the impact they have on our environment.

But this is not our default mindset.

Our Laax experience is a world away from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. Away from the tranquillity of the mountainside, can we honestly say that we are as considerate of our Earth when the particular part of it we see is not as aesthetically pleasing?

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Think.

Is it that our priorities Are out of kilter With the ideal harmony of Laax Juxtaposing the values and rush of the life we are accustomed to Do we not feel connected To the only Earth we know Are our minds so confined That our mental headlights cannot shine Past the consequences of here and now Leaving shrouded in shadow The burdens that will become our legacy Because long hot showers feel nice And the light switch is all the way over there And cheap packaged meat is quick and tasty It’s not like we are bludgeoning to death The quarter of a million people Who will die between 2030 and 2050 As a result of climate change 250,000 is just another predicted statistic And how can taking the time to separate our paper from our plastic Actually change the course of this planet Any attempts are surely futile And this 100 miles an hour lifestyle That characterises our modern existence Has no pity for future statistics.

Think.

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ALL OR NOTHING

Matthew Gibbons

I’m not a vegan, but I wish I were.

To me there is no good reason to eat meat – it’s not nutritionally necessary, it does incredible damage to the environment, I consider industrial farming to be inhumane – the list goes on. But in the face of endless evidence telling me to change my diet, I cover my ears, fill my mouth with steak and reassure myself with my mantra: “I’m not a vegetarian”.

“Of course I’m not a vegetarian,” I tell myself, “I’m a student, I can’t afford it; I don’t know how to cook vegetarian food; I eat more than vegetarians, I need the meat as part of my diet, and anyhow, I’m not one of those stuckup, self-absorbed vegans.” And in that moment, I let go of any responsibility for what I eat. Satisfied, I accept that I can’t become a vegetarian, it’s just too hard – and with that I sink into the comfortable delusion that since I’m not a vegetarian I can eat as much meat as I want and not worry about the consequences.

This delusion came crashing down upon my arrival in Laax. Faced with a mostly vegetarian diet, I came to realise that not only were my reasons for rejecting veganism largely unfounded, there was a bigger issue at the core of my dietary choices. I was giving myself the right to eat as much unethically produced, environmen12

tally unsustainable meat as I wanted by hiding behind my label of “Not a vegetarian”. Ten days of interesting, varied and delicious veggie meals, although not fully able to convert me to veganism, certainly opened my eyes to a profound truth: The world is not divided into vegans and non-vegans. By not labelling yourself as a vegetarian, you do not excuse yourself from carefully considering the impact of your diet. Choosing locally sourced produce over imported, cutting out meat maybe once or twice a week, using less meat in some dishes, all of these tiny additions to a non-vegetarian’s life are crucial to bringing about lasting, positive change.

But despite how easy and ultimately rewarding it is to make these simple changes, the vast majority of people never even stop to consider them. We are so comfortable in our category of “non-vegetarians” that we feel we are entitled to eat whatever we want, whenever we want and not worry about the damage we’re doing. We even go so far as to belittle the few people who do attempt to compromise, labelling those who only eat fish or reject red meat as “not real vegetarians”. This perception of our dietary choice as “all or nothing” is not only incorrect, but harmful to both ourselves and our environment.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

But this is not an issue limited to vegans versus non-vegans. As human beings we have a tendency to divide people into opposing camps, to treat the world as a black and white canvas; we assign ourselves to a category and self-examination screeches to a halt. We relinquish all responsibility because it’s someone else’s problem: I’m not a feminist so I don’t need to worry about gender equality; I’m not a human rights activist, so I don’t have to worry about torture camps. By treating those who disagree with us as “other” we distance ourselves from the most pressing issues of our time and blind ourselves to the small changes we could be making to tackle these problems.

This might not seem like a significant issue – surely people can’t do too much damage by just picking sides? But by never examining the decisions we make, by leaving dietary responsibility to the vegans and gender equality to the feminists, we eliminate the overwhelming benefits that minor, almost unnoticeable changes to our lives could have. You don’t have to go radical to change the world; if everyone just considered the spectrum of options available to them, we could each find a compromise which is both best for us and best for our society.

So, now that we have returned from Laax after ten days of living a more sustainable lifestyle, it is time for us to reject this “all or nothing” mentality. Our choices are not monochrome, we cannot divide our world into broad “either/or” categories; we must consider the spectrum of choices available in every aspect of our life, be it our diet, our clothing, our commute, our elected officials. We have to maximise the good we can do, while also taking our personal circumstances into account.

Maybe you have dietary requirements which prevent you from going full vegan, but you can eat veggie meals once or twice a week; maybe you can’t afford to constantly donate to charity, but you can ensure that your clothing and food is ethically sourced – all of these tiny changes add up. Real change is not defined by a few dedicated people making radical decisions. Real change is small, almost unnoticed, but its strength stems from a collective sense of responsibility. Too often, we reduce our choices to all or nothing and choose the latter; it is our duty and our responsibility to find our happy medium.

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This is your Reality Annemari Sepp “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll

“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.” Markus Zusak

You go to school, attend classes, work, go home, have dinner, study, sleep, repeat.

This is the norm for most of us before reaching the destination. But, now you are here.

Here in EYP. Your life will never be the same as it used to be. Before going to your first session, you may have never even heard of EYP. You may not have known anyone here.

During the sessions we meet many new people. We befriend them, we have fun with them, and then we say goodbye. We spend some of the happiest days of our lives at sessions. We feel the hype, we feel the vibes and the easiness of life. Out of nowhere we are confronted with friendships we never thought were possible.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” Edgar Allan Poe

“The language of friendship is not words but meanings.” Henry David Thoreau

Your first memories of EYP could be the registration desk, smiling people, a feeling of fear and confusion. Maybe you can recall the very first name game you played.

Whatever your first memory is, it is one of the most important ones - this is the moment where a brand new era of your life started. It is just like a dream, a wonderful dream so hard to believe.

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The people we meet come from all over Europe. We speak different languages, we have different beliefs, different backgrounds. But after all, we are all here. We are here for a common goal - to have an impact, to make a difference. We do not need to speak the same language; we speak the language of friendship and European values.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” Henry David Thoreau We go back home, we chat, we Skype. We keep in touch. We might see each other again at another session, we might visit each other somewhere far from home. We say we will never grow apart. We make promises we cannot keep, convinced that our friendships will last for eternity. We hope to stay here and never leave. Europe has grown bigger than we ever could have known, no longer confined within the boundaries of our own worlds.

“Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.” Ally Condie Yet there comes a day when we have not talked for weeks, for months or even years.

We go to new sessions, find new friends. It all starts again. We get to a point where our lives are more than EYP. We have jobs, our own homes, and our own hopes. We grow up. But there is something that always remains – it is the people we have met, the moments we have had, the memories we have kept.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T. S. Eliot But we still keep on going. We move on until we are there. That moment when we find OUR people, and the friendship that sees us through the years. The kind of friendship where we know more about each other than anybody else. We develop trust and mutual understanding. We are no longer just acquaintances who make small talk to break the awkward silence. We could be together for hours without speaking and still have everything said. We are there. We have reached our destination.

We are creators of eternity.

“The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke This is the magic of EYP. This is our dream.

This our time to be. Embrace the moments we have had. Appreciate the people you have met and the challenges you have gained from. Bring with you all that you have learned. While the time for sessions may be over, the potential to create eternal friendships remains. The impossible dream is no longer a dream. This is your reality.

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Nora: I can and I will

Marsel Szopinski

You might have asked yourself, or might have been asked by others, why are you in Laax. Mostly, you would think of academic or personal aspirations, forging friendships, stepping out of your comfort zone, to name several reasons. However, what you might be forgetting is that we are here thanks to one particular individual: Nora Wilhelm.

Who is Nora? In three words: hopeful, empathetic and passionate. The 23-yearold was a visionary long before the session. Her origins lie in the Swiss-German part of Switzerland, in the canton of Argovia. At the age of five, her family moved to Geneva, which substantially influenced her life and who she is as a person. Growing up bilingual in such a remarkably international environment, she started to become the change she wanted to see in the world. At 15, the former president of EYP Switzerland went through her first hippie phase, getting involved in various forms of volunteering.

Eventually, she ended up in the European Youth Parliament in 2011.

3 years later, our story starts in Peru, 2014: Nora kept dreaming about organising an International Session and yet, after long nights of inner indecisiveness during her exchange year, decided to give up on Laax.

The venue itself was a perfect match long before Nora decided to head-organise Laax 2016. At first, she contemplated hosting a

Forum and actually wanted to someone else to lead the project. No one was willing to take on the challenge. No one but Nora.

Despite the lack of immediate support, the miraculous thought of making Laax come true stuck with her. Nora prioritised Laax over her Bachelor’s thesis, which made it even more difficult for her family to understand her dream. It is not uncommon that people – family members, friends – outside of EYP do not understand the concept behind the organisation, especially when there is no financial revenue involved. Not only was her family sceptical, but so were the alumni of EYP Switzerland. Back then, it seemed ridiculous to host an International Session in the Swiss Alps, away from civilisation. Logistical questions about venues, sponsors, media coverage and experts annihilated the vision. Against all odds, Nora did not give in to the harsh critique, pursuing the following maxim: “I can and I will.” Looking back on the scepticism, she is satisfied in a positive way. Laax is not about

proving anything to anyone, it is about making dreams become reality.

Therefore, Nora sent in her bid, following the call of the International Office, in which she had to outline the budget, the session theme, the venues, as well as the fundraising strategy. The application was then closely scrutinised and, and at last, accepted by the Governing Body. Overall, the process is similar to applying as a Head-Organiser to a National Session, even though it involves EYP on an international level and more precise examination. Having gone through this procedure, Nora is now at the final stage of her project. “I am just deeply grateful,” she sighs contentedly. One tip for future Head-Organisers: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their

dreams.” Nora herself will take a break from EYP and finish her Bachelor’s degree. Her future in the European Youth Parliament remains vague and unclear, however, she can imagine joining a session sometime soon.

Comparing Laax to the growth of a magnificently unique flower seems highly accurate, from the little seed Nora has planted, we have made it all the way to witness this extravagant bloom. The only minuscule, but crucial difference is that this flower will never wilt. As long as we exist, we will pass on the perpetual blossom, with our lives forever changed.

Sustainable Cities Samuel Hönle

Today, more people than ever live in cities, which requires innovative solutions to tackle unprecedented problems regarding population density. Sustainability is a part of urban planning in most cities, but some are more successful in reaching their goals than others.

The phenomenon of urbanisation has become more present since the industrial revolution. Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas.

The UN even estimates that figure to rise to two thirds by 2050. Cities account for three fourths of global energy consumption and produce more than half of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The high population density in cities and the large number of people lead to unprecedented problems, as the needs and resource requirements of people are concentrated in one area.

Urban sustainability is part of the concept of Smart Cities. A city is “smart” if it gathers knowledge about itself and is able to use it. In the context of sustainability,

this could mean a traffic management system that connects to cars and adjusts their route according to traffic, leading to smaller fuel consumption and less pollution. Other aspects of an environmentally sustainable city include efficient supply of water and electricity, or other forms of energy. It is also vital that a city’s buildings be sustainable both in their construction and purpose.

Many cities make an effort to be sustainable. In Sweden, many cities have innovative approaches to sustainability. Stockholm, which was topped only by Zurich in this year’s Sustainable Cities Index, collects the body heat of commuters in its central train station and uses it to heat a nearby building. Bicycle-sharing systems

have been set up in many European cities, such as Paris, Vienna, Berlin. To incentivise taking aspects of environmental sustainability into account when constructing new buildings, the city of Frankfurt, Germany, is one of the sponsors of the “Green Building Award”.

Smaller communities, like the Flims Laax Falera region, can also make an effort to be sustainable. In this region, recycling and renewable energy is emphasised and the Weisse Arena Group, which is managing the region and hosting Laax 2016, incorporate their “Greenstyle” policy in all aspects of their work. In the skiing region of Laax, slopes, lifts and snow production are managed sustainably to reduce the amount of water and electricity needed and to minimise the impact on nature.

Sustainability in cities is not only about the environment. Especially for the urban society, a sustainable culture is a big contribution to the quality of life. A part of sustaining a city’s culture is the conservation and reusage of historic build-

ings. Cultural institutions, like museums and theatres, also contribute to sustaining a city’s culture and are, thus, worth investing in. Being a hub for businesses and services, a smart city can also contribute to the economic sustainability of its businesses by creating and implementing necessary legislation.

Across Europe, there are many cities with a focus on sustainability or a specific aspect of it.

Even though there is a lot of room for improvement in the implementation of urban sustainability projects, the existing measures taken in some cities should not be overlooked. The next time you walk through another city or your own neighbourhood, look around with open eyes – maybe you will notice some features of a smart and sustainable city.

What Does Your House Say About You Luca Draisci & Annemari Sepp

Everybody knows that it is warmer in the sun than in the shadow, but only a few actually think about the reason behind it. Reto Gurtner, the mastermind behind Rocksresort, is one of those few. He questioned the classical heating system, where the air is being heated, and tried to work around it. What he came up with was a infrared heating system which allows the user to control heating faster, cheaper and more efficiently. This is only one of the examples how he has changed the way the resort in Laax works and increases its sustainability.

Why should we care about a building or about how we build it? A building is never just a building. A building is the shape of the space where we spend more than 70% of our lives, and it is undeniable that this, in turn, has an influence on how we feel, work and interact with one another. Reto told us a lot about the resort and the work he put into its design and its management: the starting point of every building is its design and the starting point of every design is the planning behind it. Looking back at buildings from the industrial revolution of the 1800s or the more recent days of authoritarian regimes in Europe and Asia, what we see is buildings tailored to their purpose which rarely or never take into account their environment nor the water or energy resources close to them. If designed today, public housing in Beijing and St. Petersburg would probably look very different from each other.

A simple example of energy conscious site planning is what happens in temperate climates, where windows are positioned to the south to maximise passive solar heating and the surrounding environment becomes a functional part of the building. In fact, 20

broadleaved trees are used to shade the house in the summer and let sun radiation heat it in the winter, while evergreen trees planted north of the house can provide shelter from the cold winds.

When we realise that each house should fit its environment and that its design should be tailored not only to its function, but also to its energetic and environmental needs, we should start thinking about what happens inside the house. In office buildings or skyscrapers what often happens is that the centralised heating system evenly supplies the whole building, wasting most of that precious energy; if buildings can’t have “one size fits all� solutions, neither can their floors. Some of the most recent heating systems heat each floor differently, receiving data from them and processing it in a central databank stored inside the building.

These smart heating systems manage to calculate how to heat an area by combining its orientation in relation to the sun, its occupancy, the purpose it serves, its ventilation and, most of all, its temperature. Thanks to these measures, each floor has a personalised heating plan.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

When managing energy and heating, one of the main factors is insulation; in fact, the materials used in a building have a huge impact on its sustainability factor.

Of course it is important to use feasible materials that connect with the usage of the building and support the technical needs, but the question is where the materials come from and what has been sacrificed or exploited in order to get it.

Unsustainable solutions can be found everywhere, but thankfully there are many organisations out there to show the way and change the future. For example, in Nicaragua most of the houses are built using a cement and iron frame, but in their climate such houses are not needed. That is where Bambu Social comes into play – they teach the local communities how to build houses from widespread bamboo and use local instead of imported materials.

Bringing new knowledge to communities and taking their needs into account has a lot of power and that is something architects have to take into account when constructing a house in today’s world. It is vital to learn to know the end user and adjust to their lifestyles. People and cultures are different and the ways we are used to live differ a lot. The collective mindset of the Chinese might not appeal to the individuality of the Finnish, strong family connections in Turkey would maybe not mean as much to the French. These differences imply how large living rooms should be, how many people should live in the same house and if bedrooms can be shared. If all these matters are taken into account, architecture could just as well take us one step closer to cultural sustainability.

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e t a St of gency r e Em Ta

I was travelling from Friedrichstrasse in Berlin to my friend’s place when a sudden feeling came to my mind. I felt very secure and comfortable, which was something that I had been lacking in the overcrowded public transport vehicles of İstanbul for the past couple of months. The next day, my plane, which was heading to Istanbul from Berlin, had to turn back over Romania because of the state of emergency at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. If we had been there an hour before, I probably would not be writing these sentences.

“I love my country but if I had to choose between Turkey and any other European country, I would choose the latter,” says one of the Turkish delegates here in Laax 2016. Unfortunately, he is not the only one who thinks the same way among the Turkish people. The youth feel detached from their country and would consider escaping at first chance. “If I cannot make my voice heard by anyone at the top, why should I bother anymore?” is their justification.

This is also caused by the overly polarised public environment. “If you do not 22

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choose a side, you are not going to survive,” said President Erdogan two years ago. When the options are choosing or leaving, leaving outweighs. Even the Greeks claiming Baklava (a dessert) for themselves cannot unite the Turkish people anymore.

Tourism and trade are receiving their share of the misfortune from the situation as well. Because of the plane incident between Russia and Turkey, the amount of Russian tourists, which constituted around 50% of all the foreign tourists to Turkey, dropped by 96%.

This has been a huge hit on the Turkish economy and many stores in the popular tourist areas are on the verge of bankruptcy. This economic unsustainability does not help things along.

While the situation is already severe itself, the Turkish delegation in Laax 2016 do not think that international media objectively reflect on what is happening. Coverage of Turkish news is very likely to be one-sided since the events, such as the coup attempt two months ago, are already quite contro-

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

versial. Since there is a lack of information as to who was in charge of which events, the criterion of objectivity is difficult to meet. “You cannot understand it without living in it,” says a Turkish delegate. However, whether the Turkish people understand what is happening or not is another question.

There is one more thing that makes it even worse for the youth. EYP Turkey had to cancel two big events this year because of security reasons. “It hurts when you come up with an idea, see it grow from nothing to something and it gets cancelled at the last minute. It is like losing a child,” says one of the Head-Organisers of the Istanbul Youth Forum that was cancelled. This is just one of the many examples, however, it harms the pinnings of social sustainability that active Turkish youth have worked hard to build and maintain.

Despite all the negative facts, the Turkish youth can still see a brighter future. The international support they got from the EYP community has shown them that they are not alone

in this fight against disruptive behaviour, ignorance and radicalism - all that harms social sustainability. Adding to this, most believe that the situation is temporary. “While the situation may seem dire and little optimism resides in many of all generations, there is still hope in Turkey. There are still those willing to speak out and be heard, in the nation and abroad – both Turks and other world citizens. What is needed is a societal shift: one which breaks away from conformity and chooses to embrace all the beauty which the Turkish society hosts: hospitality, family and pride in your actions and your community. After all, it was on these notions that the nation was founded,” says one of the Vice-Presidents, who spent six months in Turkey and had the chance to get acquainted with the Turkish culture from a closer perspective. I think there is still belief that once these suggestions come into action, the state of beauty will take over the state of emergency.

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Feel Good Fashion Kaisa Virolainen

The fashion industry is claimed to be the second most polluting industry in the world and many textile companies are accused of exploiting their workers. However, it does not necessarily need to be so. Ethical fashion and conscious shopping are getting easier and easier for the consumer as different sustainable alternatives gain ground and visibility.

Fashion and clothing are relevant to each and every one of us. We all need clothes. They are a physical necessity without which it would be hard to stay warm when the mercury soars, but to many also an important way of showing who we are; items that reflect our personalities and, thus, reinforce our identities. Besides, who does not want to look good?

The expansive and cheap collections of various brands are sometimes so tempting that we almost cannot afford not to buy them. When you see the clothes hanging at your local store, it is easy to forget that the pieces we wear today are not just part of our lives, but also have an impact – if not even a greater one – on the lives of the people at the other end of the supply chain.

Garment workers in third world countries, the majority of whom are women (and girls), work in unsafe conditions. In 2004, a textile factory building in Bangladesh collapsed because the owner had illegally built three additional floors and installed heavy textile machinery there. As a result, more than 1100 workers died.

In some cases, the workers in factories are forced to work long days with minimum wage and are, thus, not able to access edu24

cation and work their way out of poverty.

Inhumanity in the fashion industry is a serious issue. But fortunately, a total refusal of consumption or giving millions to charity are not the only possible ways to help to challenge the status quo.

UK-based brand Mayamiko is an example of fashion with a good conscience. The brand was established in 2013 and it provides its customers with ethically made colourful and contemporary clothes, accessories and homeware with an African vibe.

The items are manufactured by Malawi women in workshops where they are provided with education and vocational skills in a way that benefits the whole local community.

The founder, Paola Masperi, has always loved dressing up and has a great interest in and respect for human rights. The evolvement of fast fashion, however, made her struggle to reconcile her passions. It was about ten years back when she was working in Africa on several projects completely unrelated to fashion - that the idea of partnering with local women was born. The charity trust first started off by supporting local tailors in their own businesses and selling items to external retailers, and then, little by little, grew in size to work under its own name.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

‘Mayamikans’, as the people working with the brand like to call themselves, work with local communities and churches. They spread awareness about their 6-month-long courses, to which women can apply by filling in an A4 sheet. After the selection process that prioritises those who are in need the most, women come to live in the Mayamiko community. They are taught about entrepreneurship and how to produce high quality garments, while earning a reasonable salary. At the end of the course, women can apply for a grant to start their own business or enter the workforce with competent abilities.

Although Mayamiko has helped women in Malawi, there are many people all over the world still working in unfair conditions. In tackling unfair conditions, with sustainable fashion being a relatively new and nonuniversal term, it is difficult for the producers to consider all the criteria and sort out their priorities regarding sustainability. For example, Mayamiko does not use organic cotton because there is no organic cotton cultivation in Malawi. The material would need to be imported from elsewhere and, thereby, would not benefit the community. In this

case, buying local is something that the brand values more. Their general guideline to sustainable fashion is to maximise the positive impact on people and minimise the negative impact on the environment.

The attention for sustainable fashion has been on the up-and-up in recent years.

Consumers are interested in vintage and secondhand shopping and the fashion market offers more fair trade designs than a few years ago. At the other end of the supply chain, technological innovations have multiplied and the use of end-of-life textiles has become more efficient. As common values move towards a more socially responsible mindset, maybe someday in the future it will be impossible to be successful in a business without it being set up and operated ethically and sustainably.

We can make choices that, instead of exploiting, benefit all the aspects of the product’s lifespan. Shopping sustainably does not only make you look, but also feel good. The world can indeed be changed one T-shirt at a time.

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The Plas

“Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.” - William James, Habit (1890).

There are a lot of aspects of Laax that do not come naturally for most of us; partaking in morning sports, being diligent in recycling, considering in depth how ‘sustainability friendly’ our actions are. While we might get into the rhythm of it over the course of the session, we are more than likely not going to be salsa-ing like Aritz Labrador (Organiser) every morning upon returning home. Habits, both good and bad, take time to form.

William James, an American philosopher, argues that a life is built upon the foundation of our early choices. Any task we undertake that is out of kilter with this initial foundation will prove near impossible. It is not what we are fitted for, and it is too late to remould ourselves. Perhaps it is for the best, he writes. Habit keeps society in order. Just as well, then, that by the time most of us emerge from our twenties, ‘the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.’

Waking up early to exercise, eating food that nourishes us, taking time to be mindful – none of these are mighty tasks. They are little things, easy to do and not time consuming. The benefits are obviously worth it – so why do we not practice them religiously? It is tough to garner a habit, yet even tougher once we have grown into our lifestyle.

stic State We are lucky. Our characters have not yet set. We are in the Plastic State – still forming the habits that will define our future selves. We are running out of time, however, to tweak the foundation upon which we wish to build our character. If there are any habits we would like to incorporate into this foundation, we should probably get a move on learning them.

Amber Davy

so concerned with this? Are we trying to work out how much effort something will take, and weigh up whether or not suffering through morning runs before they feel natural to us is worth it?

Maybe it takes 21 days for you to adjust to keeping a journal, or spending more time outdoors than watching Netflix. Maybe it takes 254. Does it really matter? Effort on But how long does it take? 21 days, appar- our behalf is required in any case. What ently. matters is getting started.

In 1960, Maxwell Maltz concluded from observing himself and his patients that it takes a ‘minimum of 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.’ He published this observation in ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’, which took the psychology book market by storm and became a bestseller. Hopeful self-help gurus latched onto this catchy statement, the ‘minimum’ became lost, and the 21 day myth became commonly accepted in society.

Aristotle proclaimed, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Every one of us here at Laax has a unique impression of what excellence is. What we are all striving towards, who we wish to become, is a very personal concept. If we are the sum of our actions, ‘walking bundles of habits’, then it is only ourselves we are letting down should our actions not correlate with our vision of personal excellence. We shall not wake up one day several years from now and magically be satisfied with who Numerous other studies have been con- we are. Rather, we must establish habits ducted since that attempt to identify aligned with our vision, and must give exactly how long it takes to form a new ourselves the best possible foundation habit. One of those studies, conducted from which to start. in University College London, found that people needed anywhere from 18 days to 254 days to get into the swing of a new routine. All these studies only point towards one thing – there is no magic number that denotes exactly how long learning a habit takes. But why are we 27

The Journey Lukas Burnar & Kaisa Virolainen

Franziska Maier got drawn to EYP by a friend years ago. Right before her first session, the 17-year-old high school girl from the little German village of Backnang was about to cancel because a party was taking place the same weekend, but loyalty towards her friend made her stick to the initial plan. Now, eight years later, that same girl is the President of the 83th International Session of EYP in Laax, has spent hundreds of hours working in the board of EYP Germany and been to more than forty sessions. The journey that is now coming to an end has been miscellaneous and full of surprises, but there isn’t a thing she would change about it.

We ask Franzi to start her EYP biography from the very beginning: what was her first session like? She smiles and says that the clearest memory is from the session party, where she and her friend lost their shoes and spent the better half of the party looking for them. “It is a classical EYP story because very random things happen, they are not necessarily special, but somehow they become very fun and kind of crazy,” Franzi says thinking back on her best EYP memories.

During the interview there are many moments when Franzi spontaneously bursts out in laughter. She sips tea from her KeepCup, listens carefully to the questions and sometimes pauses to contemplate her answers. The conversation fluctuates from light to more serious themes, but there is one feature that does not change: Franzi’s smile. Her counterparts in EYP describe her as a warm-hearted, open-minded and an approachable person, and one can definitely see why. She inspires and encourages and has the ability to make everyone around her feel comfortable.

Whilst Franzi has influenced many people throughout the years, other people have also played a major role in her own EYP life. In her own words, she was not a very well prepared delegate in the beginning and it was rather the people (than the work itself) that kept her active within the organisation. She participated in an alumni weekend after her first session because she was eager to reunite with the friends she made there.

Little by little, Franzi’s mindset changed towards taking up a more proactive approach.

“I saw other people do something and I thought ‘OK, I really want to do that. I really want to be able to do what they do,’” she says referring to the board members of one of the sessions. Despite not getting selected to an International Session, she carried on in EYP, organising the German Nationals a year later.

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She also got involved in her National Committee and has worked in all positions at sessions, except as a Jury Member.

However, the years have not been only rainbows and butterflies. Along the way, Franzi has encountered many ups and downs that have sometimes pushed her to the edge. “Of course there are moments when you are sitting on your dorm room floor at 4 am at night and you are thinking why on earth am I doing this,” she tells and laughs, “but I think that in the end it was always worth it.”

Being involved in EYP tends to give us more than we might notice at first. Besides being a platform to discuss topical issues and exchange ideas with fellow Europeans, EYP is a great opportunity to challenge ourselves, take responsibility and develop as a person. “I think that now, looking back after eight years of EYP, it means kind of growing up in a way, learning about yourself, learning more about what you are able to do and also learning about your own limits,” Franzi agrees. For her, EYP means looking beyond your own horizon and seeing things from different perspectives.

“But I think [it is] also meeting a lot of other people who make a difference in your life,” she adds.

In 2014, after two years as the President of EYP Germany, Franzi thought that it was time to kiss EYP goodbye. However, a surprising yet tempting invitation to preside the International Forum in Amsterdam got her to stay in the game. The Head-Organiser of the forum wanted to increase interactivity and collaboration in EYP sessions, not only between the different Officials’ teams and delegates, but also to connect the session to the external world.

This was one of the only things that had also bothered Franzi in the functioning of EYP. “It [the forum] kind of made me realise that there is still room for trying out a lot of new things and developing EYP a bit further,” she says.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Some of the ideas from Amsterdam are now implemented and even further developed in Laax, a session which is Franzi’s very last one.

Franzi was attracted by the general mindset of Laax IS right from the first moment she heard about it. “The session is viewed less as four separate teams that have their specific roles, but more as a holistic whole, where stuff/everything flows back and forth,” she describes the collaborative vision of Laax.

She also shares a personal attachment to the surroundings – her family had once gathered here for a family reunion.

When asked for a message for the delegates, Franzi hesitates for a moment. “[I just kind of want people] to take good care of the connections they make here and the friendships they make here,” she says. Franzi herself has got to know many of her best friends through EYP and a few years ago she even moved to Berlin with a couple of them.

There might come a time when our EYP journeys come to an end, but that does not mean we have to let go of everything we gained from our experiences. We wish Franzi all the best for the journey upon which she embarks now.

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Behind the Screens

Tamer R. TamerĂ–zgen Ă–zgen

For the people who were following the Rio Summer Olympic Games from TV, it was all but a festive air that they were presented with for two weeks. While Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Simone Biles dominated the podiums and left Rio with a great legacy for themselves, did Rio 2016 actually leave a sustainable legacy for the people of its local residents?

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Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Every four years, around five billion people, which corresponds to 70% of the world’s population, sit in front of the screens to watch the biggest sports event of the planet, the Summer Olympic Games. For two weeks, the spotlight is on the Olympic arena, where more than 10 000 athletes compete to be the best in the world. However, while the people focus on the athletes, planet Earth struggles to fight against the environmental impact of the games.

Just one kilometre away from the Maracana Stadium, which hosted the opening ceremony of Rio 2016, this reality strikes.

Just one month before the games, half of the event venues were incomplete.

The buildings were not usable, let alone sustainable. The Olympic village workers were living and working under conditions that are similar to slavery and many of the organisers were sued by Brazilian prosecutors as a result. Rio was on the losing side even before it started. Furthermore, because Olympic traffic lines of more than a

hundred miles were implemented in the city’s roads, the traffic queues reached up to seventy-four miles during rush hours, which was an all-time record for the host city. Those lines that were open for the Olympians did not prove completely efficient in the end, since many teams were stuck in the traffic for so long that they had to start their matches without warming up. These failures got the attention of international media and put the organisers and the government under intense pressure. Combining all of this with the inherent poverty of the locals, Rio 2016 lost the game and is far from leaving a sustainable legacy for the Brazilians.

This leads us to a big dilemma; In order to make the games environmentally more sustainable, the host city’s whole infrastructure needs to be changed, as each event brings around 500 000 foreign visitors.

Apart from that, a lot of people need to be relocated for the construction of event venues, since the cities applying are usually the most densely popu-

lated in the country. This requires a considerable amount of money, money which could be spent to eradicate poverty in many regions, but instead is spent on a sports event of two weeks. In the end, governments are left with the decision to choose either environmental sustainability or political and financial sustainability. So far, no matter what they have chosen, they have always lost.

Although it seems impossible to organise the games without a political cost, there might still be hope. It is only possible if the applicants take their domestic problems into consideration and present financially more realistic bids unlike their predecessors. In the end nobody wants to pay the debts of an event that was held twenty years ago.

Hopefully with these suggestions in action, we will be able to watch a greener game someday without thinking about what is actually happening behind the screens.

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Shifting the Energy Norm It is 7am in Laax, Switzerland. The alarm clock is ringing and you reluctantly press the “snooze” button. You are so tired after several days of participating in Laax IS, but you have to get up. You turn on the lights and take a morning shower before the day starts. Next comes breakfast, with coffee machine, fridge, cooker - all greedily sucking energy from the power system.

These habits are definitely not part of most Africans’ morning ritual. Mostly due to economic development and lack of infrastructures, electricity is still considered a luxury in the biggest parts of African countries, especially in the remote areas away from big cities.

Instead, people try to find alternative ways to fulfil their daily needs, meaning that they use different ways of getting through their everyday tasks without using electricity or even not doing some of them. Pretty interesting approach but you may wonder how can this be linked to the Laax community and to the session theme “sustainability”?

One good answer could be the fact that by forcing ourselves and the international scientific community to find innovative ways to solve Africa’s problem by thinking out of (every) box, we break the barriers of what we think is possible. This leads us to ingeniously novel procedures and mechanisms of producing “clean” energy.

Once that happens, the same methods can be applied at the same or even at a bigger scale to the western world, thus saving energy and alleviate the environment of tons of less CO2 emissions. Gravity Light is one of the most characteristic examples of the above approach, revolutionizing peo34

Josephine Heinzelmann & Andreas Loutzidis

ple’s lives and providing a sustainable light solution for small rooms.

As you might have guessed, this is a device that takes advantage of gravitational forces to produce small yet useful amounts of energy. Actually, it works by hanging a weight of approximately 12kg in a height of 2 meters in a system of pulleys and as it slowly descends it produces a deciwatt of electricity, enough to power LEDs. Lifting the weight takes seconds, while the descent of the weight lasts about 20 minutes. The importance of this device is immense if only we think the consequences in people’s lives that the existing, and most popular, lighting method has: kerosine and fuel-based lamps.

Another way of how the scientific community tries to approach the energy problem - in cities this time and not restricted to Africa - is by taking advantage of the urban landscape and find possible ways of producing energy using already existing structures.

Piezoelectric surfaces couldn’t be a more suitable illustration of the above. The name itself derives from the greek verb “piezo” which means to squeeze or push and the noun “elektron” which means amber, an ancient source of electric charge.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

THE PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECT When there is no applied stress on a piezoelectric material, the positive and negative charges are evenly distributed, resulting in no potential difference (1). Placing the material under mechanical pressure, however, causes the charge balance within its crystal grid to be disturbed (2). More specifically, a shifting of the positive and negative charge centres in the material takes place, creating an electrostatic field and a potential difference (3).

Unique to the piezoelectric effect is the fact that it is reversible, meaning that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the generation of electricity when stress is applied) also demonstrate the converse piezoelectric effect (the generation of stress when an electric field is applied).

After explaining the Piezoelectric Effect and discussing its possible applications with several participants, many ideas arose. From conventional ones, such as its usage in road surfaces and train tracks, to more futuristic ones like integrating it in shoe soles and vehicles’ tires, as Angela Von Ballmoos (Organiser) and Alexa Antić (LIBE I) suggested.

The above ideas are more than achievable, especially when there are already applications just like these in some cases. Recently, a nightclub in Rotterdam actually made use of this innovative technology by installing piezoelectric material in their nightclub floor. The result was amazing, as it covered the entire energy needs for the lighting installation inside the nightclub for the night.

While new inventions and new ways of producing energy are always welcome, existing power-producing systems from renewable sources should be continually developed and improved as well. Some scientists are reinventing the traditional solar panels that turn solar light into heat and then to electricity

by changing the shape of the panels. What they found was that by changing the shape from a rectangular and two-dimensional surface to a three-dimensional sphere resulted in better solar ray concentration, thus improving the overall efficiency while having the added benefit of even collecting energy from the moon during the night hours!

THE SPHERICAL SUNPOWER GENERATOR The German architect André Broessel, along with his team at the company Rawlemon, is currently developing a technology that combines spherical geometry principles with a dual axis tracking system, yielding twice the amount of energy of a conventional solar panel. Due to its spherical shape and the fact that it is constructed of glass, it simulates the effect a large lens would have, and is thus able to concentrate sunlight and even moonlight up to 10,000 times before the light is conducted onto a sun collector.

Additionally, in the same spirit of improving current technologies, there exists a new type of tree-shaped wind generator that operates at significantly slower speeds that the conventional ones and, most importantly, it is less intrusive than the “monstrous” 50-metreblade wind turbines, thus they can be used inside the urban landscape in squares and city parks supplying the nearby city lights with clean energy.

As it can be derived from the above examples, the necessary ideas and innovation for significant changes in the energy-production field exist. Therefore, it is a matter of sensibilisation and willingness to universally put these into practice and thus strive for a more sustainable world.

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Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Discovering Laax Amber Davy Marsel Szopinski Matthew Gibbons

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If there were ever an ultimate opinion divider, it would be the Opening Ceremony. The marmite of EYP events, attitudes towards the ceremony are polarised. Some adore the inspiration they draw from guest speakers and how it captures the spirit of the Session. Others loathe the seemingly grandiose manner in which they are conducted, and spend the time counting the seconds until the transfer back from the venue. Regardless, there was one moment during the Opening Ceremony of Laax 2016 that connected parties from the entire range of the ‘OC Appreciation Spectrum’. It was during Nora Wilhelm’s speech, when she detailed the moment that the importance of EYP’s mission clicked for her; her first Map of Europe experience. And then, Opening Ceremony Enthusiasts and Detesters alike were united in recalling their first “Map of Europe moment” – whether it was from a few days prior, or a few years, the experience remains equally resonant.

Map of Europe is, for many, the first instance of realising the transcending power of embarrassment. First hand proof that awkwardness induced by spontaneous performance knows no cultural barriers. We are unified in our intrigue with the different traditions that are showcased, in our cheers of support for the lone performer, or in witnessing young people from countries in conflict team up to dance in solidarity. The sense of connecting with people from such diverse cultures for the first time is the perfect introduction to EYP and its values.

It sets us on our way to continue our journey of discovery; a journey which was already well under way.

A day prior to commencing the Map of Europe, most people had just arrived at the session. Irrespective of

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our original location, we were transported through the winding roads of the Swiss Alps by bus, until disembarking in the place that would become our home for the coming days. Still strangers, people that had yet to meet were pulled from every corner of Europe to our epicentre of dialogue and discovery. Pangs of uncertainty punctuated the waves of excitement that gripped us. But these pangs were soon subdued, replaced by an overwhelming urge to explore.

And so we explored.

We explored our surroundings during Fackelwanderung. Shrouded in darkness, our way illuminated only by torch flames, we marched uphill until the ground plateaued and we stood at the meeting point of Flims, Laax and Falera. We huddled together to shield from the cold while we looked down at the lights of the three villages.

On the walk back, we focused on the features illuminated by our torches, absorbing every detail possible and gazing at the surrounding beauty. Yet we explored more than nature. Trudging through the damp rural track, we spoke. We spoke as a group, marvelling at the place we found ourselves in, and the circumstances that led us here. We spoke one on one, about our lives, our hopes, our expectations. And there were times when we did not speak, but rather shared the silence that drifted through the trees.

Euroconcert echoed this unique closeness. Rested on the seats in the hall in Theater Chur, we marvelled at the performers on stage, as they shared with us the talents they had cultivated. While phone flashlights flickered, songs we knew and pieces we did not seemed to strike a universal chord, as we felt the strength of the passion held on the stage. The musical inspiration was not confined to Eurocon-

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

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cert however; bus journeys to and from venues were livened with renditions of personalised songs. Justin Bieber’s Baby was revamped Laax style, and belted out at the back of the bus – the perfect soundtrack to the passing mountain landscape.

While there were moments of top banter, be it the singing transfers, the dancing at parties or trying to decide which is truly the most beautiful cow, Laax was not always easy. In Committee Work, frustration seemed to become almost like another committee member – solutions did not come easily, every possible option seemed flawed and the pressure was reaching breaking point. The mountain vista stretching out of the window and the occasional bursts of laughter which cut through the discussion went some way towards easing this gnawing tension, yet it could not be ignored. However, it is not through ignoring frustration that problems were solved.

As the discussion wore on, frustration became another motivation; yes, it was difficult, yes, the issues were complex and the solutions obscure,

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but that is why we came together. No one ever said building a sustainable future would be easy.

And yet, by dealing with our frustration, by allowing it to drive us on instead of hold us back, by truly caring about people and fish, we have come through any challenge that Laax could have thrown at us. We finished Committee Work with more than a resolution; we finished with a sense of purpose, a motivation, a vision of how the world could be. Laax did more than show us the changes we could make; Laax gave us the drive to make these changes.

The opportunity to put this passion into action came at The Ideas, Opportunities and Impact Fair. Enthusiasm, inspiration and creativity reverberated around the room. Energy was high, the air buzzing with talk of innovation, of technology, of fashion. Smiling faces were captured by a photo booth; imaginations were captured by a virtual rainforest. For some it was enough to simply be present and enjoy the dynamic

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

energy of the room; for others it was a moment of epiphany: suddenly, EYP seemed less like a fantasy, where we dream big, but accomplish little; suddenly, opportunity was in the air.

Opportunity for something real, opportunity to take the ideas, skills and values we cultivate in EYP and bring them to the real world: opportunity to fuse passion and action.

It is this fusion that has been at the core of Laax since its conception: Laax has always been and will always be about making your passion a reality. It has been at the heart of every day, of every event, of every moment: the collaborative spirit of the Lobby Event; the knowledge and experience shared at the Forum Event; the display of music and culture at Eurovillage and Swiss Night – everything we have done here has been passionate, has been driven, has been idealistic yet grounded. This is the magic of Laax – taking concrete steps to reach ideals which so many dismiss as hopelessly optimistic.

The magic of Laax lies in inspiring people to take that first step, to make that small change which helps them achieve their lofty ideals.

Though the mountain’s summit seems an eternity away, this experience will act as a torch, illuminating each small step needed to get there.

It will inspire the belief that change can happen, that ideals can be realised, that a single person can make a difference. Laax has illuminated the way for each and every one of us, it is time for us to take that next step towards our distant ideal.

People may say that it is impossible, that there is no point. What they do not realise is that, although, our feet remain on the ground, in our little mountain village, our hands can still reach the stars.

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s r e g n a D of Laax Tomm

y Ma

llen

Not all is as it seems here.

Did you know you are in peril? Read on to educate yourself on the dangers surrounding you…

High in the mountains, for many of us far from where we grew up, far from where we know, we found ourselves here – Laax. Our hearts full of hope, excitement, joy and wonder, the faint traces of fear grew ever smaller as we made a home for ourselves, joyfully living with the beautiful people around us as our family. But to say the fear is gone… Is that wise? Do we give all due consideration to the dangers of where we now find ourselves?

Laax has been rife with danger. Rarely do we consider that the music may be so good that we lose ourselves to it, we give ourselves entirely to its melody and allow our bodies to move as they please, in wonderful unison with those of our friends. Even more rarely do we consider that the welcome night may end with one of us being asked to stop singing songs so enthusiastically to the ambulance crew to allow them to put us on the stretcher.

But the night is indeed dark, and full of terrors.

Similarly, we have been under constant threat of the aggressive coffee addiction

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Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

EYP spreads amongst the young people of Europe.

The toll tiredness takes after countless laughs, the ever present wearing down of our physical strength due to running, jumping, and dancing, dancing, dancing long into the night.

‘You will always remember Laax as one of the biggest leaps you’ve ever made,’ The peril, however, extends its grasp far beyond our physical wellbeing. The most dangerous thing about Laax is its ability to change you, absolutely and completely, into a person you never perhaps knew you could be. In making the journey high into the mountains, you have entered a place which you will leave differently to how you entered. You are at risk of finding a new home for yourself – a home which in certain ways you will never be able to find again in the same place, but instead in the presence of the people with whom you are now building this home. You risk changing who you think you are; the ideas, passion and love of the people join-

ing you on this jeopardous journey will creep inside you, and you will find your mind broadening against your will. You will leave burdened with new passions, the fire of ideas and lust for change and a better world will stay with you forever, whispering to you when you sleep and when you wake.

Perhaps the greatest danger of all is that after Laax, you will never be truly alone again. You will always find parts of yourself in others, in ideas, in EYP. Indeed, EYP may be the only way for you to truly express what Laax makes you feel – you have opened yourself to the torture of indescribability. But you have also opened yourself to the raw, untameable joy of shared, pure emotion.

And nothing in the world is better than that.

Morose or morbid as it may be, it has fallen to me to share these dangers with you. And loath as I am to frighten you, I must also tell you that it is too late, and you can no longer escape these perils. You are right to be afraid of the dangers of Laax. But fear makes us feel truly alive, so while you’re still here and even afterwards, do something every day that scares

you. Dance like it’s the last time you’ll get the chance.

Revel in the presence of as many of the people around you as you can and allow yourself to be changed by them, bearing in mind that it will happen whether you like it or not. The gorgeous chaos of Laax is a danger to ordinary life, but accepting these dangers and leaping into the chaos allows us to become wonderfully extraordinary together.

Yes, sometimes we’re afraid to jump, knowing that the fall is a dangerous one, but sometimes it is our destiny.

You will always remember Laax as one of the biggest leaps you’ve ever made, but even afterwards, embrace the danger of new ideas, embrace the dangers of having a voice, and above all embrace yourself and everyone else as the wonderful, boundless people that you are. Now go on; Leap.

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Speak in One, Think in Another Laax 2016 is held in a country that celebrates lingual diversity as one of its defining characteristics, finding ourselves surrounded by people that come from all sorts of cultural backgrounds from across the continent. You stop for a moment to look at the Swiss Alps with friends, and you all stare at the same landscape, overwhelmed by how beautiful it is. What is der Berg in your head, is thought of as la montagne by the person on your left, and exists as kalns in the life of the person on your right. But for some of us it is both Berg and montagne at the same time when we look at the breathtaking slopes, there is always more than one word fighting for attention.

A brain of a person brought up learning about the world around them in two languages at the same time works in a different way. Because they need to constantly switch between languages, bilinguals are better at planning complex tasks, ignoring distractions, and can be more resistant to dementia. Despite the long-term wonders, bilingual children tend to struggle at first to communicate in a single language. Miriam Aitken, an Organiser who is half Swiss, half Scottish would as a child often mix German or English words with the other’s grammar. “I would just use whichever word was in my head first,” she says.

“You use words that do not exist but just sound right because you know them from the other language,” adds Marsel Szopinski from the Media Team.

Tomas from LIBE II, a Canadian-born Austrian, admits he even made a mistake a few hours ago: “It is interesting because people think that when I speak German, I must think in German, and when I speak English, I think in English. It is not really an apparent thing, I am kind of dependable on my surroundings. It is always weird when we have friends over and I am used to speaking German with them and

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Weronika Betta

English with my family, so you have to compromise, so that they understand, but then it is a really weird feeling to suddenly speak a different language with your parents.”

Clare from LIBE I remembers not being able to name games she played as a child in Spanish, because she only knew them from her English mum: “When you are used to speaking about something in a certain language, you normally think about it in that same language. When I am cooking, because I would normally read the recipe in Spanish, I will only think in Spanish.”

Knowing more than one language exposes you to different ways of putting reality into words. Because languages are strongly tied to cultural environments, some things cannot be properly expressed in English, but can be communicated easily in Portuguese or German.

“I feel like the languages I speak have different characters in a sense,” says Marsel, “so if I want to, for example, write a poem, that same poem would have different feelings to it, different effects depending on the language.”

Miriam also thinks that different languages have the power to express different nuances: “You can give an accurate translation and it will not really have the same exact meaning.

Words have associations and so it makes it hard to translate anything exactly to a language.”

As languages can be seen as having different ‘personalities’, it is also common for multilinguals to embody certain changes when they switch between languages. Tomas has been told many times that there are apparent mood changes when he switches between languages: “Just the way I gesture things, and the way I express myself, the way I bring thoughts

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

across is completely different. I think in German I am more thoughtful, I take more time to articulate myself, while in English I can just blab on about something, I use gestures a lot more, and I am more comfortable with approaching strangers.”

Multilinguals also tend to be naturally more open and understanding towards different cultures. If you were raised in one language, if you dig deep enough into your memory, you might find a moment of realisation that there is more than one way to describe a certain thing.

But, if you were exposed to more than one universe of words from the very first day of your life, this awareness had always been there with you.

Having two mother tongues, will always make you part of two cultures. There is not a moment when you would think only one culture is the ‘right’ culture.

There is more to being bilingual than just “this is right and everything else is wrong.”

Language is an inevitable part of how we approach everything around us and how we express it. Being natively bilingual equips you from the start with the idea that there is no one uniform way of saying something, doing something, or being something, yet learning a language later in life has the very same effect. If you understand how a person’s mother tongue works, you can understand more about them, the culture they come from, and their perspectives that differ from your own.

Tuisku Saudade Kombinować Ellerine Sağlık Fika Tartle Schadenfreude Cafuné Prozvonit Hyggelig Duende Ya’aburnee Toska Esculhambação Inat Götti L’ésprit de l’escalier Culaccino Fremdschämen Tuisku Saudade Kombinować Ellerine Sağlık Fika Tartle Schadenfreude Cafuné Prozvonit Hyggelig Duende Ya’aburnee Toska Esculhambação Inat Götti L’ésprit de l’escalier Culaccino Fremdschämen Tuisku Saudade Kombinować Ellerine Sağlık Fika Tartle Schadenfreude Cafuné Prozvonit Hyggelig Duende Ya’aburnee Toska Esculhambação Inat Götti L’ésprit de l’escalier Culaccino Fremdschämen Tuisku 45

From AFET to PECH Jasmin Mylläri

Day of a k n Fra

pp ri Se a m e Ann & ar Burn s a Luk

It is an important day for Franka, it is the day of Miss Arena Alva 2016.

We had a chance to accompany her on her big day.

Graubünden, 7:00AM. Franka opens her big brown eyes to the calming sounds of morning radio. As usual the station that she listens to is her all-time favourite – Radio Südostschweiz. Her tail is waggling to the beats of music. It is milking time all over again.

Graubünden, 8:00AM. Roman comes in and gives a pat on her back. He has brought a bucket filled with Franka’s favourite treats to the stable this morning. At this moment Franka realises that this is not just an ordinary day.

Graubünden, 8:30AM. Franka gets settled into the trailer and sets off on the road. So far, the destination of her journey is a mystery to her. Nevertheless, she is excited to see what the day brings. She recognises the course of the mountain roads, she walked on them returning home from the alp a few weeks ago. Going back retrieves the joyful memories of spring, the season which kicks off the magnificent time with her friends.

Laax, 9:30AM. Franka is arriving at the Rocks Resort, where everything has already been set up for the “Miss Arena Alva” contest.

Franka finally gets the chance to see her friends and once again compete for the grand prize.

Laax, 9:45AM. Roman is now washing Franka, preparing her for the stressful and intense day.

She is competing in the same category with two old friends, Blooming Birdy and Galina Alibaba. Despite facing such strong opponents, she still seems confident in performing well.

Laax, 10:00AM. The long awaited moment has finally come. It is time for Franka to present herself to the audience and the judges in the arena. Cheering crowds who have come from all over the canton, laughing children, intrigued EYPers and her friends waiting in the back – all of this is overwhelming for her.

Laax, 14:00PM. After a midday break and countless other showcasings, Franka is waiting impatiently together with Blooming Birdy for the results to be announced.

She has noticed a lot of hustle going on around Galina Alibaba, which seems to worry her a lot. She starts waggling her tail rapidly, not calming down until she hears the announcement.

Galin

a Alib

aba

Laax, 14:15PM. Franka is relieved. She has won her category, something she and Roman have worked very hard for. She is happy to have received the award, managing to convince the judges with her performance. It has been a very successful day, even though she was not crowned Miss Arena Alva 2016.

irdy

ing B

om ith Blo

Graubünden, 19:00PM. Radio Südostschweiz is playing in the background again, Franka’s proud owner Roman is giving her an extra treat. They are both content with today´s success, which has also increased their drive to continue working towards becoming the next Miss Arena Alva.

W

The events described above are illustrative but based on the real experience of Franka. She is one of Roman Niederberger’s cows who won a category of the Miss Arena Alva 2016 contest. In an interview, he gave us an insight to the real work of a cow exhibitor

Miss Arena Alva 2016 contest Location: Rocks Resort, Laax Date: 08/10/2016 Exhibitors: 14 Farmers from Laax, Falera, Flims, Trin and Ladir Criteria: dimensions, hips, legs, udder, teats Organisers: Farmers and WAG

Some

are lu ck other ier than s

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So You’ve Missed the Morning Workout…

Alyona Vyshnevska

You’ve been meaning to start exercising regularly for a while now, but there is never the right time, never the right circumstances. Well, my dear reader, worry not! This article offers you plenty of creative alternatives to stay in shape.

Let’s say you would like to sit down but there are no spare chairs. Why not see this unfortunate circumstance as a chance to work on your gluteal muscles and thighs?

Want to be part of a session picture at an EYP event?

You have got to squat, my friend.

No getting up until a triangle becomes a square.

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Looking for a way to reinvent the ninja game? Add some salty sticks and instead of attacking people’s palms – try to get a bite of their snack.

Got a tall friend? Turn high-fiving into an intense jumping workout.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Feeling stressed?

Sit down in a yoga pose, open your chakras and find your inner self.

Run to get to the coffee machine first and avoid waiting for your, uncommonly slow, flatmates, relatives or committee members.

Teachers are also very fond of yoga. Why waste precious exercise time standing on two feet while taking a group photo when one can work on their balance in a Vriksanana pose?

Starting to get tired?

Stretch those sore muscles while taking a selfie and let the world know how happy you are to have been to Laax 2016, where even working out is innovative, sustainable and nothing short of extraordinary.

Any lifters among us? No need to miss out on your daily routine, offer your friend to carry them to their preferred place of destination. It’s a win-win for both of you.

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U+I

Josephine Heinzelmann & Matthew Gibbons

An integral part of EYP is disagreement and disparity. What does it take to truly understand an antagonistic opinion?

Human decision-making is complicated; we often get so wrapped up in our own perception of the world that we reject anything that would cause us to question it. More often than not, we envision our experience as the whole picture, our answer as the only answer.

Here at Laax, we have been encouraged to confront our ideologies and question them, but how is it possible to be completely open to change? One answer lies in the Theory U, which explains what some consider impossible – how to profoundly understand someone else’s view.

The theory originated in Cambridge, Massachusetts when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology advertised a competition for the development of an exceptionally efficient car. The project ran smoothly for three years until the crew ran into some technical complications. As the crew was made up of many small departments, communication became an issue. When a certain mechanism was altered in one department, this inconvenienced the other departments, thus producing even more obstacles. In the heat of the competition, the crew members started to blame each other, shunting the source of the problem to other departments: the bodywork department to the engine department, and the engine department on to the chassis department. Just when it seemed that the contenders would have to surrender prematurely, the crew participated in a workshop that elicited a radical change in their productivity. From then onwards, they worked as a team, collaborating and cooperating with compassion, and managed to complete the development of the car ahead of time and with lower expenses.

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This phenomenon transformed the field of psychology, inspiring a psychological thesis called the Theory U. This theory was postulated by Dr. C. Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer at MIT, and in essence describes how opinions change.

In the cases when a certain truth is meant to be ignored, it is human nature to deny it and actively blind oneself to it. This results in detachment from sensations that this truth might evoke, culminating in so-called absencing, fully disassociating oneself with this reality. Human brains dislike cognitive dissonances; we constantly manipulate the truth to match our preferred narrative. Subsequently, we will gradually come to believe in our constructed reality. This process is all too easily observed in xenophobic individuals, who treat non-natives as inherently different to themselves without any concrete evidence.

The lower U-shaped curve illustrates the ideal process of a change in opinion and attitude. The first step constitutes having an open mind. Initially, this is not about acceptance of the opposing view, but rather about suspension of one’s own voice of judgement and yielding to a new perspective. In a next step, with an open heart, one engages emotionally and ignores the voice of cynicism which too often inhibits understanding of others’ motivations. Finally, completely letting go of repetitive behavioural patterns of the past allows us to have an open will, thereby disregarding the voice of fear. Up to this point, the movement has been inward, perceiving the outside world and taking it in.

What happens then is a moment of connec-

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

tion to the innermost source of one’s self, thus inspiring action not out of compulsion by an outside force, but rather due to one’s own intrinsic intentions. This moment is called presencing and can occur individually or collectively.

Once this threshold is crossed, individual members as well as entire groups begin to operate with a heightened level of energy and compassion. From here on, an effective outward movement is possible: action, experimentation, and innovation functions a lot more sustainably, efficiently, and effectively. The theory states that by finding inner harmony and true compassion towards others, discussion and action stem from a genuine sense of purpose.

But what does this complicated theory mean for us? In EYP

and at Laax in particular, we are often faced with the most difficult of situations: conflict.

Be it in committee work or informally, it’s impossible to attend an EYP session and not be faced with social, cultural, or moral conflict. At Laax, conflict has also manifested in a slightly different way, as we have been challenged to change our lifestyles to live more sustainably. When faced with such conflict, as the Theory U suggests, the true problem lies in the incongruence between reality and how we interpret it. Once we recognise that our interpretation is one of many, we can collaborate with others to weave our interpretations together, until the tapestry they form begins to resemble the truth. This is our goal in EYP. We are not individuals, each vehemently fighting their corner, shouting

into the deafening roar; we are a collective, attempting to align each of our views until we create a vision of the world which truly represents us.

By arguing, we only reinforce the opinion we already hold, without ever considering an alternative. Instead, we should strive for compassion by entering into constructive dialogue.

If nothing else, this is our task as a generation. We must start reflecting, asking the right questions, and most importantly changing our mindsets so that the succeeding generation is released from the shackles of old patterns, free to take action.

Inspired by a conversation with Oswald König from Euforia.

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Popping Bubbles

Samuel Hönle & Alyona Vyshnevska

Most of the people who participate at an EYP session know the organisation from two perspectives: the perspective of the interested student, and the perspective of an active member. However, our sessions are attended and supported by external people who might have different motives and perspectives on our organisation. How do these perceptions of EYP vary, and what can we learn from them?

Laax 2016 was attended by an above average number of people who were not participants of the session per se. During the Forum Event, the Opening Ceremony and the Ideas, Opportunities and Impact Fair (IOIF), we had the opportunity to talk to those who are not part of the “EYP bubble”, to people who have fully taken part in our activities and therefore have an outside view on our organisation. We interviewed five different people from five different 54

organisations with five different perspectives to find out how EYP generally and this session specifically are perceived from outside “the bubble”. We wanted to find out if they support the cause of EYP and if there is a specific aspect they would like to contribute to. We wanted to know what they wanted to gain from supporting EYP and attending these events, and if these two motivations were mutually exclusive.

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

The interviewees highlighted that they support EYP’s aim to be a platform for young people to exchange ideas. Safi al Hafez, one of the speakers at the Forum Event, said that having a collective experience and an opportunity to share previous experiences is important and beneficial for all those involved. For many participants, events like the International Session are a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity, as André Gisler, Director of Tourism of the Flims Laax Falera Management AG, pointed out. Many of the speakers and representatives of organisations mentioned the shared cause of inspiring and empowering young people. They saw many young motivated people who strive to change the world and wanted to contribute to their development. What was especially important to Rainhard Henschler, the representative of the Swiss Transfusion SRC Graubünden, an organisation within the Swiss Red Cross (SRC), was the fact that the participants are young people who want to push society forward. He said that recognising societal tasks and actively tackling them are skills that many of the people he met during the IOIF had in common.

Safi al Hafez could even draw parallels between his work as an artist to inspire others, and the goal of Cambiela, an organisation represented at the IOIF by Andrea Kilian, empowering others to start their own organisations. Nyan Storey from Terre des Hommes Suisse, who was also present at the IOIF, added that events like Laax 2016 serve as examples that young people are indeed motivated and capable to engage in politics and organise such events.

We also asked external participants about what they personally wanted to achieve by coming to Laax. Reinhard Henschler perceived the participants as an interest group for their organisation. Nyan Storey was convinced that coming to the IOIF would be great for sharing his upcoming projects and finding enthusiastic young people to join them. Jaime Rivera (IGNITE) aimed to share the topic of purpose-driven business with us and foster involvement in the NGO

he represents. It is of no surprise that many inspired organisations came to the session to promote their own projects and businesses as well as to gain new supporters and members for their teams – what better place to do that than in EYP, a unique setting, a bubble of engaged people who care.

Having heard all about the purposes, expectations and impressions of the external participants, it was difficult not to notice their admiration for our organisation. Their voices were filled with astonishment due to the level of motivation, eagerness to engage and openness of the delegates. The Organising Team was especially praised for the high standards of the event. The external participants admitted that this very unique EYP atmosphere had a great impact on themselves personally. André Gisler, for example, was impressed by the passion, joy and the spirit of the participants and found this to contribute to his motivation in his daily life. It is truly inspiring to realise that the participants and the supporters of EYP have such an empowering mutual impact.

With Laax 2016 coming to its end, we are convinced that its participants, both from inside and outside of the EYP bubble, will carry its impact in their hearts and minds for years to come. We were given plenty of opportunities to go beyond the usual interactions at our events and broaden our perspectives. You may not remember what your topic was or who you exactly talked to during the IOIF, but the people you have met in Laax, the insightful conversations you have had with those around you and the impact this has had on you and your future choices is what matters.

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Inside the International Office Alyona Vyshnevska & Lukas Burnar

The International Office of the EYP (IO) is known to most EYPers as a supranational legal entity, connecting all the individual National Committees (NCs) and serving as administrative support. Some may also know that it serves as the link to our umbrella organisation, the Schwarzkopf Foundation Junges Europa. We talked to Anya Suprunenko, the representative of the IO at Laax 2016, who provided us with personal insight to what happens at the IO. Could you introduce yourself and tell us a few words about your role in EYP? My name is Anya, originally I am from Ukraine. At the moment, I am living in Berlin, working as a project manager at the IO. At the moment, I am supervising 6 sessions, which is a great responsibility and demands close cooperation between the IO and NCs.

How is the IO organised and what are its tasks?

The IO is part of the Schwarzkopf Foundation, our umbrella organisation. It functions as a central hub for all NCs, and is there to support them and the Organising Teams like the one behind Laax. It serves as a capacity builder, transferring knowledge from past events to future ones. On the international level, there are two policy making bodies: The Board of National Committees and the Governing Body. The IO works as a watchdog for policy implementation and consistency, it implements the decisions made by the other bodies.

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Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

Can you give us a little insight into the IO as a workplace? How many people are working there and do you have any interesting traditions?

At the moment, 9 people are working at the IO, including two interns. All of them are working on different projects, most of them concerned with administrative tasks.

At the Schwarzkopf Stiftung there are currently 20 employees, which creates a very familiar environment. We also have some traditions, the self-cooked lunch, for example. Every employee gets to cook for everybody twice a month, which is very special for the team. Also, there is a tradition which I am yet to experience; Every year, we create a different Christmas card for our chairman, André Schmitz-Schwarzkopf.

I remember seeing an old card where they recreated Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper”.

What motivates you to contribute to EYP? My first head-organising experience was very important to me. It was a session in my hometown Chernihiv in 2011 and it was a very special feeling to bring EYP to my school, to my local community and to my friends. That is when I realised that I like organising the most, and this experience also has motivated me to later run for the role of a president of my National Committee. Having seen many flaws in the cooperation between the board of EYP and the head-organisers, I wanted to change the system.

How does it feel to go from volunteering in EYP to actually getting paid for doing your job at the Office?

It feels really good! As one of the speakers at the Opening Ceremony here in Laax said, you turn your passion into a job. However, it was not a planned career path for me. The position happened to be available at the right time in my career development process.

I have been an active volunteer of the EYP for 9 years, so for me this was a logical step to continue on a professional level. I hope I can contribute many positive aspects to EYP, but also I am learning a lot from the job.

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History of Sustainability Luca Draisci

We started talking about sustainable development only 29 years ago. The idea of sustainability and awareness of environmental issues are a rather recent phenomenon and part of the evolution of human thought throughout the years. How did it all begin? How are we bringing it forward? How can we be part of this in history?

We are little December 7, 1972, 10:39 UTC, about 45000 km above the Earth floats the Apollo 17. For the first time, the trajectory of the spacecraft makes it possible to capture the South Pole and the Southern Hemisphere covered in clouds. The African coastline is almost entirely visible and on its top left there is the Arabian Peninsula, under which one can distinguish the island of Madagascar. The Asian mainland peers at the horizon. Apollo 17 has left the Earth only five hours earlier: the place is perfect, the time is too, the spacecraft has the sunlight directly on its back, so the Earth is completely illuminated. They shoot a picture, NASA calls it “AS17-14822727”, the crew calls it “The Blue Marble”.

The Blue Marble, to this day, is one of the most distributed images in history. NASA’s Apollo images gave immediacy to the fact that there is only one Earth. The Blue Marble changed the perception we have of ourselves as citizens of the world, and at the same time highlighted how lonely and fragile our planet is. In the sixties, the world also underwent the information technology revolution that made it possible to combine large amounts of data and use them to make projections and simulations of real-life scenarios. The idea of “balance of nature” died out with the formulation 58

of the theory of chaos and the postmodernist movement, making it clear that nature was subject to modifications due to human activity.

Looking for answers This global shift in thought had a direct impact on how people and institutions related to the environment. The first claim that fossil fuels combustion leads to global warming came from the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896. As early as 1938, the English engineer Guy Steward Callendar produced a study that correlated the increase of CO2 levels in the atmosphere to the increase of temperatures in the 19th century. The results are now considered to be extremely accurate, but at the time they went unnoticed. From the 70s onwards, numerous studies started proving the correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and global rise in temperature and numerous conferences started being held in Europe and the USA. An international working group, under the International Council of Sciences, was set to investigate the issue.

Policy-making In 1987 the Brundtland commission was appointed to coordinate countries in the pursuit of sustainable development. After the Brundtland report, a number of international

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

agreements were signed; the concepts of the ecological and carbon footprint came to life in the early 90s. With the broader accessibility to knowledge, thanks to the spread of personal computers and access to the Internet at the turning of the millennium, there has been a rise in environmental awareness.

Sustainability permeates society From that moment on, sustainability has permeated many different aspects of our everyday life, from transport to arts. Joe Strummer, former singer of The Clash, set up his own little forest to make his production carbon neutral. In 2005, a Sustainable Arts Biennale was established at Ihlienworth near Hamburg, and in 2007 Vogue defined eco fashion as a trend that would last for multiple seasons instead of a short-term fashion phenomenon.

technologies, it is hard to perceive a “here” larger than where we are and a “now” longer than the instant that we are living in. But, quoting Eno: “Humans are capable of a unique trick: creating realities by first imagining them, by experiencing them in their minds.”

30 years ago, we started unconsciously realising what sustainability is, we have studied it, we have written policies and designed clothes and houses with that principle in mind.

Every aspect of human creation has been permeated by the idea that a fixed reality does not exist, and that the burden of sustainability lies on us. You who read this are part of the history of mankind, and if you want to, part of the history of sustainability.

Just think about the consequences of your choices, about how long is your now, how big is your here.

What about us In 1995, the musician Brian Eno wrote an essay titled “The big here and the long now” in which he explores people’s perception of space and time. In today’s fast-paced world of increasing urbanisation and evolving 59

Travelling vs Sightseeing Weronika Betta

When you travel you have two options: you can see the image sold and resold on postcards, or you can get to know the place and feel it just the way it is.

Imagine you have been standing in line for two hours to get into the Louvre. It is a July morning, crowds of tourists from all over the world awash the streets, it is sweaty and loud. You pay for the ticket, struggle to make your way to Mona Lisa, get out, then you stand in another line to take the elevator up the Eiffel tower. You then buy yourself a T-shirt and a keychain and sit down for a ridiculously expen-

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sive yet mediocre dinner before you go back to the hotel where every room looks the same and the breakfast is served “continental”.

Now, imagine you are staying at your friend’s cosy place in Montmartre. Your day starts at a small bakery downstairs that does not look impressive, but among locals is known for having the best coffee

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

and pain-au-chocolat in existence. You spend hours wandering the breathtakingly beautiful narrow streets, stopping to watch street performers, look into a family-run art studio, or to get to know the history of the buildings you walk by.

You taste the incredible flavour of Moroccan take-away, and because your host knows French, you learn the unbelievable life story of a man who made it for you, he also offers to share the recipe.

Your evening passes on interesting halfFrench, half-English conversations with a group of your host’s friends in a brasserie hidden in a yard in the 11th arrondissement. After a late night walk, your friend shows you a secret entrance on a rooftop overlooking the city drowning in million lights that go off one by one as the sun rises over Paris.

There is no better feeling in the world then to let yourself be immersed in the place you travel to. To be able to experience your surroundings to the fullest, discover and get to know the place, you need to let go of the bubble your habits and prejudices have created and allow yourself to dive deep into the real ways of being in a place. Only then will you be able to get the true local experience and have it enrich you.

In recent years more and more opportunities have allowed us to connect to the real experiences of places all around the world, and most importantly, to the people who know these places like no one else and are part of them. You can now share your living space with a stranger, invite a traveller for a homemade meal, or even offer to introduce someone to an activity typical of the region. There is, however, nothing that makes a place more real than having a person you know introduce you to it. One of the most important ways in which EYP influences our lives, is that it makes it possible for us to travel to the most breathtaking corners of Europe

and always experience them from the truest perspective of a local. How easy it is to find a person who would offer you a couch and the chance to be part of their daily life for just a bit, to experience the destination from their perspective, to see behind the postcards and souvenirs.

Laax 2016 is special in a variety of ways, one of them being a strong connection to the local culture. We have been allowed to immerse ourselves in experiences unique to the region, to become a part of things we would not have otherwise encountered – from the cow beauty show and the Fackelwanderung to tons of raclette at the traditional Swiss Night. The Organising Team’s aim has been to make the experience as unforgettable as possible, believing that an immense potential of any place should be used to create genuine, personal experiences.

Lars Kieni (Organiser) sums it up nicely: “Most of the sessions take place in major cities, and here, in this unique location in the middle of the mountains we can genuinely connect to the surroundings. As this is such a special place, we wanted to let everyone experience true Switzerland through food, music, workshops led by the locals. As for the Fackelwanderung, I would not say it is distinctly Swiss, but it is something that naturally offers itself while we are here, because in the cities you have light pollution and it is never entirely dark. And then, being in the nature, with just torches and a few good friends is something you probably would not usually do, but what provides you with moments you will not forget.”

So, imagine you are back in Paris, a city visited by 32.3 million people per year.

Are you sure there is nothing more to discover than the generic experience that is made to suit a group as diverse?

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What Laax Is Tommy Mallen

When we come to the close of an EYP session, there is always a certain inexplicable feeling of sadness. We preempt the emotions that we know we will experience when we leave. Many words have been thrown about in an attempt to describe what it is we feel at EYP sessions, what it is which changes us, what it is that leaves us feeling… different at the end.

The collective can always sum these emotions up infinitely better than the one. What follows, therefore, is a compilation of the thoughts of the participants of Laax. Their ideas have been taken and rewritten, woven together into what is, hopefully, representative of the people surrounding this adventure. This is what Laax is.

Laax is a collective of people who want to make a change, or who are open to having their minds changed. A segment of a generation of young people who arm themselves with the knowledge and the tools that our leading politicians have. Laax is that knowledge and those tools being directly applied and directly making a difference. We have

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had the opportunity to be a part of something bigger – all of our glorious, multi-dimensional experiences and beliefs being brought together to create change and to instigate progress. And that is hard to leave behind: yes, we have had this experience and we should never stop being thankful for it, but it can be hard to go home and find that this change is not found everywhere, these minds are not common, these ideas are not always understood or valued. It can be hard to arrive home and find that, perhaps, home is not entirely where you once thought it was.

Laax welcomes your mind and your opinion. It does not always agree with it, but it will always, always listen. It will be taken and inextricably woven into the minds of others to an extent that is never entirely reversible. Laax shows you what could be – a place where you can be fiercely passionate, happy, sad, but above all, yourself. Indeed, it is in Laax that some people have discovered who they are and what they believe in. Take that home with you – do not allow yourself to limit this person only to EYP, or

Magazine of Laax 2016 - The 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament

only to this particular adventure. Be proud of who you are, be proud of who Laax has made you, and do not be afraid to be that person. Europe will still be with you when you get home, and all of the friends you have made will still be there, too. Although, potentially further away than any friends you may have had before, they will always be there.

Laax is, above all else, a family. Your family.

Laax will be with you forever, be it the lessons you have learned, the friends you have made, or that one time you were speechless when faced with the mountains. Laax is a family who may never see itself again in its entirety, but who will never stop loving each other all the same.

Perhaps that is the hardest part; not having to leave or having to step away from the EYP life, but knowing that you will never experience it in just the same way again.

You can fill your coming years with EYP and you can fill your life with the people in it, but Laax will only ever be Laax.

Saudade is a Portuguese and Galician word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and that has been lost. It often carries with it the knowledge that the object of this longing might never really return, and has been described as “the love that remains” or “the love that stays” after someone is gone. This is what many of you will experience when you leave, and although it may not be pleasant, it is undeniably beautiful.

The world is quiet here in Laax, yet there is something infinitely loud about these events too, a sound which will be heard across Europe for years to come. You may forget what you said, you may forget what you did, but you will never completely forget what Laax is… What Laax was.

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Supported by:

Initiated by:

EUROPEAN YOUTH PARLIAMENT SCHWEIZ SUISSE SVIZZERA SVIZRA SWITZERLAND The Schwarzkopf Foundation is the international umbrella organisation of the European Youth Parliament (EYP). EYP Switzerland is a National Committee in the EYP network.