THE LIST
Same ISFiT, different wrapping When we look at how ISFiT has developed
through the years, it is imminent to say that the organisation has grown and headed in a more professional direction. Still, just as it was in the very beginning, all of the students who help build this organisation, do so voluntarily. When the volunteers were recruited to the first festival, all they had to do was to sign their names on a poster hanging on the walls of Student Samfundet. Today, this is a carefully planned process. All the 450 volunteers, have to go through interviews. Today, ISFiT lives far beyond the offices at Gløshaugen and the red, round building in Elgeseter gate. The festival has inspired former participants to make their own festivals and projects around the globe, and it’s safe to say that ISFiT is a part of an international network. When Dalai Lama returned to Trondheim and ISFiT in 2015, there was no need to sleep in a tent in India to bring him here. The organisation has managed to build a strong network, consisting of people who are more than willing to contribute to making a successful festival. Even though the festival itself lasts for just ten days every other year, the organisation has been alive, more than less, every day ever since it was initiated that November night in 1988. The idea of creating an arena where the world’s future leaders can discuss and develop different topics, and make new friendships, has remained the same. There is no ‘no’ One of the stories that have been maybe
most referred to in the history of ISFiT, is the tale of how Dalai Lama came to visit the third festival. This is a story about endurance, stamina, good networking skills, THE FOURTEENTH ISSUE
PREVIOUS PAGE MAIN The monk dressed in yellow: A lot of hard and dedicated work is the story behind this image, which was taken during His Holiness Dalai Lama’s visit to Trondheim and ISFiT in 1994. It turns out that endurance, stamina, good networking skills and an invitation that couldn’t be turned down was all it took.
PREVIOUS PAGE INSET Trading ideas: This caption from a workshop during the festival in 1999, could just as well have been from the more recent festivals. Even though the larger network, possibilities newer technology has created, the essence of ISFiT har remained the same. Creating an arena for trading ideas.
Photo: Knut Åge Skorstad.
Photo: foto.samfundet.no
and maybe a little bit of luck. An important part of the festival, is inviting speakers to the Student Society. When the third festival was being planned in 1994, who else could be more interesting to invite than His Holiness the Dalai Lama? President of the 94’ festival, Rina Sunder and co-worker, Lars Bjørgan Schrøder, were eager to get His Holiness to Trondheim. When their invitation was declined, it didn’t mean that the fight was over. “We accepted the ‘no’ as a ‘half yes’,” explains Sunder, who got on a plane to India together with Schrøder. The students contacted the Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi, human rights lawyers and even Dalai Lama’s personal contact in India. They were told to go home and forget their grand idea. “Everybody gave us a flat no, and told us 24
ABOVE An important piece of the ISFiT puzzle, is the many students who have volunteered, and spent one afternoon and weekend after the other, in order to welcome international students from all over the world, to Trondheim. For nearly three decades, ISFiT has been an arena for debate and exchanging of ideas. In order to make this happen, more than 4 500 voluntary positions have been filled.
to just forget about it. Dalai Lama’s schedule was set three years ahead, and they even showed us other important invitations that had been declined,” Schrøder recalls. Still, the young envoys wouldn’t take no for an answer. They felt they had their half yes. Every morning for several days, they met at the gates of His Holiness’ home in Dharamsala. After getting to know the house staff, they got in touch with the head of security, who arranged a meeting with Dalai Lama’s secretary. In the end, Sunder and Schrøder were given audience with the man they had worked so hard to meet. The secretary kindly reminded His Holiness that he was attending a conference in USA during the festival days in Trondheim. To this, the monk said the magical words: “But this is much more important, cancel my other appointment.” •