Greifswald International Students Festival
30
y
Published by GrIStuF e.V. Fon: 0 38 34-86 17 80 Wollweberstraße 4 | 17489 Greifswald Print : AStA Uni Greifswald Supported by IKuWo
n
1 . o
ma
l a v i t s Fe
ay d n u S th
Times
Editorial
For more than a year we have prepared, have looked forward excitedly and have been dreaming to go to a lonely isle in the ocean, for this moment to happen – the festival has started and 150 students from many parts of the world have arrived. It is probably due to our limited imagination that though we all knew during this month that there will be people travelling many miles to come here, we weren‘t prepared at how special and very exciting the moment was when you were standing in front of the InfoPoint, having travelled from Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, El Salvador, Nigeria and many other countries to come here, to the fifth Greifswald International Students Festival 2010. The eight pages you hold in your hands right now want to show some bits of the colorful and diversified program of the festival. It is for you participants to inform you about what has happened, what will come in the next days and to show you what is going on behind the scenes to make this festival work. Of course it is also for you, the inhabitants of Greifswald, to go further into the festival, especially those parts as the workshops were only our participants are involved. In the spirit of the new media, this newspaper is not only supposed to inform you, but also to be varied and expanded by you. Wether you have beautiful pictures, or you want to write something about your workshop topic, about the cultural events or any other thing you feel you‘d want to share with us all, feel free to send it to pr@gristuf. org or give it to the GrIStuF-members at the InfoPoint. After all the planning and preparing we hope that now that you‘re here, you‘ll make this week even more inspiring and animated then we alone could have. Let‘s have a great Festival!
www.students-festival.de
Welcomeparty! Last night the DJ saved my life!
by Maria-Silva Villbrandt
„I can’t get no sleep” - should be the new motto of the festival! The Welcome- Party was awesome! The location was even for local people totally new and a lovely surprise. In Greifswald you can find some nice students clubs, but the hall close to the train station is really special. The bands “Sister Fa” and “Alif Sound System” rocked the halls! While Sister Fa was playing nearly everybody was singing and dancing. Behind the scenes the Gristuf-Team and helpers were organizing this event for months. Hopefully you are relaxed and well-rested because this party was just the beginning of a glorious week. On Tuesday, after the Running dinner, there will be the next party at the hall! We are looking forward that the atmosphere will be as nice as on the WelcomeParty! Enjoy the next days!
1
Poll
How would you describe your society in three words? Text & Photography by Sophie Lagies
religious, social tight, caring and loving
diversity, culture, natural resources Dayu Hatmanti, 22, Indonesia
Seyoum Tebhome, 24, Ethiopia
selfish, close, not open-minded Anita Basso, 22, Italy
open, generous, collective Gilbert Bakhoum, 26, Senegal
hospitable, reserved, religious Mohammed Ali, 21, Pakistan
harmony, hard working, free
Interview
Wang Pei, 25, China
open-minded, hospitable, singing Natalia Kushnir, 20, Ukraine
Interview with Renan from Brasil who was the first participant in Greifswald Tini: What were your first impressions when you came into the info-point? The Gristuf-team had a meeting there and all were looking at you. What were your thoughts? Renan: At the train station there were some people waiting for me with big smiles and they said „Welcome – You are the first participant“ and this was very nice. When I was at the info-point it was a warmly reception but I was a little bit scared because a lot of people were looking at me. But I felt like home and like I‘m a part of this and it will be a good event. Tini: Now you‘re here since four days and what are your feelings now? What impressions do you have now in relation to Greifswald? Renan: It‘s a totally clean city and when you through the university you‘ve green everywhere. So I would remain Greifswald by the quality of life. Here are great people, the students and at least the organisators of GrIStuF. Tini: How were the first contact with the other participants – was it easy to get in contact with the other them? Renan: You can expect open-minded people who want to get in contact and wanna be friends and get on contact with different cultures. So, definitely I think that it isn‘t a problem to get in contact. Even my hosts are
2
very nice people. They took me everywhere – everywhere because the city is very small :) But sometimes you got groups from a specific country and they keep a little bit closed because they want to speak their own language and something like that. But in general you can make a lot of friends Tini:Do you like your workshop? Renan: I‘m feeling comfortable, for sure. And I like the structure of the workshop because it combines a little bit of fun, you need some breaks. This is not that kind of serious festival were you sit like four our five hours in one room. We have some breaks and some getting-toknow-each-other-times, this is very important. And also this combination with serious work and with discussions is a good combination. Tini: Did you had any funny situation with people here at the festival? Renan: Lot of people have problems by pronouncing my name. Because of the different types of language each other speak my name in another way. So sometimes I think I heard my name but I didn‘t. But it‘s still a funny situation. Renan, thank you very much for the interview.
Interview with
:
the patron Barbel Bohley by Gabriel Kords | Translation : Sophie Hirschelmann On Friday evening we had the chance to welcome Bärbel Bohley as our festival patron. She came to Greifswald to see our Official Opening and to say a few words on the stage. Bärbel Bohley is a civil rights activist who was fighting for democracy and rights such as freedom of opinion. She was one of the founders of a political movement called New Forum, a civil opposition movement which contributed a lot to the peaceful revolution in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and the following reunion of Germany. She is still being socially active today. She lived in the states that once belonged to Yugoslavia for several years and supported different projects concerning reconstruction and peacebuilding there. She also founded an association to help families of refugees. A few years ago she returned to Germany and answered a few questions for us. Ms Bohley, how did you perceive Greifswald when you arrived here? I haven‘t been here in a long time. The city has definitely changed. When I came here on Friday, everything appeared to be dead somehow. It lookeed pretty but there were no people on the streets. But maybe they were all having dinner.. ..that‘s probably it! What was your motivation to become the patron of this festival? I was touched that those young people asked me to become the patron. I must admit that I didn‘t expect anyone to even remember us. To me it was absolutely clear that I am doing it. I think it is great when young people from all over the world come together to start something like this. Unfortunately, I still do not speak English and I guess I will not manage to learn it anymore. Due to this I won‘t be able to get in contact with people the way I would like to.
Would you still call yourself a civil rights activist? I am surely not an active activist anymore as I used to be 20 years ago. But I still think that people have to take responsibility as often as possible and wherever they can and always need to face up to it. I am going to do this as long as I live. And this ist actucaly one of the reasons why I came here - because the subject „responsibility“ is so interesting. What does response-ability mean to you? What do people have to do to act responsible in your opinion? They mainly have to interfere and be active. They have to risk to interfere and they also have to take the risk of not being praised for it, of not being understood. This intervention is what makes you a part of the society. This leads to the next question: What would you tell a young person if he or she asked you how to be engaged politically? It definitely does not always need to be a party. There are always people who do not want to be in a party because there is a different kind of discipline. Personally, I would not want to be in a party, but I still want to interfere. And I am actually better at doing that today than I was in the past. Via internet you can comment on everything and tell your opinion. I think this is just as wonderful as the possibility to be part of such a festival. Nowadays it is possible to communicate everywhere. Do universities or students need to take a special role in a society? Students are what it takes in a society. They really have to keep their eyes open, pay attention and interfere. And this is why I came here because I just like it. You said before that you would not want to be in a party. Is there actually one party that you could imagine to join? No, if there was one, I would have
already done it in the past 20 years. Of course, it is much harder to interfere politically without being in a party. But you have to try it anyway. Sometimes I like ideas of the Green party, in other moments I like what the SPD (social democratic party) or even the CDU (christian democratic party) says. But I am not a person who excludes half of her feelings and thoughts just to fit in a party. I want to interfere. So do you see more possibilities to change and develop things outside of parliaments? Surely there are people who want to change things while being in a party and who also have the strong will to do so. And they should be doing it. But I am not such a person. I had my experiences, mostly in the GDR. In the GDR you had to go to Hohenschönhausen and you were watched by the secret police. What made you keep up and continue? It was the wish to do things like this, chatting with you at the microfone right here. And the wish that we are able to organize festivals like this one. It was the will to change the society. And we actually managed to do so! Even if it was not exactly the way we wanted it to be. But the society is more open and so many things are possible, things we thought to be impossible or even criminal in 1989. Thank you for the interview! Hohenschönhausen = secret police prison in Berlin
3
Why did you choose your workshop ? Renée la Vangie, Canada At first I didn’t remember why I’ve chosen “Justice in Resource Distribution”. But when I looked online to get more details about the topic, I was confident that I picked the right one. In December when I returned from a three month internship in Ghana, working with a local health NGO, I enrolled in an international development policy course at my University. I learned a lot about land rights, food security, privatization and agricultural practices. All of these topics were of great interest to me and as a result I had so many questions about how we arrived at this state of global inequality. I’ve chosen this topic because I wanted to expand my knowledge in these subjects and hear about the personal experiences of participants. I know that I cannot solve the issues concerning ownership of resources such as water and energy in only ten days, but the festival can help to open my eyes to other opinions and small steps can be accomplished if we work together.
4
Angga Kusumo Harwinindyo, Indonesia
Dilyara Tektigulova, Kazakhstan.
Responsibility is about the ability to respond any other changes in our environment. It is important to be responsible about other changes especially related to the global change in which the youth is involved and contributed in. Youth as the future generation should do something useful for the world. We have power and capacity to do that based on what kind of changes we want to. I chose the workshop topic “Crisis” because it is an important problem to be solved in the global issues and I also want to learn about the crisis management. Crisis should be defined as a situation in which the common system does not work properly. However, it is still very relative regarding to whom the system is used. It is the root of every problem in the world because of its effect. There will always be the winners and losers. An Indonesian wise man said that responsibility starts from small things, starts from ourselves and starts from now. Last, I would like to have a closing remark with a quotation from Mr. Soekarno, Indonesian former president.
I’ve chosen the workshop “We dont need no education” because this workshop is thoughtful and i would like to discuss it with other students from all over the world and share some useful information. I have no doubts that it will be also interesting to listen to their options about this workshop. But for me, education is not only what we learn in schools. The traditional view of education consists of what we learn in school and university. However, in reality, education is a lifelong endeavor which begins at birth and continues during every waking moment of our lives. The subjects we study in institutions of learning - maths, science, history, etc. - are actually the tip of the iceberg and it can be argued thatthey are the less important part of our broader, lifelong education. It is what we learn outside of school that truly shapes us as humans and cements us into our places in society.
“Give me a thousand people, and with them I will move the Mount Semeru! But give me ten young people, and then I will shake the world” Ir. Soekarno, the 1st President of Republic of Indoonesia
In our modern society few things are stressed as important as high marks in school and university. Failure to successfully pass exams is considered simply taboo, and students often spend the majority of their free time in preparing. In my judgement it is a very shortened view, because although students may receive high marks on exams
thanks to constant, daily studying, they do so at the cost of their social lives and all the learning which comes from socializing and experiencing life with their peers. In addition, this heavy focus on traditional learning and exams has lead to a society in which cheating to succeed is not only tolerated, but is in fact becoming the norm. Less focus on high exam marks would help to curb this disturbing trend, which can already be seen not only during exams in schools but in offices and workplaces.
inside night after night and study at the cost of socializing with their peers. Secondly, schools & universities need to lighten their burden on students and allow them more time to live life. They need to realize that the traditional book education is not the end-all-be-all of learning and that balance between book learning and life learning must be found. Only in this way can we reshape our society‘s view on education and reshape our society into one which is made up of better, more honest individuals.
The focus on institutions of learning as the sole proprietors of knowledge is a deeply entrenched notion and will not be easy to change. If change is going to happen, it must happen at first in the family. Families must realize that valuable life skills such as communication, etiquette, and relationships are more important than high exam marks. Parents should not compel their children to sit
Adham Elshahabi, Egypt „Predictable Human“ – it discusses the future of human life and handles variable topics from genetic manipulation to advertisement and how they contribute in shaping a new human and society. I have chosen it because I am planning to be a scientist and in the same time I am very interested in religions and ethics. I was excited to explore aspects of the moral discussions about the topics and
especially from a western point of view. Well, I would say it is going really well so far. And we get to play a lot of games :D Out of context – a funny misunderstanding I don‘t remember when I filled the application for the festival. But when I first got the email, I saw the „I“ letter in the name to be small L and not a capital „i“. So I understood that the Festival is „Girl stuff :D“ and that this is some cool name! However, I said: it is a festival in Germany and it is about girls.. why not?.. Let‘s go! I only understood the name when I got my invitation letter. Then I read the Festival website and I realized that it would be even better. Now I know it is a really cool event, well, many girls!! but also „other stuff“
If you have also such a funny story then write us an email pr@gristuf.org or use the letterbox at the 5 InfoPoint.
Workshop
„Nationalism – Patriotism – Racism (NPR)“ by Enika Bushi from Albania
It is a pleasure for all of us now to be part of the large GrIStuF 2010 family. We are coming from different countries, cultures, backgrounds. In our workshop there are students from Albania, Belarus, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, India, Ukraine. We are representing four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, a thing that may happen only in international level meetings such as GrIStuF 2010. On our first day of the workshop, we had the pleasure to work with our teamers Alex and Martin. Both of them are Greifswald University students that welcomed and facilitated moving smoothly forward to get to know each other and put down our ideas for “NPR”. The term “nation” refers to a group of people sharing ethnicity, culture, language, common history, mostly who mostly share the same territory of origin. Is nationalism needed? Is nationalism changing? These are questions we would like to ask and to answer. The concept of nationalism can differ depending on the nation’s history. There are positive connotations, e.g. in countries with a history of defeating colonial regimes, dictators or other suppressors. In these countries nationalism is a concept of struggling for freedom.
6
On the other hand we have the experience of negative connotations. In countries with a history of misused nationalism for overstressed power, politics and suppression of minorities. There nationalism is a concept of national inequality. We believe that nationalism is the awareness of the components of your cultural identity and it will be a follower of your people‘s traditions but with respect for others. We all know that our right ends when another person‘s right starts. Nowadays, in times of globalization, national identities are changing. We could say that different cultures come together, meet halfway enriching one another, respecting one another. Unfortunately, this is not an axiom, we are aware that in our world people are still agreeing on not to agree, on not to go up to each other. The phenomena that comes because of this attitude are exclusion, separation and fragmentation. Patriotism comes from our inner existence, but in history we have examples where it was misused by politics and the media increasing xenophobia inside the countries. Patriotism can be defined as the love of one‘s country, as the identification with it, and special concern for its wellbeing and that of compatriots.
Racism is discrimination against the other, against the different, against the unknown. We believe that in the 21st century we shouldn’t let racism get in the way of civilization and peace and respect between nations. Let’s do so by using the medicine of understanding and tolerance. Indeed, there is no biological or genetic foundation for the grouping of individual humans into a racial group. Humans themselves decide (consciously or unconsciously) which physical characteristics constitute a racial group. Consequently, racial groups are presently thought to be social constructions, or a category which is not created by biology but by human invention. Thus, racial identity was thought to be something fixed and genetically imposed. There can be positive and negative racism (example: treating black people especially positive). The NPR” workshop would like to invite the youth to open their eyes, their hearts and minds because “Yes, YOUth CAN”!
The Team
Norman
Annusch
Charlotte
In which groups do you work? In The almighty culture group How is it to organise the festival? Really, really, really, really stressless! How did you keep up your motivation? What gave you the energy for it? To see big grins in the eyes of the participants during the festival What did you learn while organising and preparing the whole thing? When you organize something with this amount together with 25 people you learn what it means to communicate! The hardest part… The Wednesday meeting with 13 topics Gristuf in one sentence. Vegan is also yummie, but there is no consens about that issue! What would you never change in GrIStuF? The office!
Marcus
Why did you come to GrIStuF? Because I liked the festival of 2008 so much. If was a host that time. In which groups do you work? Participants What did you learn while organising and preparing the whole thing? Just do it or just try it. Sometimes it`s suprising what is possible if you just try. How is it to organise the festival? Hard work and a lot of fun. I learned some self-confidence. Gristuf in one sentence. Do good things together. What would you change in GrIStuF? Less megalomaniac events. More concentration on topic. Reflect about own behaviour. What would you never change in GrIStuF? That everyone can bring in it`s own ideas. Not to have so much boarders.
From behind the scenes
In which groups do you work? Participants, Topic What do you like about it? Different people, unbelievable much energy and thousands of ideas, It´s fascinating what has been developed during the last year and the last weeks and what´s about to take place – organized by such quite normal people like us :) Why response-ability? Trying to do something you think is good and necessary – like a festival that grows bigger and bigger. Then it reaches a size you didn´t ever imagine you would be able to organize – but we are able! What would you never change in GrIStuF? the chaotic creativity and pluralism... The hardest part…not to despair at some points – such as enveloping invitation letters forgetting the chop and signature ;)
In which groups do you work? Panda Royal, Culture What do you like about it? You can do things you never did before, you can test our abilities and test to find out what is possible to manage or even to change What are you planning to do after the festival? Ride my bike to Istanbul What would you change in GrIStuF? Next year we should crown a king or queen of GrIStuF! And then we will move to a beautiful castle closed to the Mecklenburger Seenplatte to live there with horses, huntings and servants. What would you never change in GrIStuF? The Idealism and the Utopia of Ideas
7
Get to know other cultures at the meeting of the continents on Monday by Luisa Pischtschan
On the sixth day of the GrIStuF you can see how variegated the cultures of the world are – at the „meeting of continents“. Small groups of participants will present traditional and characteristic things from their home countries at 8 p.m. For example they show typical food or specific
kinds of dance. People from 83 countries all over the world will bring the cultural diversity to this small city with an interesting and colorful program at the inner courtyard of the university at the Rubenowstraße 1. Have fun while the world is staying in Greifswald!
Running Dinner
by André Langer & Gunnar Schwanz Is there a better way to meet new people, then having a great meal together? We invite you and your friends to join us to a culinary journey through different kitchens all over the city. So form a team of 2 - 3 people and sign up at the GrIStuF-website (http://rd.gristuf.org) Suit up and it is on! The dinner starts at 6 p.m. with the first dish - the appetizer. Every dish takes two hours, so the main dish will be served at 8 p.m. The culinary end will be the desert, starting at 10 p.m. You will receive an email that informs you about the dish that you have to prepare and where you
will be invited for the other dishes. Dance, as if there‘ll be no tomorrow. To get rid of all the energy consumed you have the chance to meet and dance with all the other running dinner teams. In the hall at the central station the band „Big Fat Mama“ will perform live on stage and show us their “a bit different sound”. Afterwards DJs of the Gristuf-Team will make our „danceleg“ shake. Of course the party is open for everyone and every girl. Stay human!
La cinémathèque de festival by Maria-Silva Villbrandt
Nearly every evening since Wednesday from 9 o’clock at the Ikuwo the social-ecological research group GETIDOS presents special films about environment. GETIDOS - that’s the short form of “getting things done sustainably”- this project group started its work last year in Greifswald. Scientists and students of different academics are working together in order to research social entrepreneurships in the field of water and sanitation. Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create,
and manage a venture to make social change. That means that the research group focus’ especially on areas with a lack of clean drinking water supply and severe hygiene and sanitation problems. Even the films presented during the week at Ikuwo pick up the water and sanitation issues and also take notice of the wider context of social entrepreneurship and benevolence. The next documentary film will be shown tonight on Sunday at the Ikuwo.
8
Big fat Thanks to the Moritz Media Group and especially Daniel, Luisa, Maria, Patrice and Sophie for their immense support!