So what´s next?

I will be going for one year to Budapest, ups ye I wish ;) no going for the happy month August to Budapest, visiting my family, learning more hungarian, eating the most delicious food on earth and enjoying the summer - as summers are supposed to be: sunny, warm and long lasting!

The autumn will be giving a taste of student life again, being in Bonn & returning to my studies which always need to be explained and justified "So what´s Ethnology about? and what the heck are you doing with that in life?" Things will be alright, no worries the less ordinary and established the better. I am not too worried about that. In fact I am quite excited about the next year and the time I will be able to do more profound studies again. This time though it will be the last and hopefully the most in depth paper I will be writing in the near future - my final thesis, which in Germany you pretty much could compare with a little book, as it has around 120 pages and takes at least 6 months of writing time.

Feel invited to visit me the next year in Bonn, it might be the last time that I am in Germany for long ;)

What´s next? originally uploaded by moko

Thursday we went out to take the official pictures for the anual report, just some meters from the office away. At the end of the entire long ritual of photo shooting in formal suits etc we finally did what some of us probably always felt like doing when passing this way, climbed up the big huge tree right next to the bridge. We had good laughter but for those few minutes when Venky took the pictures it was special and I am sure everyone was in his own sacred moment. When looking through those pictures in the evening it felt like June 2006 already, like looking back. I will miss you guys, also the ones which were missing on the tree ;)

The year is coming to an end...

Sunday Discussion
Originally uploaded by monokita.

A nice relaxing sunday afternoon, some current and new member of AIESEC International got together at Brodie´s place to have some tea and discuss about "Effortless action". The year will hold many more nice sunday afternoons and mind opening dicussions with the team mates from all over the world.

baby geese
Originally uploaded by monokita.

All the ducks and geese close to the AI office have little baby ducks and - baby geese again ;)

maas
Originally uploaded by monokita.

The fist time I actually see this view on Café Rotterdam across the Maas, just next to the student dorm on the very left side, where we stayed for two months during transition time. Its already half past nine and the sun is showing up shortly after a grey and rainy day. It created a little rainbow over the scenery when we arrived.

lamps in Bazar
Originally uploaded by monokita.

The evening is finally set by the darkness outside and the cosy atmosphere of Bazaar inside, an oriental café with great food close to the Maas and the Erasmus Bridge.
The 14 months in Rotterdam are finally coming to an end but the end is flowing with the beginning of a new exciting year for the next team, for the next one and a halft month transitioning our work, our experience and the environment to AIESEC International 2005-06.

"Gay Italian free to drive again"

A Sicilian court condemned road authorities for suspending the driving license of a man after finding out the he was gay. Being gay was merely "a personality disturbance", which had no bearing on a person´s driving ability, the court said.

The Guardian Weekly, June 10th 2005

Politics complexity and scary consequences

Again the feeling that we are not moving forward whether in the EU or in the european countries. There are too many worrying examples (e.g. Germany, Italy, France, The Netherlands, UK etc...) where the gap between civil society and governing side are drifting further apart. More and more people lose trust in what their government is doing and thus decide rather not to vote or to vote against governmental measures. (see recent referendums in F and NL)

It is not very suprising, considering that many average citizen probably don´t even understand their own country reality and political structures. How many would know what their own role is to benefit from and contribute to democracy and to the progress of their community and country?

The European population is evidently supposed - on top of their own countries - to be informed and to understand how the EU is contributing to the development of their countries, how the EU - systems, -policies or regulation enable a better living. Referendums on the EU constitution took place and are still to be hold with only little or hardly any understanding among the voters on what the constitution & the EU really means.

It is quite amazing to think about the fact, that when you turn 18, you are allowed to vote (in most of the european countries) - but how much did an 18 year old really learn about politics, parties in their country and the EU?

How can these forms of decision taking processes really reflect the opinion of european citizens, considering that most of them probably dont even know what they vote for?

The scary consequences one could foresee in the future is the clash of government & politics with society, meaning that both would be that far away from each other, not able overcome the challenges of communication/education that the government would have increased difficulties to steer and govern the country.

Interesting news article

BBC News, Varied reasons behind the Dutch `No´