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#RIGARS’14

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EDITORS:

Kristine Fainveica (LV)

Hannah Carter (DE)

"JOURNOLISTS:

Raitis Pekuss (LV)

Bils Gutfricis (LV)

Olga Sitinska (LV)

Nora Jekabsone (LV)

Anna Hagarova (CZ)

Gregor Bauer (CZ)

MEDIA TEAM

1-3 MAY 2014, RIGA REGIONAL SESSION

ISSUE 1, MAY 2014

First and only issue from Riga Regional session of European

Youth Parliament Latvia.""FOLLOW THE MEDIA TEAM:!"

TWITTER https://twitter.com/RigaRS14""

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/

RRS14""TUMBLR

https://rigars14.tumblr.com""VINE - rrsmediateam""""

EYP LATVIA ADMINISTRATION"e-mail: eyp@tellus.lv"

web-site: http://www.tellus.lv""TELLUS OFFICE: "

e-mail: info@tellus.lv"

#CONTENT

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#The Hashtag disease ! ! ! ! 4!

#Our wonderful media team ! ! ! 5!

#AFCO! ! ! ! ! ! 6-7!

#AFET! ! ! ! ! ! 8-9!

#ECON ! ! ! ! ! ! 10-11!

#EMPL! ! ! ! ! ! 12-13!

#ITRE! ! ! ! ! ! 14-15!

#LIBE! ! ! ! ! ! 16-17!

#RANDOM THIS AND RANDOM THAT 18-19

#THE HASHTAG DISEASE

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When we decided to Edit at RRS, we knew we wanted to do something great, but more importantly, something different. The world of journalism is changing and it’s time to change along with it. Back in 2010 when Hannah first started EYP, videos at sessions were rare and social media did not play

much of a role. Today we live our lives online, so why should EYP media be any different?

The media team at this session was full of new and fresh ideas. It was chaotic at times but it was fun and we owe it all to our motivated, crazy and amazing journos for making our

vision come true. The reason we have Journalists at sessions is because we

feel the need to share the big life events with others. “Pics or it didn’t happen”. !

We hope you enjoy this newspaper, the videos, the vines, the tumbler the twitter and everything else the press team threw

out there! With the best wishes,

Hannah Carter and Kristine Fainveica

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OUR #WONDERFUL TEAM

Raitis Pekuss Gregor Bauer Olga Sitinska

Nora JekabsoneBils GutfricisAnna Hagarova

!

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#AFCO

"The fact that seemingly secure personal data is on record on a huge scale is immensely frightening, and the ease with which the spying goes on only intensifies our fear of Hollywood fiction like ‘The Sentinel’ being rendered non-fictional. So how do you stop an organisation with the means, power, and will to breach peoples’ privacy from doing so? "

We're essentially tilting at windmills here. Ashton (AFCO) put it realistically enough: ‘It’s like telling a child not to take cookies from the cookie jar. Of course that’s what it’ll do.’ Many ideas are flying around inside AFCO’s committee room during cerebration, but the largest issue still proudly stands its ground, we’re dealing with a high-roller and are missing the ace up our sleeve. But if stopping the nosy children seems of no avail, perhaps we need to take the bluff or get a change of hand. "

Vice-President of the European Commission and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding spoke of the urgent need for a data protection reform in her January 2014 speech for the EC, providing examples of intelligence interception activity considered national security, therefore falling into Member State competence only. The EU cannot interfere, however grave a threat it poses for the sanctity of privacy. Not to mention how much the PRISM programme affects EU Member States and their citizens."

The reform would be part of a whole data protection framework, which, if applied effectively, could show citizens a strong Europe, one that upholds their right to privacy and gives them control over their data. This way, improvements can be made starting on national level.

THE WINDMILL TO BE TILTED!In light of the still recent surveillance revelations, it becomes clear how close to reality the thriller-fiction of governments’ and intelligence agencies’ secrecy actually is. by Gregor Bauer

Once trust between citizens and their governments is secure – or re-established, to be exact – Europe will have achieved a stable ground to build credibility on. In order to act as an example for other continents, and have a firm case for negotiations with the key actor of the surveillance scandal, the United States, with whom major trust issues also require resolving, and from whom, as Reding stressed, similar legislation is expected before the summer. Joint ventures are only possible with mutual reliance."

It is a case for a head aching, but a solution in the making. Reding spoke of debates going round and round in circles, while headlines have reminded us of why the reform is important."

‘Discussions are mature. The text is ready. It is just a matter of political will.’"

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Physical Linguistics by Sindija & Edvards

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"Gaze of Love and Hurt Feelings by Rudolfs and Peteris"

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Hesitation by Lukas

Frustration by Ilva

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"" The truth is written in stone. Rhyme-as-reason effect. As soon as they taught us to read, they told us, that what is written, stands forever. Writing something used to be for good. If you carve something in a stone, sure as hell you will make up your mind about correctness. Papyrus, parchment and ink, if we move a little bit forward, have never been the most traded supplies, neither nowadays, nor ever. People consider everything that takes time and effort. But if writing something takes sixty seconds instead of hours priorities shift. And, speaking of truth, as was more than once said, the truth is way more complicated than that. Than what? Anything. And it would surprise you how one thing can be said in different ways and give different impressions. Lead to different thoughts and conclusions. Evoke different reactions."" Since the dawn of ages, people have been eager to pay for information. Intelligence has always meant advantage. We see it in our fast, ever-moving, global society in ways that hardly anyone could ever even think of. The first to know has the advantage. And because ‘if it rhymes, it has to be truth’, it is the truth. If the theory is not in accord with the data, change the data. The human brain is incredibly flexible (both figuratively and literally speaking). "" Remember, what you were doing during the committee work or at some points during the teambuilding. You get the

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#AFETZoom out!Different angles. Opposite directions. Two points of view. It helps. If you know them all.

by Anna Hagarova

facts, and it is up to you to come up with a conclusion. The more information you get, the more complicated the task is, right? But simple is the way to hell, even though it is paved by good intents. "" I don’t think you have seen me without a camera, during this session. So, let it be a good excuse for repetition. I have already asked you to zoom out a little. I am doing it again.

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AND now AFETS be AFEcTive

Some of these facts are true, some are not. How well do you know your fellow delegates? Can you tell?

" """""The steps that a country has to take to comprehensively introduce a new currency are very complex. Yet they do not consist only of updating the price tags in shops. In addition to the practical and physical familiarisation with new money - its appearance and security features - citizens also have to become acquainted with the legal tender at a more fundamental level, one that relates to the value of it. One issue people face is still thinking and performing their budget evaluation in the currency they had before. The differences in the values of the respective currencies can cause faulty results and your budget might be greatly flawed. Surveys have shown that while the technical process of changing a currency can be accomplished in a matter of weeks, mental adaptation might even take decades.The official webpage of European Union claims that only 40 % of Latvians use Euros for calculating common purchases such as day-to-day shopping. Of course, this number will grow over the years, but the fact that it has created misunderstandings for the citizens remains relevant. Also there are always concerns that changing the currency will increase the inflation rate. Before Latvia joined the Euro Zone, 57% of its citizens believed that inflation would rise. Yet this argument is rather speculation that legitimate fact. Considering the experience of the Member States that joined the Euro Zone earlier, it is seen that it depends more on the time at which the country joined and what policies it chose to undertake, meaning that we cannot definitely claim that the introduction of the Euro will change the dynamic of inflation in a country.

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#ECON!Changing Currencies How the introduction of the euro has affected Latvians and their way of handling money.

by Raitis Pekuss

"The impact of the new currency upon citizens differs. While some of them adapt to change pretty well, I’ve heard others say that they feel as if the Euro is like monopoly money and that they have lost their sense of the value of goods. The change of currency damages this sense of value and in many instances, it has to be acquired from the very beginning. And that, in turn, creates cases when a person overpays for something and his spendings are not adequate. Of course, people benefit from the Euro being introduced, however, the process entails many drawbacks as well. We must educate ourselves and learn to adapt in order to truly enjoy the tremendous advantages that the Euro has to offer. "

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"" """ "" We, the Millennium generation, are the lucky ones. Young adults in Europe can make friends for life while learning skills that are not taught in school. Our education system is like push-ups for the brain. Muscles are useless if we do not know how to use them. Let’s be smart and use them effectively!"" Thousands of educated people care about us, including EMPL. They are worried about youth unemployment. For example, the EU is working to reduce youth unemployment and to increase its rate in line with the wider EU target of achieving a 75% employment rate for the working-age population (20-64 years). To reach the target, different organisations are working with young adults everyday. The European Job Mobility Portal EURES (ec.europa.eu/eures/) provides job-matching services for free. 850 EURES advisers are in daily contact with jobseekers and employers across Europe. Before you reduce the number of unemployed young adults in the EU, I suggest you to go on a road trip around Europe. Just imagine a delicious pizza in Italy, sunny beaches i n G r e e c e a n d N o r w e g i a n t r o l l h u n t i n g . “Worldnomads” (scholarships.worldnomads.com) right now are looking for new writers, who want to participate in writing workshops in the capital of Germany, Berlin, and after that write about their experience during a 10 days long trip. So, where is your pen? "

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#EMPL!You'll never feel happy!until you try

by Nora Jekabsone

" Writing is not the only way to express opinions and experience. Debating skills are essential nowadays, during simulations of the negotiations in the European Union many job-seekers (aged 18 - 26) are getting better and better at that. One of the biggest kind of such simulations is Model European Union (meu-strasbourg.org), where 180 Europeans put themselves in politicians, lobbyists and journalists shoes. Like EYP, this event brings passionate people together, and what’s better than that? Well, there is something better. Different deadlines are calling on the biggest student opportunity data base heysuccess.com. "" Catch you opportunity and make your muscles work.""

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#with love, Nora

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"""Currently the electric vehicle market is a small fraction of the overall vehicle market. But there’s a reason why the most influential car producers are heading towards the manufacturing of electric cars. Tesla Model S. The cost to drive Tesla for 320 kilometers in Europe would be around 15 Euros. I would say for a family car with achieved best safety rating of any car ever tested and a car that’s acceleration is comparable to Porche’s 911 and a car that you fill up with 320 km mileage’ in 2 hours for free in a public charging stations. Knowing the EU’s movement towards green energy’s acquisition and imported amounts of fossil fuels, there’s no doubt that electric cars would only advance various industries in member states furthermore lowering green house gas emissions.

It’s true that that the production and disposal of electrical vehicle batteries isn’t environmentally efficient, but it must be viewed from a long-term perspective. If we don’t invest in and scale the fossil-free technologies we’re developing today, like

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#ITRE!E-Cars. See why Europe needs them.Think of yourself."

by Bils Gutfricis

electrical vehicles, the potentially ground-breaking technologies of tomorrow become less and less likely.

Until we clear our desks of the clutter of old ideas and tired norms, we won’t be able to reinvent growth in the way that we need to – truly solving the problems that threaten our shared and prosperous future. There’s no major infrastructure needed to go electric, and I think the technology challenges facing the industry today will be answered in time.

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!" """"If something is wrong we try to solve the problem or change the circumstances. Third-world and Middle East countries are not the exception. People want to escape from bad economic conditions as well as from the infringement of their rights, to safer and more prosperous countries. ""Immigration to Europe started increasing in the 1980s and continues onwards. It remains the most popular destination with 72 million international migrants in 2013, compared to 71 million in Asia. Lately it has been the North region affected the most. According to the fact that in some countries the level of immigrants is quite high, it faces several global problems. ""Firstly, loosing the national identity of its own indigenous people as well as having the native people being replaced with the immigrants in the workplaces, which do not require higher education. Secondly, demographic problems in third-world countries. People, who immigrated to the other countries are barely returning home. In the beginning it causes reduction of the development, but as time goes by, it stops completely.

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#LIBE!The other side of immigration

by Olga Sitinska

Concentrating on all the national-level-problems, society forgets about the thing that should be a priority - immigrants. They are people who left their country for the better life. Unfortunately, they all face the hardships of integrating into society, even despite the fact, that in the now popular immigrant destination, Scandinavia, tolerance and politeness are defining qualities. ""To sum it up, the issue of immigration is growing day by day. As long as global problems are solved by higher institutions, the problem of integration can be solved by the native ones. Eventually, you never know what tomorrow will bring. May be one day you will become the immigrant. So be aware of how you behave with a people.

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#RANDOM THIS AND RANDOM THAT!

! by Gregor Bauer!"List of things you won’t forget.Things of preference, things of heart,things in which you all took part Feet and coffee, cats and tea,choosings’s toughie, but it’s free,day is long and night’s no rest,TELL ME, BABY, WHAT’S THE BEST?

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1%13%

13%

28%

28%

16%

margherita salamihawaii funghyquattro formaggi tuna

Favourite pizza is…?

1%

45%54%

TEA COFFEE NO CLUE

COFFEE OR TEA?!

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Your shoe size?

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65%

32%

day night no

DAY OR NIGHT?

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I like I have

CAT OR DOG?

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7,5

15

22,5

30

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HAIR COLOUR PREFERENCES