Theliverpudlian4

The official newspaper of The 58Th inTernaTional eYp session in liverpool

25 July 2008 issue 4

The Liverpudlian

eYp Goes Underground

2 | The Liverpudlian | 25 July 2008

EditorialconTenTs &

conTriBUTors

25 July 2008 issue 4

3 Moving ahead with hss. ceyda erten

3 news in Brief. conor Mahon, andris suvajevs & Begum erdogan

4 partying with the liverpool four. Karolina Joensson & stefan vandenhende

6 eurvoice ‘08. Michela candi & ceyda erten

8 one city...six worlds.

10 intercultural Dialogue. Maite Karssenberg

11 parlez vous français? leonie wahjudi & Michela candi

12 a spot of fun. caspar Jansen & Karolina Joensson

12 why are we here? stan Korshunov, andris suvajevs & Begum erdogan

14 Blogs

15 coffee Break soap-Boxing. Janet coen

16 The fabulous Three. Ben woolgar & pablo Mellado

eDiTorial

picTUre of The DaY

Essentially, being human is about being able telling the difference

between right and wrong. What makes matters complicated is the fact that the decision is based on our personal moral standards and perception of the world. Differences between these perceptions are the root of all ethnic, religious and po-litical conflicts around the world to-day as well as in the past.

Passing judgment on people is easy. Once in a position of superiority, many feel bullet-proof and easily forget basic rules of social interaction; respect for all individuals, impartiality and professionalism. What is of-ten pushed to the background is the respon-sibility that comes with any decision-making power. Whether it’s organising an event, or leading a team, some manage to find ways of making sure that they deserve the trust put into them, and don’t abandon the qualities which made them the right person for the job. Others, once power is put in their hands, change. Confusing your own responsibilities and roles inevitably results in passing judg-ment on others in situations where a step back would be the best thing to do.

Labelling things right and wrong is much less painful than receiving the same la-bels. We are often quick to criticize the East of mismanagement in their politics, econom-ics, even religion. If we hear criticism towards the values we have set and learnt to live with, such as democracy, freedom of expression and gender equality, we feel the immediate need to fight back, and change the minds of those with whom we are not alike. Looking at examples around us, we rant against decisions of the world superpowers but are unable to accept criticism towards things we ourselves have taken responsibility for.

Today and tomorrow, judgment will be in your hands. During GA, you will all raise your hands in support or disagreement to-wards the work of others like you. What makes the difference is what you will choose to base your decision upon – immediate reac-tion and gut instinct, or attentive evaluation and sensitivity towards the arguments of the other side. Depending on this, the result will be either a deepened gap between the two sides, or a mutual interest to understand and assess the thoughts process of the opponent.

speakers’ corner in the Union

Dear Reader,

Milda&Edward™

We would like to apologise for any offence caused to EYP Romania in Issue 3 of The Liverpudlian. We would like to reassert that we have the utmost respect for EYP Romania, it’s series of annual events, and being a democratically elected member of the board of National Committees, we have no concerns regarding the structure of its organisation.

eurvoiceOn Thursday morning a num-ber of delegates participated in EurVoice. The gathering with the production of a radio show, hosted by Phil Eston, on Citi radio 105.9. Several MEP also attended the event, including; Arelene McCarthy MEP and Gary Titley MEP.

happy al’s revengeDouble-decker buses dis-criminate tall people. English double decker buses solve real transport issues, by pro-viding double the number of passengers per equal area of road space. Participants have however reported deficiencies in both leg room and head room when travelling with Happy Al’s busses. This phe-nomenon has been especially felt amongst the taller par-ticipants, coming from coun-tries such as Belgium, and the Netherlands.

euro concertYesterday evening saw LivE-YP’s finest musicians perform for the session, and a num-ber of invited guests. Perfor-mances also came from local Liverpool acts, such as urban dance group, Don’t Sweat It! The performance took place in the Cornerstone Centre, and ended with a communal rendition of, I get by with a little help from my friends.

NEWS IN BRIEF

More page 5 »

25 July 2008 | The Liverpudlian | 3

News in Brief

Since the International Session in Riga in 2002, Jan Philipp Beck has

been involved with EYP. Strangely, at the beginning of his EYP adventure, he did not want to continue with it. However, after being asked to chair at the International Session in Prague in 2003, a session he describes as be-ing absolutely fantastic, he clearly changed his mind. He held the presi-dency of EYP Germany between 2006 and 2008. Jan Philipp is now one of the four officers in EYP International Office, working continuously to link various EYP events across Europe. We had a chat with Jan Philipp about the Heinz-Schwarzkopf Foundation, a foundation that generously sup-ports EYP activities.

If the word “Schwarzkopf ” sounds famil-iar to you, it is not surprising; it is the same Schwarzkopf that gives the famous shampoo

Moving ahead with HSSHSS has safeguarded the future of EYP, but how many know what it is? It is time to get behind the name, and into just how this partnership has blossomed. Ceyda Erten reports.

brand its name. The Heinz-Schwarzkopf-Stiftung (HSS) is a foundation established in 1971 in memory of Heinz Schwarzkopf. He was killed in a tragic car accident in 1969. Be-ing a big supporter of European integration, the foundation was set up by his wife to sup-port projects and organisations promoting this cause.

In 2004, the need for a stable office for EYP International became obvious. With the generous support of the Heinz-Schwarzkopf-Stiftung, an EYP office with a stable address and professional face was set up in Berlin. This secured EYP’s future, as the offices are maintained by the annual interest raised from the money set aside by Mr. Schwarzkopf ’s wife. The International Office now manages a website, helps oversee the EYP administration and Governing Body, and co-ordinates activi-ties of the National Committees. It also helps get support from EU institutions, and makes sure the National Committees exercise EU applications. It also assists secure EU grants and advises on fundraising for International Sessions.

The HSS supports many other youth ac-tivities along with EYP. “Young European of the Year” is one award given out every year. People who made a difference to Europe with various projects undertaken voluntarily are encouraged to apply for the award. One past winner from the Netherlands was recognised for his travels around the country informing people about the Constitutional Treaty. An-other project was talking to the local people of Hungary about enlargement policies of the EU.

HSS also supports young people of Europe by providing travel grants each year. These are available for projects that fulfil an educational purpose. Past projects include trips to other countries for university research, interviews, or even trips for personal interest.

A number of seminars and study trips are also organised by the HSS, however they are currently limited to within Germany for the time being. An upcoming event is a four day conference on extremism. The conference will take place free from press coverage, aim-ing to give youth more space for free expres-sion. High level decision makers, including the Foreign Minister, will be in attendance in panel discussions. ◆

‘This is the best EYP-event I have ever been to!’ shouted Koen (BE)

while hopping around during The Beatles Experience, one of UK’s best Beatles cover bands. While interviewing people beforehand it was clear that everyone longed for that Wednesday’s Beatles Theme night, it was supposed to be THE big night and that is exactly what it was.

It started when everyone gathered around our precious Superlambanana, colours were sparkling with everyone dressed according to the Beatles theme. Costume highlights were Sgt. Pepper’s very own Campbell and Mike, with Tony completely going for Disco Fever.

Almost everyone was wearing some sort of Beatles outfit, ranging from styl-ish sixties outfits like Timo (BE) to hip-pie Carlene (UK). The excitement was

buzzing through the whole bus with fans discussing what songs the band ought to play and sharing facts about ‘The most famous club in the world!’, where we were heading to.

The Beatles made their first perfor-mance in The Cavern in 1961, followed by 291 others. This and lot’s more set the club’s reputation until today.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the four bronze Beatles and while descending the stairs DJ Ben Marshall’s old school tunes started setting the mood for a won-derful evening.

The club was already starting to heat up when the band started the first part of their gig, immediately the EYP-crowd started dancing as if we went forty years back in time.

45 minutes later we had created our very own sauna, including showers of sweat, but no one seemed to care and

why would they? An EYP consensus had been reached: they were breath-taking. After a quick pint and a bit of fresh air, we embarked on another travel into Beatles space and it only got better.

The evening’s top moment was defi-nitely the encore, accompanied by Sgt. Pepper Mike, The Beatles Experience played an amazing version of Imagine, our EYP anthem.

The dehydrated crowd left the oven to continue partying in the main room of the club guided by Ben’s indie tunes while the beer continued flowing. The night was legendary, everything and more then everyone had expected. ◆

The Beatles night, referred to as the best eYp party ever, inspired many elaborate costumes.

Partying with the Liverpool Fourby Karolina Joensson & Stefan Vandenhende

Retrospect


chairs team miss party due to resolution typing Chairs arrived late to the Beatles Party on Wednesday night, due to extended reso-lution proofreading. They left as the 11:30 pm bus began to bring delegates back to Hope. Chairs did not get to see the live performance, which was widely hailed as “the best EYP party ever”.

Unexpected wake-up call for hope’s guest A 75 year-old man was alleg-edly woken up by organiser David James, at 7 am Wednes-day morning. The gentleman was attending a hymn choir at Liverpool Hope Univer-sity. When asked to comment on the incident, David James commented, “I just banged on every door.”

fire alarm disrupts last hours of committee workOn the last day of commit-tee work, committees in the HCA building were inter-rupted by several fire alarms. One committee even resorted to writing their resolution on the grass in the courtyard. The cause of the fire alarms is unknown, but no one was re-ported to have been hurt.

NEWS IN BRIEF

interview with the Beatles experienceIn between their two sets, we were lucky enough to get backstage for an exclusive interview with the band. We entered a dark, hot room full of costumes and instruments. We were welcomed by four friendly, down-to-earth guys, who were enjoying refreshments and preparing for the rest of the concert.Q. How did you come up with idea to start playing as a cover band?A. The first thing was that we were all great fans of the Beatles. It is really important to have a great passion for the band when you decide to become a cover band, otherwise there is a risk that a lack of passion and enthusiasm arises. Also, we were all anxious to try something new that we could

earn some money for. Money was a very important is-sue when we were deciding upon this.Q. How did you create your sound?

A.We knew the basics already, after listening to the band for almost 30 years. Then we

just practiced and listened. We are getting better after each gig, because we always

hear new things that need to be improved. The best way is to watch videos and listen to different live versions of the same songs.

Q. Do you get to tour outside of the UK?A. Yes we do. Mostly within Europe.

We recently played at a wedding in Malta and at a party in France.


“When it comes to choosing sessions, we are not stupid. ”

p.12

EurVoice ‘08: EYP issues, Liverpudlian thinkingHaving spend Thursday morning in the Liner, Michela Candi & Ceyda Erten report on one of the key local participation events of the session: EurVoice ‘08.

The hall in the Liner where Eurovillage

was held just a couple of days ago now hosts an-other very exciting event: EurVoice ‘08. Yesterday, instead of only EYPers, local youth were discuss-ing issues of environ-ment, participation, and employment together with delegates.

Mike Leyland, the Head Organiser, opened the event and spoke briefly about his ex-perience with LivEYP, followed by Claire McColgan, Executive Producer of Liverpool Culture Company, talked about the creative community project and engagement of the people with their own culture.

George Howarth, MP, shared the three most impor-tant things he has learned in his political career: being aware of interdependent institutions, knowing that most people want the same improvements in their communities, and em-phasizing human rights.

He also expressed his satis-faction with the session theme “Many faces, different spaces.” Arlene McCarthy, MEP, said she was very pleased to wel-come us to the city of Liver-pool. She also mentioned that the resolutions produced at this session will be taken into

consideration by the European Parliament.

Six groups were chaired by the journalists and came up with five questions to pose to the panel after having done brainstorming about their is-sues. One group had a sheet of paper stating what they are glad and what they would like to improve about the city of Liverpool.

Discussions were extreme-ly lively. The Liverpudlians were even more active during discussions, and it was a won-derful experience seeing EYP participants and local youth exchange their views on cur-

rent issues.The panel session was re-

corded and is going to be publi-cized at City Talk 105.9. Chair-man Phil Easton coordinated the discussion, and the panel-ists Gary Titley, MEP, Sir Bob Scott, International Director of Liverpool Culture Company, Jan-Philipp Beck, Programme Mana of the European Youth Parliament, and Laura Keating, Trainee Multimedia Journalist of Ariel Trust answered ques-tions from the floor.

The questions mainly fo-cused on how to involve the youth into politics and how to make sure that their voices

could be heard. The panellists all had a common view that the youth should be more involved in daily issues, and there should be more platforms for them to stand up and state their opin-ions.

Both the Liverpool youth and the EYPers were extremely pleased with the outcome of this gathering. They said it was a unique experience hear-ing about the Liverpool youth’s opinions on the issues dis-cussed. They also noted that this event gave them another perspective while looking at Liverpool as the Capital of Culture.

Similarly, the Liver-pudlians were delighted by this platform, and most of them wanted to learn more about EYP. ◆

“it was a unique experience hearing

about the liverpool youth’s opinions

on the issues discussed”


Retrospect


local and eYp youth spent the day discussing issues addressed in session’s committee topics.

EurVoice ‘08 panel: “young people do care”

25 July 2008 | The Liverpudlian | 7 25 July 2008 | The Liverpudlian | 7

“i’m really happy when i see events like eurvoice.

i think these kinds of events are just brilliant

because they make young people from

all over europe work together”

In some countries the young generation is not so interested in politics. How is it possible to get them more involved in the political sphere?

Arlene McCarthy: Nowadays the EU is a leader in trying to involve younger generations in politics with many campaigns. That’s because the EU knows that young people do care about the future. They are certainly concerned about issues such as the environment, employment, university and education. It’s important to talk and let them know about issues that directly affect them, so that they will consider joining political parties.

Gary Titley: The European Com-mission is organising a lot of issues for getting young people involved in the political sphere. In our time com-munication has become really easy thanks to new technologies and ev-erybody has access to them. We have

to focus on the internet, I think, be-cause young people can get engaged through the web and new communi-cation.

What do you think the European youth is doing in a really good way and what, on the other hand, should they try to im-prove?

Gary Titley: I think that younger generations should try to have more responsibility and to get a bit more engaged in politics. Nevertheless, I’m really happy when I see events like EurVoice. I think these kinds of events are just brilliant because they make young people from all over Eu-rope work together and cooperate.

How would you connect culture, youth and politics?

Claire McColgan: Culture is a part of everyone, and the young people should definitely be connected to their own culture. One way to con-nect youth, culture, and politics is to get young parliamentarians into work. When the young people see youth-ful politicians, they use them as role models. Young people feel that they are more accessible. The importance of culture should be emphasized by those politicians.

The debate panel of eurvoice had a number of honourable guests from various local and eU institutions, including members of the european parliament.

EurVoice ‘08 was attended by a number of prestigious guests were Arlene McCarthy and Gary Tit-ley, both Members of the European Parliament, and Claire McColgan, Executive Producer of Liverpool Culture Company. Ceyda Erten & Michela Candi talked to them about the young generation of the European Union.

•••


World in our City

al rahma Mosquefood festival

Free food, great views, and more free food; this was a group which got seriously lucky. We

were led first to the Panoramic Restaurant, which gave us spectacular views of Liverpool from the 34th floor. After that, food was in order, as the group tucked into a spectacular feast of fishcakes, roast beef, ham, cheese and potato salad, roast beef, ham, cheese and potato salad.

Mohammed Mohammed, the former trustee of the Liverpool Muslim Soci-

ety, informed the EYPers about the teachings of Islam and fought against some of the cyni-cal stereotypes the western media often stick to. “Islam is definitely against racism. We are bound to respect each other regardless of our religious beliefs,” says Mr. Mohammed.

one city...World in our city gave a unique opportunity to participants of the 58th International Session in Liverpool to launch themselves into the community, and learn about the city that has hosted them so well over the past week. Many faces, and different spaces were certainly explored, as was the session theme in six unique visits. Through the support and partnership of many local organisations, young Europeans got a taste of Liverpool’s rich cultural tapestry, and the work that goes on in the city to engage its youth on a daily basis. Be it engagement with religion, or an appre-ciation of food, every taste was catered for.

This event picked up perfectly on the European year of Intercultural Dialogue, celebrating a wide range of inter-ests with young Europeans from all different backgrounds. By listening in on conversation held between participants upon returning from their respective events, the different experiences truly did unite them all by their diversity.


Merseyside Youth associationBrouhaha carnival

Visiting the costume designers’ studio was like a journey to a fantasy world: Long rows of

beautifully coloured costumes, magnificent masks hanging at the walls, ever busy artists working on new ideas and templates. Being united by the cel-ebration of their cultures, these people showed us how intercultural dialogue can work other than EYP, and without any politics.

The place offered several different activi-ties, such as recording songs, helping out

with props for an upcoming production of Macbeth, as well as a dance studio. Two men taught us some Liverpool slang. When some-thing is beast or boss it’s really good. Other common expressions are ledge (cool) and kidder (friend).

...six worlds

Brouhaha carnival

Take two hundred artists from all over the world, let them work together with all their creativity and enthusiasm; and you will have the world’s culture in your city. This is what the charitable arts organi-zation “Brouhaha” was founded for in 1991 Mutual understanding expressed through dancing - we had the chance to witness the rehearsals of highly gifted and skilled young people coming from eight countries and five continents.

al rahma Mosque

Established in 1964, Al Rahma Mosque of Liverpool is a place of worship for Muslim people from nearly fifty different nationalities. The Liverpool Muslim Society which funds the mosque is actually the oldest Muslim community in the UK. The organisation facilitates the communication of Muslims living in Liverpool by providing daily prayers, free meals, centres for the elderly, sporting clubs for children and weekend Arabic lessons.

Merseyside Youth association

The Merseyside Youth Association is an organisation that tailores its program after the “Every child matters” agenda. We were a group of 13 people that walked through the doors as a more or less gloomy group, but when leaving, the exhilaration was noticeable even after just a few hours of the visit.

shakespeare festival

The ‘Shakespeare’ trip on Thursday morning entailed a visit to rehearsals of the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ The actors began with a run-through by the costume designer of what they would be wearing in the production. They then moved on to some warm up games and exercises, which were extremely loud and involved a lot of movement. It was a bit surreal, watching them, because we were all so tired and they were so full of energy. They read through a scene from the play together, altering the performance in accordance with the director’s advice.


Intercultural Dialogue

Hopefully, you all filled in the questionnaire about LivEYP

2008 and consequently gave some wise and eye-opening answers to the GLAD/SAD/ADD questions.

Roisin and Christof are taking care of the results. They passionately told me about the reasons they value your opinions so much: ‘We want to take multiculturalism to the next step. In a lot of cities, ethnic minor-ities still stick together, and by celebrating differences and finding a common ground, we can break this trend”. Neil Peterson (Head of International Relations and Project Man-ager of the Liverpool Culture Company) added that to give young people a chance to be involved in city’s policy making, it is essential to “understand what young people want, what they like about where they live

and what they want to change. Basically, what do they think makes a city better?”

Roisin and Christof are completing a work placement on behalf of the Culture Company, the organisation that delivers the programme for Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008. This is the UK’s official con-tribution to the EU’s Year of the Intercultur-al Dialogue, a year that is all about cultural diversity, engaging various communities, active European citizenship, and of course our already legendary theme “many faces and different spaces”. Amongst the main areas concerned in this, there are culture, youth and citizenship, so this questionnaire was an excellent chance to get your opinion out there.

Although the results will be presented during GA on Saturday, I decided to give the readers of The Liverpudlian a sneak pre-

view. In the GLAD section, “nice people” and “the vibrancy” of most hometowns of EYPers were considered to be a good thing. A lot of people called their city “alive”. Nega-tive things mentioned (SAD) were traffic jams, trash and a lack of “green places”. In addition to that, what most people want to add to their cities are parks, better architec-ture, more cultural elements and better in-frastructure. “A higher skyline” and “better weather’” were also considered very impor-tant.

In conclusion, the Culture Company and the European Commission can be proud of us. We communicated our opinions about our cities’ best and worst features, made connections between various European spaces, and according to Neil Peterson, we participated in “one of the key young people events” of the Year of the Intercultural Dia-logue.

During the session, participants have been asked to tellus, what about your city is Sad, Glad, Add? Maite Karssenberg

Intercultural Dialogue

“Nice people and the vibrancy of most EYPers’ hometowns were considered to be a good thing”

a puzzle of notes. Making sense of the information before us.


Opinion

Parlez vous Français?Tu parles français?“ -

“Un peu.“ C’était la réponse la plus fréquente pendant notre sondage sur la langue française dans le Parlement Eu-ropéen des Jeunes (PEJ). C’est un résultat qui n’est pas très satisfaisant pour la deuxième langue offi-cielle de l’organisation.

Toujours pendant l’histoire du PEJ, il y a eu des discussions sur la suppression du français. En même temps, il y a des gens qui veulent le garder absolument. A LivE-YP, il y a un comité qui tra-vaille uniquement en français (DROI). Prenant cette innova-tion comme une impulsion, nous voulions savoir ce que vous pensiez du sujet.

La plupart des délégués aime bien le français com-me langue, mais ne le parle pas assez bien pour l’utiliser pendant les discus-sions. Cepen-dant, presque tout le monde a p p r é c i e l ’ex is tence

d’un groupe qui travaille en français, car cela donne la possibilité de pratiquer une autre langue par rapport à l’anglais. Cependant, pendant l’Assemblée Générale, ceux qui ne parlent pas français ou ne le connaissent pas beaucoup se sentent exclus au moment où quelqu’un parle dans cette langue. C’est pour cela qu’ils

aimeraient bien que les fran-cophones fas-

sent un effort en parlant

douce-

ment. Les “native

speakers“ qui par-lent trop vite et parfois

dominent les débats. C’est

un problème bien connu concernant les

participants Irlandais et Bri-tanniques. Les préconisateurs du français soutiennent une deuxième langue pour équili-brer cet avantage des “English native speakers“. De plus, il y a beaucoup de délégués qui maîtrisent mieux le français que l’anglais.

Parmi les français, les opinions sur le sujet sont très variées. D’un côté, pour eux c’est plus facile de communi-quer en français, surtout parce que l’apprentissage des langues étrangères en France, à leur avis, n’a pas un assez bon niveau. D’autre part, les sessions i n t e r n a -t i o n a l e s sont une très bonne o p p o r t u -nité pour a m é l i o r e r leur anglais. “Je ne suis pas venue en Angle-terre pour par-ler français“ a affirmé une dé-l é g u é e f r a n -

çaise interviewée. Certains estiment que

n’utiliser qu’une seule langue serait beaucoup plus facile. D’autres participants, par con-tre, pensent que le fait d’en avoir deux fête la diversité des langues européennes. Certains délégués ont même exprimé leur souhait de travailler en utilisant d’autres langues, par exemple l’allemand.

Des sessions dans toutes les langues. C’est une idée intéressante. De cette façon chacun pourrait améliorer sa propre connaissance dans les

langues étrangères qu’il con-naît. Mais de cette façon

on aurait probablement beaucoup moins de participants. La langue principale du PEJ reste l’anglais, et quelques fois

le français aussi. ◆

Leonie Wahjudi & Michela Candi

“D’un côté, pour eux c’est plus facile de communiquer en français, surtout parce que l’apprentissage des langues étrangères en france, à leur avis, n’a pas un assez bon niveau.”


Feature


Delegates reviel their deepest and darkest passions and se-

crets. We put them to the test to find out who here is the biggest baby, the most annoying official and who is the most likely to be childish enough to bring his favourite toys to this session. Keep reading, and

you will find out everything you’ve always wanted to know!

We started out with a rather modest question; why do you think the English have lunch for breakfast? Most people (outside of the UK) agreed that there is something genetically wrong with them, or even that they’ve lived on an island for too long. How-

ever, the same group also agreed bacon and scrambled eggs is actually rather genious.

We then turned to questioning our morning rituals. Wake up calls is an essential part of EYP. Unsurprisingly, those in charge of them were unanimously considered the most annoying officials. Carl-Alexander and Richard Royal (both members of the or-ganiser team) were two widely heard names.

Whilst on the topic of orgas, we took the opportunity to see how our beloved Head Organiser Mike Leyland has been per-ceived. We asked them to compare him with one animal, and the answer was Jimmy the Hamster. Some suggested that Jimmy’s dad (Cerith Evans) had taught Mike some cheeky tricks at one of those organiser’s meetings. Mike’s only response was, “I did not have sexual intercourse with that hamster”.

Other weird things happen at EYP ses-sions, like Irish boys; Eoin Rogers in particu-lar. He enjoyed hiding under their fellow fe-male delegates’ beds, pretending that he was Gollum.

Why are we here?

A spot of funThe opportunity to make new friends often brings people coming back

Andris Suvajevs, Stan Korshunov & Begüm Erdoğan on the new EYP Consumer. We have choices, but how do we make them?

Delegates reveal their deepest and darkest passions and secrets. Caspar Jansen & Karolina Jönsson go on a quest to find out who is the biggest baby, the strictest official and who is the most childish enough to bring their favourite toys to this session.


Why are we here?


The strength of the EYP model is such

that new participants from all across Europe are increasingly willing to travel great distances to experience its ses-sions. The number of young Europeans will-ing to apply for sessions is growing, and this has inspired national com-mittees (NC’s) to organ-ise a host of new events. Organisers try to fix dates of sessions so as not to coincide with each other, but we are now in a situation where NC’s are in competition with one another. There are only a limited number of delegates out there, so why do we choose the

sessions we choose, and how have we responded to having the luxury of choice?

When it comes to choosing ses-sions, we are not stupid. Jan-Philipp Beck sheds some light on this, and discusses the applications received for LivEYP 2008. “Delegates very much want to keep their options open. We see a huge number of appli-cations to reserve places, so much so that we have a long waiting list. How-ever, it is fascinating to see that once the date comes where a deposit must be paid, a large number of people pull out. It’s all about signing up to every-thing, finding out where your friends are going, and playing the system. It can be frustrating and hard to judge numbers, but it is also fascinating to watch”.

When people choose sessions, they consider many aspects before deciding whether to book their ticket. One big aspect that plays a big role in the EYPer’s mind is the reputation of the session. Sessions fall into three main categories – national, regional and international. International ses-sions are of course considered to be the most prestigious, and for good reason. Huge efforts are put into the

organisation of these sessions, and the quality shows.

The opportunity to see old friends is also a huge pull factor. Grabbing a few precious days of EYP induced fun with friends you rarely see, is enough to make you forget the finer details. Some have started to see sessions more like a holiday, and NC’s are even marketing their events as such.

A country’s reputation in the terms of previously organised ses-sions can carry a lot of weight, for those seeking a quality EYP experi-ence. Some NC’s certainly have more organisational experience than oth-ers. The cost of travel is also a major factor. Low cost air travel has made all of this possible, but the conve-nience of routes depends very much upon where you live. Living near an airport with a low cost airline flying frequent routes to Spain, for example, will make you more likely to attend a Spanish session.

As you see, many aspects are to be considered, however, there are not set rules. The bottom line is, EYPer’s are crazy enough to travel across Eu-rope simply to have fun. ◆

Weird things are essential at EYP ses-sions, and every one of them makes sure to bring a few along. The delegates let us know that David James was a valuable asset. So too was a new interpretation of the golden rule like, “No peeing on the carpet and no more English food”.

It seems like delegates don’t have confi-dence in our dear Mr. President Ian Millar, believing that the things he likes the most in the entire world are ponies and Facebook. Talking about Ian, Caspar and Bentley were named as this session’s biggest babies. Tony the organiser, on the other hand, was the clear winner in the best looking official com-petition.

Knowing the ins and outs of this ses-sion, keep letting the journos know about all the fun and juicy gossip and we be sure to love you for it! Keep spreading rumours, keep making gossip! ◆

a delegate and his microphone put on a good performance of teamwork


Blogs


The full range of session blogs can be found at the pressroom website from sunday 27th July. Journos have been blogging on their impressions of committees, the session, and their experience of working at liveYp2008. Make sure to check them out after the session.

Deve: stefanA political incorrect

atmosphere was buzzing in the air when the de-velopers started to brain-storm about their Com-mittee Shout. Here are some of the quotes:

- Africaaaaaa Afri-caaaaaa, get Belgium out of Africaaa

- Africaaaaaa Afri-caaaaaa, get China out of Africaaaa

- A f r i c a a a a a a Africaaaaaa,Wildlife and nature in Africaaaaa

- Africaaaaaa Afri-caaaaaa, There’s no water in Africaaaa

- We shouldn’t laugh, it’s real...

- Benny: Maybe we’re being to problem orient-ed?

- Steffen: Are there problems in Africa?Tuesday, 22 July 2008

eMpl: Janet When I dropped by,

they were talking about

‘stopping ageing’...which is a rather more unusual ex-ercise! It transpired, after some laughter, that they were actually discuss-ing how best to deal with the problem of Europe’s ageing population. If my memory serves me cor-rectly, the resolution did not explicitly state that it was necessary to discover the secret of eternal life.Tuesday, 22 July 2008

liBe2: casparTuesday, also known

as the day of tough dis-cussions, compromising, experts and committee dinner. I wasn’t there in the morning, but I under-stood that it was a pretty tough morning. Com-ing to the point of form-ing solutions was hard. You weren’t to sure about yourself, but that came to an end when our expert told you were heading in the right direction. From that point you all sounded really comfortable and confident.

Still, it was hard to agree with each other, be-cause some wanted trail-times for immigrants and others just wanted to de-port all 8 million of them. When Albina left the room I played the “bad

cop”. I don’t know if you liked it or if it helped you. Nevertheless, you com-promised in the end.Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Droi: ceyda

We finally had our committee dinner at a FRENCH restaurant. On one side of the table Lac-ina-mon-papa was liter-ally making me eat all I ordered while Ned was making fun of my ulti-mate love for potatoes. On the other side, there were some intimate talk-ings between Sylvain and Rux (as my dear gossipers have reported.)

You are now writing your amazing resolution. I will drop by in a second. :)

See you soon!Ceyda.P.S.: Beatles song of

the day: I Saw Her Stand-ing There. (p.s. when you see him/her standing there, just go and dance at tonight’s Beatles party!) Tuesday, 22 July 2008

cUlT: MichelaAnd then, commit-

tee dinner! For me it has always been one of my favourite moments dur-ing EYP sessions. I hope you enjoyed the meal like me, also if the table where we were sitting was so long that everybody man-aged to speak only to the 4-5 people sitting next to him/her. In any case I had really nice talks to my neighbours Olga, Dobro-mir, Mats, Rafet… and actually I was really sur-prised that they asked me so many questions and were so interested about Italian politics and the mafia issue in my coun-

try… I felt like a professor giving public lectures!

on wednesday, during the coffee break, Ben and carreth were waiting for every-body else, ready to speak about wake-up calls. everybody was shocked and speech-less after having heard their speech. ed-ward’s speech on Disney’s invasion of the world was followed by two delegates from Droi speaking up for the sake of Jimmy. when you have something to say, speak up.

Daily Task Update

by Janet Coen


Feature


Speaker’s Corner: Coffee Break Soap-boxing

“The assertion rested on the shaky evidence that all of the irish are

sick. and paranoid.”

the Irish delegation in an attempt to wipe them out. This assertion rested on the shaky evidence that all of the Irish are sick. And paranoid.

The ‘persecution complex’ theme was taken up by Edward Warrillow in a po-lemic against the evils of the Disney Cor-poration, before Caspar Jansen took the floor to complain about substandard beer. Alarmed at his request that people stop drinking Guinness, I pointed out that this would destroy the Irish economy and re-sult in us needing yet more financial sup-port from the European Union. This fear is well founded, since Ireland is already heading for a recession. The audience re-sponse: “Who cares! They voted No!”

A really entertaining debate over Jimmy the mascot was kickstarted, by con-demning his recent kidnap. Once more, I

Your friendly, neighbourhood Press team descended on cof-

fee break last Wednesday, armed with brash opinions and a com-plete lack of self-respect. The purpose of this exercise was to liven things up a bit by creating a Speaker’s Corner; a space where people could vent their frustra-tion and share their opinions on any topic.

Things chugged into motion with Ben Woolgar’s rant on the tyranny of wake-up calls and his allegation that organiser Cer-ith is actually a complete sadist. After a short bout of furious argumentation, Cer-ith acknowledged this to be true.

The orgas faced yet more tough criti-cism from speaker Ned Kaar (IE), who accused them of deliberately poisoning

was compelled to respond with my view that it was an act of mercy, as there had been rumours that Jimmy was being mis-treated by the organisers. Unfortunately, my ‘freedom fighter’ defence was under-mined by Edward, who explained that the hamster’s main purpose is to serve as a “little us”.

After a heated exchange of opinions, the curtain closed on our successful stint at the soapbox. ◆

all participants of liveYp had a chance to speak at a speakers’ corner yesterday.

Insight


People


The Fabulous Three

Behind every great session, there is a great President. Behind every great Presi-dent, there are the people who actually do the work. They are, of course, the Board; some of the most underappreciated people at every EYP session. Ben Woolgar and Pablo Mellado introduce you to your session Vice Presidents.

Niamh “Hardcore” KeeganNiamh’s delightfully charming personality is probably best displayed by her two

proudest moments in EYP. The first was her impassioned defence speech supporting aid to women in Afghanistan. The second was performing “You Don’t Own Me” with her committee at EuroConcert, with one of her fellow delegates posing alongside her as her possession.

Niamh is just two years away from being a fully-qualified doctor, at which point she will finally be able to take on the title of Doctor EYP. Quite clearly the nicest per-son at the session (and we mean that), there is no gossip to be had on her; she seems to be genuinely squeaky clean.

Among Niamh’s her best moments are one of the journos making her cry by dressing up as a ghost and scaring her in Paris 2006, and her committee’s attempt to rename the CAP as the CRAP (Common Rural and Agricultural Policy).

Ance “Serene” KalejaAnce may have a sweet, innocent exterior, but behind it lurks a distinct sense of

humour. Famed in EYP circles for her Dead Baby Jokes, Ance has been delighting and disgusting us since Tallinn 2004, when she was just 15!

Ance has been on Ian’s Chairs’ Team before; they first met at Latvian Nationals 2004, when she was chairing for the first time. Both Ian and Niamh have been Ance’s Editors, at Berlin 2004 and Basel 2005 respectively. On May 1st, she received a dual purpose phone-call from Ian; to wish her Happy Birthday, and then to tell her she would be Vice-President.

Ance’s hair is a subject of great interest. Unsurprisingly, metallic red is not her natural colour. She first dyed it aged 14, for a friend who was taking a course to be a beautician, and has varied colours ever since, even going purple at Kiev 2006.

Federico “Mediterranean” FasolFed first met Niamh whilst doing a giant lap-sit with the whole session at Riga

2002, the first International Session for both of them. On the other hand, Ance and he had never met until they attended training for the Liverpool session in Berlin.

Although they were both at Turin 2002, Fed and Ian only spoke at the session in Durham in 2004, when Ian was an over-worked organiser, and Fed was chairing. Ian phoned Fed in April to invite him to be a VP in Liverpool; Fed was so shocked that he shouted for joy.

Federico’s earrings are famous all over the EYP universe. He has been known to wear as many as seven earrings at once. He confessed that he is planning to take them all off at the age of 25. “So that I can find a job!”, he declared.

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