Treating a Treaty

Some say I am not a normal person. Maybe, they are right.
I spent the last weekend in an amazing seaside place. The picture on the right, although not so relevant in the first glimpse with the content of this post, was taken there. It was the "peak" moment; the one that I liked the most during those days. What I liked the least was to get to know (from the late arriving newspapers) that the Irish people - precisely, 53,1% of the population entitled to voting - voted "NO" for the Treaty of Lisbon. "Why do you care" was the question of many. Rightly wondered. Ireland is so far anyway.

It's been a while since I posted a link to the official web site of the Treaty of Lisbon. I can not not know. Especially for something that is going to affect my life so deeply in the years to come. The same I thought for the kind visitors of this blog. To be honest, I haven't read the 388 pages of the Consolidated Version of the Treaty. Very few have, even less understood. I am reading a comment by an Irish MEP "Of the three things that led to the NO result, one was that the Irish Prime Minister hasn't read the Treaty". At the same time, I consider my self quite informed: I have followed on TV the procedures of the Greek Parliament and the dedicated Commission about the Treaty, I have visited the web site and wandered and pondered for hours, read newspapers and more.

And I am wondering, what was the "NO" vote for?

• Was it for the adherence of the EU to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the explicit reference that it "shall have the same legal value as the Treaties" (9/5/2008, C 115/19)?

• Was it for the so called European Citizens' Initiative "whereby one million citizens, from any number of member countries, will be able to ask the Commission to present a proposal in any of the EU's areas of responsibility"?

• Was it for the reduction of the Commissioners' number to the 2/3 of the number of Member States, simply because there aren't tasks for everyone (something that at the same time means less money for the payments and more efficiency)?

• Was it because the European Parliament, the only EU institution that is directly elected by the citizens will have advanced powers and a strengthened voice?

• Was it because the National Parliaments will have an improved role with regards to European Law and decision making?

• Was it because of the President of the European Council (falsely, mistakenly, impromptu and sometimes provocatively named by the media "The President of Europe")? Was it because of the High representative for foreign and security policy? The explicit reference to "promoting measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems, and in particular combating climate change" (9/5/2008, C 115/132).

What was it for?

I don't personally think that the NO vote was related to any of the key points above. Reading around I get to know that the people of Ireland voted what they vote having in mind issues such as abortion, European Army, taxation etc. Whatever they voted for, the mandate should be respected. A democratic society can not do otherwise, although it is disputable how much democracy exists without sufficient information and in the case of the Irish referendum (or the referendums wherever they would have taken place) information was insufficient, blurred, not pursued and sometimes (modestly), misleading.

To my belief, a big amount of information (with all the adjectives seen above) was transmitted by people, entities, institutions, collectivities and associations that have little or no faith to European integration, so "their problem" is not the Treaty of Lisbon but it would have been any kind of treaty, decision or act that aims at changing something that they don't favor anyway. As well, like anything new in the political life, it inevitably suffered opportunistic attitudes.

The Treaty of Lisbon is not a magic stick that will change the world at once. It is not the perfect treaty. There is space for improvement. There might be mistakes, omissions and unclarity. It won't be the device that all alone will respond to "hot" issues such as unemployment, oil prices, environmental catastrophe, high food prices etc. But certainly, the NO vote will not give, suggest, propose solutions to the problems that the Treaty was designed to deal with and resolve.

The European Council is now taking place in Brussels (19 - 20/06/2008) and the Treaty is on the top of the Agenda.

I personally stay tuned.

S.

North does it better!

I couldn't but make a brief reference to the wonderful hosting of the Estonian National Agency of the Youth in Action programme during the works of the "NFL goes WWW" seminar (ideas evoked will be processed soon).
It has been such a fruitful experience that proved results do not take time; they take shape through commitment, insistence and vision.
The Agency resides in a country that is as much connected to the Internet as to the practice and promotion of non formal learning (only in Estonian so far). So much, that very few countries in the continent are.
Besides the above, it resides in a beautiful country that it's edge of attractiveness is sharped particularly during May! Go on, visit and, literally, forget what it means to sleep!
I've just noticed that in a month, it is the second time I refer to this "northy". I stop here or I am going to be accused for partiality!
Well done for everything!

Naqemiseni!

S.

A shift of mind

Chatting recently with my dearest friend Maris from Estonia, I discovered a very interesting action that took place last week in this lovely country. So interesting, that in my mind it was translated and accommodated as a "light of hope". BBC has a video reportage about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7382489.stm.
It's not only the collection of tones of garbage, which as indisputably a noble act. It's not only the overall coordination which included Google maps, photos uploading, GPS and more, which can not be imitated even from the most sophisticated management systems in large corporations. It's not only that more than 50000 people came together as one, which is a revolution in its own. It's a shift in the minds of the people; a realization of their power and of their responsibility; a deep comprehension that change is possible and an understanding that we, people, are the carriers and purveyors of it!
With the hope that more minds will shift.
A European/World spring cleaning day is what comes to my mind now; may the organizers have the strength, the will and the courage to go about it. I am with them.

Start from your self.

S.

"Societies will start to self organize themselves once nobody can do it better for them".

Has something changed?

It was the best present for my birthday. A book, very delicate and carefully illustrated, highly readable and attractive. I made this present to my self, simply by buying the newspaper that included it!
In its pages I read about this incident dated back in January 1968: The Minister of Education of France was visiting a university. On his way out, he was stopped by a red haired student just to be said "I read the White Paper on Youth, Mr. Minister. In 300 pages there is not even a single word mentioned about the sexual problems of young people"...
This recurring thought in my mind pushed me to read our "generation's" White Paper on Youth. I did it long ago. Good time for refreshment. I am quite informed about its contents. Actually, it's part of my work. But I would read 100 pages simply to see if any of the words and phrases such as sexual, sex, sexuality, sexual health, sexual problems are anywhere mentioned; moreover if they are meaningfully mentioned.
100 pages read...
Yes, they are! Happily, they are!
The same guy, in his most recent book, mentions an anecdote: "As a vice mayor, I was promoting social integration for immigrants. A man, deeply religious, Catholic, right winked and very sympathetic turns back to me and tells me that I am excellent but I don't understand one thing: the problem is not migration, the problem is that some religions do not recognize equality between men and women and that's the basis for democracy". Something has changed; back in the sixties no person sharing characteristics such as his would even think about this value, the value of equality. Something has changed and yes, May '68 was successful...
Sexual and all its derivatives are included in "our" White Paper on Youth. In my humble opinion, this is another indicator that May '68 was successful. But the main success of those events with regards to this Paper is far beyond the inclusion of sexuality; it is that it was young people that shaped it; that young people was consulted, asked and questioned; that young people suggested, proposed and highlighted. A document that "leads" and informs youth policies around EU since 2001. Nothing is criticism - free, but its importance to our lives as young people is indisputable.
Something has changed, indeed.

S.

PS. The stories above and the translation is quite "free style" given. I was not interested in having a detailed reproduction but to give the essence of it. I hope I managed. I don't specify names and places, deliberately. Hint: the "student" is alive and kicking, member of the European Parliament nowadays. A weekend in my summer tent for free for those who guess!

Hiatus

It's been a long time since I last posted something. Well, I want to believe that this "silence" has helped me to clarify things about how I would like that my blog looks like, what it should contain and how I can make it more meaningful. It's for sure that from now on the posts will be more related to my "professional" rather than my "personal" one; although the former involves and includes a lot of the latter. Posts will be short, brief, concise, up-to-date and informative; longer posts, "deep" ideas unfolding and analysis, will have their place too, but not too often. The content will most usually be around the triptych Europe - Youth - Training. But whenever I feel that these or any other sort of restrictions, block me, I will break them! I am also working on techniques to improve readability and to have the blog enhanced with more media and interesting "web programming" stuff. Ideas, are more than welcome.
Thanks a million to some people whose wish to read my writings has been the main push to start blogging again. It is from those and beyond that their comments are expected!

Long live the alphabet!

S.

For some encouragement

...and inspiration; and empowerment; and hope...I recently heard that bloggers of Greece committed a noble act. Some days ago, a man drove his car over a young person and he left him wounded without offering a helping hand as he ought to...The brother of the wounded person, shortly after the accident, publicized this story to the internet. Soon after, bloggers from all over the web - o - sphere started to reproduce this announcement; as the information was being multiplied, the first responses started to arrive; someone saw something, heard something, lived something...The "popularity" that this incident gained among the society, created such a pressure to the person, that he finally revealed himself; and justice is being given...
Once nobody can do it more effectively for them, societies will eventually start to self - organize themselves...Words taken by a person whose personal pathway I would like to explore and his future steps I would like to intriguingly follow...

Nice...

S.

Time for some refreshment

Obviously, if I continue posting one article per month my few but lovely readers will prefer a ride on the waves of moving fun of youtube than coming here to check if anything is posted!
Additionally, this is not going to be a "normal" post, if such expression exists; it is just a reference on what's in my mind and what I would like to see it posted the next weeks when my time will be less occupied by work.
For sure, I would like to dedicate some lines for my experience in Turkey (already been there previous week and I' ll go back again in a couple of weeks). These would be my first visits in this country although historically and geographically so near. Added up to that, the training there is about democracy and participation, so I presume lots of inspiration while carrying it out.
As well, with a great friend of mine and a brilliant brain and character that I so much admire and I really owe to him a great deal of my today's professional and personal capacities we have started an email correspondence on a quite radical topic; or to say it better, the topic is the topic but our approach and "thinking over it" seems to be quite radical...The topic, the topic, the topic (like Ben Stiller responds to his girlfriends telling him "I love you"..."love, love, love!!!"). When I have a good pile of digital information in my mail box, I' ll do my best to make it available in a coherent manner (although coherence in writing is not my vision)...
Certainly I want to comment on the "Freakonomics" book I recently read; rather inspiring, USA at the core but still examples are not far from my reality, absolutely mind-opening with the fear to become way too open-minded, enriching with some practical mathematics one's own vision to the world surrounding him/her. I am not good in writing book reviews, so I would rather bullet point some inspiring aspects of it. I ll see. What I definitely support is the "no unifying theme" approach in their writing and practice (which they somehow parallelize it with the way people write in blogs).
Maybe I ll write something about the festivities time...it depends how inspiring the weather will be.
I want to write something about the situation in Kossovo as well; by the time I come back from Turkey, the deadline from UN is expiring and the developments until the day will profoundly influence the stability in the wider Balkan area.
I want to write about all and everything...but for the moment, I need to keep my eyes open the whole night cause I am catching a red eye flight to Prague and then to Lithuania...
Until next time...

S.