INTRODUCTION

 

This section focuses on the important points and facts concerning the politics, something that affects everyone, because it is the way society is represented.  Also, how political decisions and movements have changed the society. There are also articles about the differences between countries and how issues are tackled when it comes to law and justice.

 

 

Which career do I want to persue in the furture? 

For this purpose, we have a practical training or internship for three weeks at all schools in Berlin during the ninth grade. By this way we can get to know the profession in which we want to work – or not - after school graduation. Here you can read about the different experiences of two students from Carl-Zeiss-School.

 

My first professional experience

I am Angelina and I attend the 9th grade of the Carl Zeiss High School in Berlin. I am currently doing a three week internship in a medical practice because I would  like to get a job in a medical profession.

Picture with the allowence of the doctor's practice.

On one hand, a doctor’s practice sometimes could be very busy and hectic. On the other hand, it could be very interesting because of the different illnesses or medical condition why the patients come to the doctor. And I think everybody of you had watched TV series like “Emergency Room”.
So one of the first questions I had before was: Do I am allowed to jump correctly into the role of a doctor or a doctor assistant? Or am I only allowed to watch and listen?
This question was answered quite quickly - unfortunately earlier than I expected -. The doctors and their assistants were very busy. And I could only do jobs like sorting small things like syringes on shelves or something like this. No leg breaks, no heart attacks, no attempts at resuscitation and so on.
Of course they tried to explain me everything, but there was not so much time to ask questions or for doctors to answer or to explain in detail because they were always very busy. Therefore, unfortunately, I was often bored and I would have wished that I had looked for another internship where the stuff wouldn’t be constantly busy and where there were enough time to talk about the profession or to ask more questions.

Nevertheless, the doctors were very nice indeed and he gave me job, The work was not always very exciting but at least I had something to do.
My conclusion: An internship is an important and great experience to get to know a profession more closely and you get really the chance to find out quite better if you want to learn this profession. But in my case two weeks would have been enough.

 

“My practical training for the profession chemical laboratory assistant“

At the beginning of this year I had to think about what is an interesting vocational training or study at university after my graduation in school - in one or perhaps

in four years.

Because I am interested in natural sciences especially chemistry and also in mathematics I have gone to the, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung“ (BAM), in English: Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). The BAM is an institution of the state. It works for business, politics and science. The task of the BAM is to do research, to test or to check and to advise with the intention of protecting people, environment and material goods.
As a trainee, you can do almost anything at BAM, e.g. chemical and physical experiments. But for a trainee it was absolutely forbidden to touch any acids, because these can be dangerous to life and the risk is too big that you hurt yourself.
I think my internship was great. The best job was the experiment to analyse different water samples looking for elements, e.g. copper and iron. By this way I have recognized how many different substances are in water.
I enjoyed the time at the BAM very much and can only recommend this job to you if you also like science subjects like me.

 

Lara Giray, Angelina (Berlin)  

Picture: L.G.

 

Catalan Independence Movement

 The Catalan independence movement originated in the civil Catalan society and consists on a group of activities carried out by civilian people and politicians with the aim of achieving the complete separation of Catalonia from Spain.

After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 Spain began the path to democracy. In 1977 the Generalitat of Catalonia was restored. In 1978 all the politicians reached an agreement and approved the Spanish constitution. The autonomy of Catalonia was recognized in the statute of autonomy.
The relationship between Catalonia and Spain has gone through different moments of collaboration and confrontation.
In 2006 the new Statute of Catalonia was approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, in which the right of Catalonia to be a nation was recognized. When this statute reached the Central Government of Spain for its approval it was completely changed, consequently Catalan people felt humiliated. At this moment a political, legislative and judicial movement against Catalonia began.

The lack of investment in infrastructures in Catalonia, unfair tax treatment, lack of recognition of Catalan uniqueness and an anti-Catalan sentiment fueled by right-wing politicians have been the main reasons for the pro-independence movement of Catalonia.
This movement has been exacerbated by the lack of dialogue between the Catalan and Spanish governments, by the violence of Spanish political forces on the 1st of October of 2017, when the Catalan people voted in a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, and by the imprisonment and exile of Catalan civil and political leaders.
Catalan people have the right to decide their own political future but the government of Spain doesn’t agree.
We have chosen to write about this social and political movement because we think that it is very present in the Catalan community everyday life.


Miquel Juan (Barcelona)

 

Polish Local Election

At the beginning of the composition of this article, we decided to conduct a street survey. During 20 minutes of the vox pop, we stopped 7 people to ask them a question about differences between the student council and the Krakow government, of whom three gave a specific answer.
The remaining four people provided no clear response. Though willing to talk at the beginning after hearing questions, they refused further conversations. It was visible that their enthusiasm had dropped drastically.

Similarities:

• Co-deciding about the community
• Making decisions in a democratic way
• principles of operation
• making decisions regarding the immediate environment

Differences:

• remuneration, independence, legal regulations
• the influence of the management on the school board
• range of activity
• greater responsibility for your actions

The local election is a process in which citizens elect members of local government from among candidates. This year, elections are held at the end of October. The mayor of the city of Krakow will be elected by voting from among 8 candidates.
On a similar basis, student government is elected in schools. A few months ago, there were such elections in our school. Even though the candidates were not as many as in municipal elections, they had many ideas for the school. Campaigns and elections to municipal and school governments have many similarities.
In such enterprises, there are many promises that are not always fulfilled. They are included in the electoral campaigns of candidates. Candidates goals are to convince voters to cast their votes for them. The only differences are the scale of the venture and the form of voting.
Candidates offer many changes for the better which are often unrealistic but are presented in a way that encourages the voter to favour a given candidate. Election campaigns are based on the analysis of life in a given place and result from the needs of society. In short, what's good we improve and what's bad, we make better.
There is a lot going on in our school. Our self-government organizes many charity events, which makes it very different. Interviewing the school's student representative - Julia, we asked her questions similar to that of the probe to find out from the most informed person.

 

Stefania Andrzejewska, Bartosz Brzeszcz, Adrian Wojcik, Patryk Chmielowski (Cracow)

 

Estonian Songs Festival

Estonians are often referred to as the singing nation. In November 2003, UNESCO declared one of the main cultural events in the country - Estonia’s Song and Dance Celebration tradition - a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The tradition was started in 1869, with Estonian national awakening. We, Estonians, have a long history of being ruled by many foreign countries, for example, by Russia, Sweden, Germany and Denmark.

At the beginning of 1800s, the period of Estonian national awakening began. People, who had been serfs for centuries and not had any right to the land in their own country, started to realise that they are a nation. They started to write their own literature, music, publish newspapers and found theatrical and social societies.

Johann Woldemar Jansen, who besides being responsible for the first Estonian newspaper, was also the leader of various social movements, started to plan a festival, where singers and choirs from all around the country come together and sing Estonian songs and compositions.
According to his plan the first Estonian Song Festival was to take place in 1867. It was meant to be a celebration of 50th jubilee of abolition of serfdom in Estonia. However, he needed a permission from Baltic German authorities to arrange a Song Festival. Having received the permission, he told choirs all around the country to start practicing songs. The only problem for choirs were that choirs were mixture of women and men, but Jansen only allowed men to Song Festival. It took time for singers now to learn the songs and compositions. There were lots of doubts and hardships to overcome but finally everything worked! The very first Song Festival was held in Tartu, in 1869, 30th of june - 2th of july. There were 878 singers, all men.
From that time on, the Estonian Song Festival has been taking place for 150 years. Soon it was moved from Tartu to Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. It takes place in Estonia Song Festival Ground, that was built just for celebrating Song Festival.

This summer, 2019, will be the 150th Song Festival. It has grown from 878 singers to
30 000 singers, who come to Festival Ground in every 5 years to celebrate Estonia and its music. The festival has now choirs and singers from 5 years olds to 80 years old. All with one purpose - singing. Singing and the song festival connects all the people together, it’s like breathing together. It´s also the foundation of our independence as a country. Every festival is carried by a certain theme and the jubilee festival has been called „My Love“.
With thousands and thousands of singers, we also have hundreds of thousands of spectators, who come to see and celebrate Estonian music with the singers. Together, there are celebrating at least 400 000 people, from Estonians to visitors from places from all over the world. Marju Lauristin, a former politician and a professor from Tartu University has written: “ The ‘Singing Nation’ is not a mere metaphor. I would say that the Song Festival Grounds gather Estonia’s biggest congregation with common sacred values. Surely, some have said that the Song Festival’s time is over. However, the survey conducted by Tartu University has clearly indicated that for the majority of young and old Estonians alike, the Song Festival is a celebration where Estonian people gather to experience together our essential values, and feel that they belong to a community, a congregation. Participation in the festival is an extremely important common departure from the everyday routine towards values that bond us with the past. It is close to a religious feeling. The survey has shown that Estonians have a great need for the sacred, and it feeds upon this tradition.“.


Cecilia-Martina Mägi (Tallinn)

 

The Fight for the Women's Rights

The gender policy seeks a world free of discrimination by reason of sex or gender, bearing in mind the diversity of women, with all its circumstances, cultures, skills, capacities, social levels, training .... Because women are diverse and all must have the same opportunities.

Until now women have been able to achieve many victories, but there is still a long way to run:
with this policy we want to gain equal rights and live the difference to be women.
In order to achieve a world free of discrimination towards women, laws are needed, although there are many of them, public services are necessary to facilitate the life of families in every way, combinations and colors. But especially cultural changes are needed to not leave these laws in just words.
In Italy, for example, there is an organization named “Non una di meno”: it was born in the autumn of 2016 thanks to the big march which took place in Rome on the 26th of November and to all the meeting and debating which preceded and followed it.
Non-Una Di Meno has been promoted by various organization as: Io Decido – Rete Romana, an open network; UDI – Unione donne in Italia, born between 1944 and 1945; D.i.Re – Donne In Rete contro la violenza, which comprehends 77 women centres and houses.
On the 26th November 2016 “Non una di meno”, helped by these three organization, promoted a march down into the streets of Rome: the manifestation started in the very centre of the city, Piazza della Repubblica, and ended in Piazza San Giovanni. Almost two thousand people took part. At the lead of the procession there was a group of Capoeira dancers, a Brazilian dance born when there were still slaves imported from Africa, as a representation of the fight to obtain freedom from slavery.

Women, children, man all together to fight for women’s rights, wearing red, symbol of the victims of men violence, and showing banners about various topics: from sexual and physical violence to economic and social inequality, lack of funds for clinics and centres against violence, restrictions on the law about termination of pregnancy.
In addition, right on the 25th November 2017 for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women itself, “Non Una Di Meno” organized a second march through the streets of The Capital, following the same path of the year before and showing, this time, hundreds of pink balloons, held by people from 75 different Italian city, helped by citizens and political parties.
And they will never stop fighting until every single woman in Italy, Europe, and the entire world will finally be able to live happy and free from any form of violence and discrimination.


Martina Occhiodoro (Rome) and Abril Rasúa (Barcelona)

 

European Union: yesterday and today

It’s the year 1945 and the 2nd world war has just finished, some european states began to collaborate and the EU’s formation process has started.
The EU is an economic and political union which has as its targets the promotion of peace, of the liberty and the fight against discrimination. It’s been created to guarantee liberty and welfare in the continents after a period of liberty privation and war.

Rome 1957. The founding of the European Economic Community

 

Today we can analyse if these targets have been achieved after 70 years. It’s objective that these 70 years have been years of peace and no conflictions have risen, then the EU succeed in its main goal.

 

The Italian position
Since the creation of the EU, Italy had an important role into its formation. Altiero Spinelli has been one of the first to realize the need for a federation of states, in fact in the 1941 he elaborated the:“ Ventotene’s Manifest”. During the years the italian thought has been changing. Italy as one of the founder state must remain within the EU for not making the same mistakes that has done in the past before the EU was born. Recently a survey made by the European Union showed that the italian people in favor of exit from the EU are more numerous than those contrary.

In this situation both the EU and the italians need to find a solution. The EU has to help the italian politics where it is necessary with a concrete support while the italians need to remember how Italy was without the EU.

Now in a different historical context can we still see the application of these valuables on which EU is founded? How can we assure other years of peace? EU has to create a very political system that will guarantee subsidiaries between the member state. All the members has to govern against the inequalities that are growing as have grown in the 1930s.
We need a Europe that struggles with the same determination with which it has struggled, a united Europe that combats unemployment and discrimination and a Europe that helps those who need it with appropriate ways.


Leone Piva – Giulia Di Luzio (Rome)