After four months of being an EVS-Volunteer the half of my overall EVS-time is over. So far I have taken part of five PRAXIS-campaigns and I had the opportunity to improve a lot of my skills.
The first campaign I took part was the “Cleaning Lake Kerkini”-Campaign, for which we PRAXIS-Volunteers cleaned – together with some school classes – the big storage lake Kerkini which is placed near to Serres. We also documented the cleaning to present it later in the internet.
There was a Free-Goal-Event at the central Elefterias Square in Serres during the Football Against Racism in Europe (=FARE) Actionweek. While this event was going on, we PRAXIS-Volunteers held an exhibition at the same place to give some information about the subject of racism in football to the people.
Also a big thing was the Eco-Conference which PRAXIS organized and which we PRAXIS-volunteers were helping to organize. But in contrast to the other campaigns we did not had a leading job at the Eco-Conference.
At the beginning of December we took part of the worldwide AIDS-campaign related to the World-Aids-Day. For this campaign and also – later – for the Human-Rights-Campaign we PRAXIS-volunteers held self-made exhibitions at Elefterias Square in Serres, created movies, did radio shows and – of course – created radio spots related to our radio shows.
However, this is not everything I did during these four months.
In opposite to the campaigns we took part of we had also some work to do which was more “every-day-work-like”. This includes updating websites which are owned and hold by PRAXIS or – for example – creating invitations for different events, creating logos and blogging. We also were responsible for the sound-management of the daily held PRAXIS-radio show.
For this reason I improved my personal skills in a lot of fields: I improved my skills related to layouting – e.g. posters, logos, invitations – with Adobe Photoshop or InDesign and related to website-editing with Adobe Dreamweaver.I learned how to do the sound management for a radio show and how to make a radio spot or a radio show with the computer-program Cubase. We also had Greek-language-lessons in which we learned the basics of Greek language. But more than learning Greek I improved my English-language skills during my all-day-life with my flat-lads.
And during working with them, but also with greek volunteers, I learnt more about teamwork and organization and coordinating of campaigns and events.
As you may or may not know farmers throughout Greece have been blocking main roads throughout all of Greece as a protest against the government. The reason for this is because the farmers are getting low prices for produce such as corn, wheat and cotton which is ruining their lives. This even affected us here in Serres as we needed to be in Athens for our Mid-Term Evaluation on the 22nd. The only guaranteed way of getting there was by train, and I don't know if you are aware of Greek trains but the can be VERY slow!
Luckily, however, we managed to book a fast(ish) train at...MIDNIGHT! But despite this we arrived in Athens safely. Now the way back is a whole different story! The blocks had gotten worse and nearly everyone is getting the train to move around Greece. This meant that we didn't know exactly when we would be able to get home. The others who have their EVS Projects in North Greece, including us had to stay in our hotel until the National Agency managed to book us a ticket.
Fortunately we had a train the next day at... MIDNIGHT! Dejavu anyone? While it may sound as if I'm joking about it you can see the serious side. Loads of people are rushing and have no idea what is happening. It just goes to show that just by blocking roads with tractors can send the whole country into dissarray. The most recent event is that roads to Bulgaria have been blocked and lorry drivers fear their goods will spoil.
Bulgaria has asked the European Commission to intervene as its hauliers are losing money and demand to have a passage opened. Bulgaria's main road transport association, Basat, says it will sue the Greek state. It's estimated that by Saturday the blocks have caused Bulgaria losses of nearly 10 million Euros.
The length of this protest is yet unknown as the farmers' leaders say they do not intend to stop their protest until the government meets all their demands. Greek Agriculture Minister SotirisHatzigakis offered 500million Euros and insisted the state could not afford to pay any more. But the farmers turned the offer down as they feel this is too little and also want fixed subsidies for the future.
Marcus.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Hey mandudes and girldudes.
It’s been a while since we wrote something here. But better late then never, right?
As you might know, or not know, we have had a Human Rights Campaign. This campaign involved making a radio spot, a radio-show, making a short film and having an exhibition. It was going pretty well, until it came to the exhibition. We were suppose to have it the 10th of December, but due to the riots that was going on in Greece at the moment, we might have met resistance and our exhibition could have been vandalized. So we cancelled it for the moment. Instead we planned to have it alongside our Migrants Day exhibition. But then we faced another problem. The weather…
The rain was pouring down in Biblical proportions, which made it hard to even stand outside for two minutes without getting a cold. So we had to wait again.
After some weeks, it seemed as though we wouldn’t be able to do a exhibition at all.
But then our bosses told us that there was this thing at a school in town, where we could put up some information at least. So we went there. But since they already had most of the information we brought, it wasn’t that much we could do.
So we put up our information, and then we helped the teachers to fill folders with various information and facts that the kids would get. After that we got some coffee. There weren’t very much more to do, so after the coffee and two cigarettes we went home.
It wasn’t really the most extravagant campaign ever, but at least it was something.
~ A white army of environmentalists attacks the garbage at Lake Kerkini ~
17th of October was a great day for the fight against pollution! Together with a lot of Greek pupils the Serres-Volunteers cleaned the Kerkini-Wetland-Area. The Lake Kerkini is Greece’s third biggest storage lake and has a surface of 37 and a half square kilometers. But the Kerkini-Lake is also one of the most important damp biotopes of Greece. The area is under protection of the RAMSAR-Convention and part of European NATURA-2000-Programme. But a lot more important is: Believe it or not, 30 types of sweet-water fishes and 300 types of birds are living here. The pupils and we, the volunteers, arrived there by buses and by cars; after every participant had arrived at the meeting point everybody got fitted out with white t-shirts, white rain jackets and white caps, sponsored by the Coca-Cola-Company. Coca-Cola also sponsored refreshing drinks and something to eat so that everyone could collect some energy before the great cleaning-project started. Who – for instance – had suggested that we would find underwear in the wetland? Yeah… maybe it was your underwear we dug out this morning… stop being astonished. Okay – I’m going to stop being daffy now but although I’m just joking around in the last sentences there is a serious message in it, too. The message is: Protect the environment. When we cleaned up the lake this morning, we wondered why the people throw their garbage just next to them into nature. Maybe it is because there are no garbage cans as far as you can see. So here is our demand to you: Please don’t throw your garbage into the nature, please don’t “forget” your garbage after you have made a pick-nick with your friends in the green. Garbage like cans or bottles are very dangerous for the animals which are living there; they could cut themselves for example. Even textiles – like the underwear we found – can be dangerous because birds – or other animals – can entangle themselves in it.
I’m not a ridiculous environmentalist but I like the nature. I like to see wide green willows and untouched landscapes and I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who likes this. So let’s throw our garbage into garbage cans, let’s do this little fussiness more and protect on this way the environment – relating to the results it’s not really heavy work to throw the packing of our juice into a garbage can.
Today it was a great day for the fight against pollution! Together with a lot of Greek pupils the Serres-Volunteers cleaned only hours ago the Kerkini-Wetland-Area. The lake is Greece’s third biggest storage lake and has a surface area of 37 and a half square kilometers. But Kerkini Lake is also one of the most important damp biotopes of Greece. The area is under protection of the RAMSAR-Convention and part of European NATURA-2000-Programme. But a lot more important is: Believe it or not, 30 types of sweet-water fishes as well as 300 types of birds .
The pupils and us, the volunteers, arrived there by busses and by cars; after every participant had arrived at the meeting point everybody fitted out with white t-shirts, white rain jackets and white caps, sponsored by the Coca-Cola-Company. Coca-Cola also sponsored refreshing drinks and something to eat so that everyone could collect some energy before the great cleaning-project started. This is the reason why not participated walkers had could see an army of white dressed environmentalists in the Kerkini-wetland, digging in the earth for garbage-bags and picking up cans, bottles, bags, plastic garbage and a lot of other curios. Who – for instance – had suggested that we would find underwear in the wetland? We not – maybe you? Yeah… maybe it was your underwear we dug out today’s morning… you have already read the right words, so stop being astonished. Okay – I’m going to stop being daffy now but although I’m just joked around in the last sentences there is a serious message in it, too. The message is: Protect the environment. When we cleaned up the lake this morning, we wondered why the people throw their garbage just next to them into the nature. Maybe it is because there are no garbage cans as far as you can see. So here is our demand to you: Please don’t throw your garbage into the nature, please don’t “forget” your garbage after you have made a pick-nick with your friends in the green. Garbage like cans or bottles are very dangerous for the animals which are living there; they could cut themselves for example. Even textiles – like the underwear we found – can be dangerous because birds – or other animals – can entangle themselves in it.
I’m not a ridiculous environmentalist but I like the nature. I like to see wide green willows and untouched landscapes and I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who likes this. So let’s throw our garbage into garbage cans, let’s do this little fussiness more and protect on this way the environment – relating to the results it’s not really heavy work to throw the packing of our juice into a garbage can.
For more information about Lake Kerkini follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kerkini
On 13th of October the Internet-Forum “Forum for the Future” published their new report about five possible future-secenarios in relation to the climate change on their website www.forumforthefuture.org. The work of the internet-forum “Forum for the Future” tries to have a look into the future by analyzing environmental threatens and by creating future-scenarios. Within doing this the forum tries to bridge between environmental topics and other important men’s life determining issues, so as social and economical issues. To work out a future-report with good quality the future-forum discussed, interviewed and spoke with seventy experts, including economists, scientists, journalists, environmentalists and social scientists. The result of their work is an amazing report which shows, that we still have the chance for the change.
Scenario Number One: Efficiency first
In this scenario the world starts to pay more attention to new technologies and innovations. Throughout this the use of energy becomes more efficient. For instance the Sahara-desert becomes a fruitful oasis by using seawater desalination plants – at the same time these desalination plants are using solar-collectors which causes a huge resource of sun energy. In this scenario the mankind tries to make new innovations before important resources run out: Artificial grown meat feeds thousands of people for example. And other materials which blame the environment are replaced by new environmental-friendly materials – paper is replaced by an artificial alternative for example. The development of “smart dust” which works like drones brings up the possibility to preventa lot of pollution, natural catastrophes and disasters.
Scenario Number Two: Service Transformation
Also in this scenario mankind can prevent a huge catastrophe caused by climate change. But this second scenario pays more attention to the reluctance of the most common people to change their behavior related to environmental protection. The scenario says that mankind has to be pushed to protect the environment by for example enormous high taxes on CO2-emissions. These taxes could release a kind of economical service revolution. This development would be the next step on the ladder of economical development after the industrial revolution in the 18th century: Because of the enormous high taxes on CO2-emissions there would be a decrease of industrial economy and an increase of service economy. There would be also a change in the mind of the common people: Using the bike instead of the car and going to the laundry-service instead of using the own washing machine would be usual – but only because own a car or a washing machine would be too expensive. According to the report of the future-forum this scenario would have bad sites, too: Territories which are difficult to occupy like the Australian Outback and the inner part of South-America of Africa would be given up.
Scenario Number Three: Redefining process
This scenario is one of the most utopistics scenarios of the report. After a worldwide economical depression which takes nine years the mankind changes their way of life. Instead of working a lot and making profit as much as possible people now pay more attention to living comfortable. A redefining process all over the world maintains the value of well-being and life-quality. This includes a decrease of working hours per day for instance. According to the authors of the future-forum-report this scenario not shows a post-capitalism world. In fact the people are working and making profit but they don’t value money as one of the most important things of humankind’s life. Relating to this there are some black sheep: big cities which have set themselves up to places of “totally capitalism” in which people live who declare the “heaven of real capitalism” – because they can profit and plunder a lot while the majority of humankind pays attention to their life-quality.
Scenario Number Four: Environmental War Economy
In this scenario the report describes a mankind which responded too late to the climate change. The world-trade breaks down and the energy-prices explode. Those who consume too much energy are cut from the energy-infrastructure and couples who want to get children have to collect points in order to acquire a license for getting children. The lot of natural catastrophes and disasters are causing a big movement of migration. According to future-forum’s report even Antarctica will be a destination for “climate refugees”.
Scenario Number Five: Protectionist World
This is the most darken scenario of the report. In it the world’s states start to fight each other although they have made agreements of protecting the environment. Accusations that some states are running power plants secretly made by other states cause political conflicts and wars and in the Near-East starts a chemical war about the drinkwater resources. In relation to this political deployment the world-trade breaks down: every state tries to save its own resources. An economical protectionist world economy is the result. Prices increases and people becoming poor which cause more grave problems: medical supply decreases for instance and thousands of people die because of diseases.
Of course some scenarios of the report are kind of utopic and not probably. Sometimes they seem to be too good and sometimes they seem to be too bad. But all in all the future-forum has achieved with their work a really interesting report which shows that – in relation to climate change – we can live with it well or worse. After all we cannot know how the future will be but maybe we can create; the report of the future-forum reminds us that we have to think about the consequences of our behavior and it gives – and this is really important – first ideas of doing something for a change. The next step now is to take up these ideas and to deal with it because: the change will come certainly and it’s just a question of time.
