The Concil of Europe

The Council of Europe is the most important organisation besides the European Union in Europe. It was founded in 1949 by ten European states in order to promote democratic stability, human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms all over Europe. The Council further strives to raise awareness of Europe’s cultural identity and diversity. Currently there are 47 members, including all EU member states as well as several other European countries. The general requirements for a country to join this international organisation are to be at least partially located on the European Continent and to share the goals the ten founding countries stated. However, countries that are located beyond European borders can join too, as observer or partner, provided they accept the Council’s guiding principles. These states are permitted to send representatives to the meetings of the Committee of Ministers and intergovernmental committees in order to observe these assemblies. With the Parliamentary Assembly, which consists of 318 men and women from all the member states,  they may attain observer status, meaning that they are authorized to engage in Assembly sessions, only without voting rights. Furthermore the Council also partners up with organizations such as the EU, the UN and a variety of international organizations, including the Arab League Educational, Cultural, Scientific Organization (ALECSO) or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The main purpose of the Council, with it’s members, observers and partners, is to assure democracy in and cooperation between all European countries, which makes this organisation one of the most important on our continent.

African Migrants Taking Action

by Dunja Deveci, Mariña Fernández, Borja Escuer, Julia Seemann

Life for African migrants within the EU can be challenging.The great majority came to the EU expecting a better life not being aware of all the difficulties they have to overcome first. Now many of them are taking action in order to improve their situation, whether it being bad housing conditions in Paris or Italy or getting a working permit in London or France.

In London African immigrants found a way to work without having any proper papers. They simply become somebody else by “cloning”. Cloning describes the act of borrowing the documents of someone who is legally allowed to work and live in the United Kingdom and then basically becoming that person. Crucial is that the two people resemble each other. Later they would use the borrowed documents when applying for a job and that get a new identity. Although this has often worked in the past nowadays cloning has become nearly impossible because prosecution has tightened. Many undocumented migrants have now united to fight for their right to legally earn their living and getting a working permit.

Meanwhile in Paris undocumented migrants also joint forces and are now raising their voices to fight for their rights. Together they start petitions and organize demonstrations where they claim papers for themselves. The reason for that are the policy changes which made it almost impossible for undocumented people to find work or a home. Many had a job but lost it because of high charges for those who employ them. Also, the need for uneducated workers went down after the economic crisis. Without papers those people can not find a job or get help because officially they do not exist. Many undocumented migrants came from former french colonies in Africa. They have a strong feeling that France is partially responsible for what is happening in their countries and caused them to flee. Now they demand France to step up and take responsibility by giving them papers so they can work and built a life in their new home country.

Another issue that needs to be addressed concerning migrants in Paris are the poor housing conditions. About 90 percent of the unsafe houses in Paris are being lived in by immigrants. That is because housing in Paris is very expensive. For a nine square meter apartment you would have to pay approximately 200 Euros which is a lot, especially if you are a migrant without a steady job. The organization Malaika tries to improve this situation. They do this by installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in the houses. Furthermore they train people for emergencies. That way they improve the living standards and prevent deathly accidents.

Also in Italy African migrants fight in order to improve their housing conditions. Recently the populist party in Italy introduced a new law that prevents illegal immigrants to get a permanent residence. Without a permanent residence those migrants have no chance of getting employed.  An example is the Senegalese Prealpino community. In this community Senegalese migrants lived and even worked in a building they did not rent legally. After the new law was introduced they were evicted and the building was demolished. They decided to fight and occupied a building crane for 16 days. Eventually the government caved in and annulled the law.   

These examples give us an impression of the difficulties illegal migrants have to face in Europe. The European Union does not help them by closing its eyes and pretending they do not exist. Apparently many changes need to be done in order to find a permanent solution for this highly important issue.

[600 words]

Drinking Habits in Ireland

Since my sister recently moved to Dublin, I have now a first hand source for all kinds of funny, intersting, strange cultural differences between us Austrians and the Irish. First thing she noticed on the green Island was that she, a lover of wine, was completely lost. Of course given the meteorologic preconditions (not so sunny, not so warm, lots of rain) she did not expect to find tons of great wines in Ireland. Unfortunatly she really despices beer and therefore she feels kind of an alien. After several weeks of drinking soda on the weekly pub evening with friends apparently some of them felt sorry for her and started a risky expedtion: finding a pub, that serves "good" wine for Anna. And look, what they found:

 

First step towards feeling at ease with the new home.

Discovering the world of Apps that help you study - gFlash+

Until two months ago I was strictly against Smartphones. I saw no good in them. Constant ringing, having to text all of your friends all the time, never stop looking up things on wikipedia --- uah... horrifying.
But now that my good old phone, with a battery that lasted for 5 days (yes, those still exist) died (RIP); and my sister moving to Dublin (I can not just text her the old way or I will have an enormous bill every month) I decided to join the dark side. I purchased a Smart-Phone.
As it turnes out, those things are not so stupid after all! It can even help you studying. Last year I spent hours and hours and hours producing flashcards with english and russian vocabulary on them. Just to go through them once and then never look at them again because producing them had already taken all the time I had to study them. This year I discovered gFlash+.

This simple App makes it possible to simply turn a google spreadsheet with your vocabulary into flashcards witch you than can learn with your smartphone whenever and wherever it pleases you. Fantastic! I am not yet a master in gFlah+ but intend on becoming one very soon. Of course I will share all my experience with you guys.

Have a nice Weekend!

The European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life

The European Union decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. As their main reasons the increasing conflict between family and work life with whom families all over Europe have to deal was stated. Throughout the year a special focus will be on social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment and, of course, work family life balance. The main aim is to rase awareness among the EU Memberstates for this cour themes and initiate them to support families. This should be done not just by encouraging already existing programms but also change policies in order to make life easier for families and creaty a family friendly work environment. In the End all of the European citizens should profit from this aggenda. But it is expected that specially women who are often the ones to manage a family are considered to be among the bigger benefiters. At the End of 2014 the EU anticipate an increas in quality of life and a better work life balance for it's citizens. 

Brainstorming:
Aspect of the EU that interest me:
Beeing able to move to (nearly) every EU country and live and work there.
 

work life balance got worse 
focus: social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment, work family life balance
initiate support for families, make life easier 
profit woman

necessary for mental health

prevent burn out 

family friendly work environment

labour market

change in policies in order to make it easier for families

Feedback No. 1: Register and Topic Sentence:
- Cut the "but"s
- don't say the same twice
- topic and Conclusion sentences are okay


Feedback No. 2: Vocab and Kohesion
- Change second sentence (confusing)
- look at initiate again
- expect and consider - saying twice the same thing
- benefiters not a word - beneficiaries
- by encouraging - by changing
- work family life balance does not exist
- the EU anticipates

Revised paragraph:

The European Union decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. As the primary reason the increasing conflict between family and work life, with whom families all over Europe have to deal, was stated. Throughout the year a special focus will be on social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment and, of course, work family life balance. The main aim is to rase awareness among the EU Member States for this cour themes and to inspire the individual governments to support families. This should be done not just by encouraging already existing programms, but also by changing policies in order to make life easier for families and creat a family friendly work environment. All of the European citizens should profit from this aggenda. However, it is expected that especially women, who are often to manage the family, are to be among the bigger beneficiaries. At the End of 2014 the EU anticipates an increase in quality of life and a better work life balance for its citizens. 

Final paragraph:

The European Union has decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. It was stated that the increasing conflict between family and work life, with which families all over Europe have to deal, has been a primary reason for this decision. Throughout the year the focus will be on social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment and, of course, work-family life balance. The main aim is to raise awareness among EU Member States of these core themes and encourage the individual governments to increas family support. This should be done not just by strengthen already existing programmes, but also by changing policies in order to make life easier for families and create a family-friendly work environment. Women, who are often the ones to manage a family, are considered to benefit most from these changes. In the End, the EU expects 2014 to bring an increase in quality of life and improvement in work-life balance for all European citizens.
 

Paper Ideas for SUK3

Welcome back to the new semester to everyone!

It has already been a week for everybody now since our third semester has started. I am already very much looking forward towards all the interesting things we are going to learn this semester. As the paper on the EU everyone of us has to write is going to be a huge deal to each and everyone of us here are my suggestions for topics:

Education in the EU - How does the EU handle the differences?

Since the Programme for International Student Assessment is again in every Newspaper, why not try finding out what the difference between the Finnish education system and that of other EU members is? It would be very interesting for me to find out what the EU has to say to that topic.Since in someway we are still part of the educational system and some day our children will be again I find this topic very fascinating. (Maybe it is also because I am going to visit Finnland very soon)

The Nobel Peace Price for the EU

On Friday it is again time for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to announce who the new Nobel Peace Prize goes to this year. In 2012 they decided the European Union to be warded. The official reason stated on the Nobel Peace Prize website is: "The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe." I would very much look deeper in to the matter what the EU has actually done to earn this. For example, that in 1980 they introduced democracy as a condition for EU-membership.

The role of the EU in european sustainable farming

I am sure we have all heard about the ridiculous cucumber law. But what exactly is the European Union doing in order to help our farmer grow sustainable food for all of us? How are European agricultural laws helping or how are they keeping us from increasing the quality in food? Being very much aware of the food production situation in Europe I find this topic fascinating.

The role of the EU in the fall of the Berlin Wall

I have never ever before thought about this: But when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 the EU had already existed and the BRD was one of the founding Members. So it would be really interesting for me what part the EU played in this historic event. Did they do anything at all to help Germany unifying the country? What happened after the Wall fell and suddenly there were a vie thousand EU citizens more?

Health insurance in the EU - What happens when you cross the border?

This topic has to be of special interest to all of us. Because sooner or later we have to cross the borders and what happens than? In Austria we all live in this super safe Bubble where you can always go to your doctor and hardly ever have to pay for it. But what rules are there in other countries? And more important what law applies when you need medical advice somewhere else in the EU?

So many interesting topics, so many questions to answer...
I am really looking forward to reading our papers!

Culture Presentations

Wow! I really have to say, I was impressed by the vaste range of topics we carried together for our culture presentations. Listening to my colleagues I learned plenty new stuff.

Anita Bhatti introduced me to the art of Newgrange, the oldest artwork in the world.
From Diana Skof I got some shocking facts about Psychiatry in Ireland in the middle of the last century.
Irish Dance is no longer this big secret to me, thanks to Katharina Luttenberger.
I was stunned by the story Bianca Brandtner told about Donal Walsh's fight against suicide in Ireland.
Thanks to Carmen Loderer, I'm now jeallous of Irish students for their opportunity to do a transition year.
The stories Katja Wallner told about animal symbolism in Irish Mythology captivated me.
Until Verena Praschs presentation about Whiskey I didn't even know there is such a thing like Austrian Whiskey.
Next time I'm in Dublin I will pay the Dublin Docklands a visite, beeing curious about them since Sowannry Em introtuced them to me.
I do now have a deeper knowledge about the GAA, thanks Alexandra Perfler.
Me and my sisters will send our 40-years old single cuisine to Willie Daly, hoping he can help. Natalie Riedl
Next time I'm invited to a Dinner party in one of the southern states of the US I will bring a cake. Thanks to Julia Rauch for giving me all this information about Southern Hospitality.
Should I ever get arrested in the US, at least because of Livia Pershy I do now know which society threat group I have to become a member of, in order to not get beat up.
And the San Francisco bay arrea is no longer a stranger to me, after heaving heard Marina Margeta's presentation.

All in all it was a really fun afternoon with lots of fun new facts to learn.

The presentations which most ceptured me, which I'm really curious about and which I'm choosing to be tested on in the KGP are:


Irish Dance
Transition year.
Animal symbolism in Irish Mytholog
Whiskey
The GAA