A typical stereotypical trait about Germans is their efficiency, perhaps only surpassed by the Swiss. After living in Berlin for years already I can assure you that this may not apply to all Germans or German cities equally. The surrounding cultural life is simply to various and awake that many tend to neglect their “responsibilities” or ignore the higher “authority” * in a broad sense. It shouldn’t be surprising, however, that a great number of Germans do actually fulfill the stereotype of being a efficient and reliable workers.
I feel like I’ve adopted both those mentalities, meaning that I might neglect some parts of my responsibilities just so that I may join a higher educational project and be all-time ready there. More to this in a tiny bit. Another example of this is me sitting in an airport and instead of checking the security systems or the shitty duty-free stores, I’ve decided to write another entry. Let’s not drag this out unnecessarily!
Here’s to the first large parenthesis before the plot:
In the course of your life as a well-meaning and politically active individual, one will get involved with the European Union to some extent. The more one learns about it, the wider the opportunities and advantages provided by this semi-corrupt, capitalist society becomes obvious. As one takes a plunge into it, and dives into the matter, it becomes apparent that the institutions are an amazingly deep pool and diving to the bottom becomes an impossible task.
Most people know about the 3 main institutions (i.e. the European Court, the Commission and the decision-making Parliament). Now try digging deeper: How about the social services provided, the almost unlimited financial supports provided not only to EU-citizen, but to any such individual that has a legal certificate of residence in one of the member states or those that are part of the Council of Europe? Meaning, that “foreigners” ** who reside on “European territory” *** have the opportunity of partaking in Youth Exchange, without fearing to pay more than those people with a “European nationality” ****.
People! Get yourselves a Euro-Pass (link at the bottom), enroll for a job anywhere in Europe, apply for an EVS project for a year or start your NGO with European money. Don’t let those corrupted and alcoholic Commissioners such as the Luxembourgish national hero Jean-Claude Junker waste it all on booze! The world has become too open and accessible as to spend it at “home” *****.
Why not simply starting with the story? We (as in the readers) still have no idea what you did or where you travelled this time!
Greece. Thessaloniki. The second most populated city of Greece. The one with Arabas Hostel, where I’m known as the imaginary friend because I come from an imaginary country – some say it’s a creation of the KGB. To be honest, I like myself just the way that I love my Thessaloniki Metro: Imaginary.
The city is strange, two-dimensional if not more. The part closest to the sea fully burned down half a century ago and was rebuild in the most disgusting capitalist way, that leaves no space for creativity or emotional attachment – unlike the Northern part. Here’s a direct comparison:
What more needs to be said about the city? Perhaps the most distinguishable part of Thessaloniki is the public transportation. It’s everything but reliable or comfortable. However, as there is no other choice but putting oneself into the skin of a sardine and imagine what it’s like to be all packed like they are. And enjoy being shoved in every possible direction while the bus takes hard turns and break every 5 bloody seconds to let new people in. You like staying in touch with people? Try the public transportation “system” ******* of Thessaloniki!
As mentioned earlier, my main objective in the city was the active participation in a youth exchange on “Express participation” – all financed by European money (thanks for paying your taxes, my dear European readers). Of course, we would have a project on democracy in the country where it was invented (though differently). During the course of many long session me and other 54 participants from 11 nations had the pleasure of learning about EU in a non-formal way. As representative of the German team, I took upon me the important responsibility of not portraying any sign of humour. As imaginable: German humour is no laughing matter. Though “German Team” in itself was slightly ridiculous, as it was represented by an imaginary person from Luxembourg, a Ukrainian and a US-American girl and two actual Germans.
On a scale from 1 to Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, how German do I look?
Why was this project important? Probably because it displays the European unity that still exists. It managed to bring together people from all across the continent and beyond (if you consider Ankara to be situated on the Asian continent, rather than on the European), who spend more than a week together in complete peace and harmony between each other. Everyone was involved in the decision-making process. No voice was ignored (or at least so it seemed). Moreover, closely related to this was the cultural exchange that was guaranteed and, in fact, expected to take place.
Claiming that the European idea had failed would be a treason to our modern moral codex. We greatly profit from the supranational forces that helped creating and holding together people from various countries with different ethno-cultural backgrounds – projects like the one I participated in are only an expression of the wonderful ideology that has peacefully combined our European nations.
This, however, doesn’t mean that everything is perfect! Much needs to be adapted and transformed, more direct democracy is necessary for a continued peace. The voice of the people shouldn’t be ignored any longer; millions of signatures demanding change in economics must be taken into consideration. It is furthermore to be noted, that many conflicts were only repositioned into the so-called 3rd world countries. The weapon’s industry hasn’t disappeared yet. People are still afraid of foreign aggression. Balkan countries have been struggling with ethnic tensions. It may not be perfect, but it’s the best system that has been developed to this day.
I hope that the participants stay in touch and use their newly-gained knowledge for the future. It’s been an amazing time, truly. Therefore I’d like to thank all of them again, if I haven’t already done it or shown my affection sufficiently. You’re sending out some good, positive vibes, mates!
And that may have already been the main thought. Here’s to some more pictures from the project.
Here’s for more info on the Europass: https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/
Some thoughts on the previously marked words and constructions:
Authority: Being treated as inferior by a higher power is a primitive expression of power and therefore violence. Every authority should be regarded with mistrust, starting from teachers, going up all the way to presidents. No power for nobody, only by the collective.
Foreigners: Giving some people more rights and privilege over others, simply due to the fact that they were born within some imaginary lines is as ridiculous as it is outrageous. Globalisation slowly eradicates those lines, though it may bring massive ecological destruction along.
European territory: How exactly would one define the European territory? Would one only consider the tectonic landmasses, on which our world floats or take a rather cultural approach? Wouldn’t it be therefore impossible to let any people from e.g. far-Eastern cultures enter this sphere? If you rule this out, would Georgia, Russia or Turkey ever be allowed as their territory strictly isn’t on European Territory or just to some extent? Or do we have to think differently and consider the European Union as nothing but an economical institution. thus rendering the “European values” worthless?
European nationality: Similar thought. Who belongs to the imaginary European clique and who’s out?
Home: The place of one’s birth, one’s flat, the village one was born in or resides at the moment, the mountainous region or even the country in which one lives – home can be defined in many notoriously different ways. Some may even find that home is the place, with the special gems such as the famous Arkenstone. For me home is where the heart is, which can be attributed to a never ending amount of places all over the planet, under the condition that one is with beloved people.
System: The Greek public transportation system may be called as such, but only because destructive systems also fall under the category of systems.
NoMethDragon 