DEMYC Interactive

Athens waiting for us!

2008-04-03T02:29:00.000-07:00

Hello to you all from a beautiful city of Athens, DEMYC crew and organizers already here waiting for you. See ya!

2008-01-24T01:34:00.000-08:00

Open Letter

To: Romanian Presidency
Romanian Government
Romanian Parliament
Romanian Mass-Media
Romanian NGO
European Institutions

The Christian Democratic Youth – NPCDP, from Romania is shocked by the events that followed the DEMYC (Democrat Youth Community of Europe – one of the youth organizations of the European People’s Party) study visit in Belarus. We declare that is unacceptable that young people get arrested by the authorities after using a basic human right: the freedom of speech.
Following a study visit to Belarus by DEMYC, ten Belarusian activists from The Belarusian Popular Front and the Young Front were arrested and imprisoned by the Belarusian regime because of their political beliefs. These young activists are: Franak Viachorka, Anton Kalinouski, Yuras Stankevich, Uladzimir Syarheew, Kasya Krasnova, Lyudmila Atakulava, Kasya Halitskaya, Maksim Vyarnyanski, Paval Kuryanovich and Volha Kulyakevich.

These ten young people were arrested and have been sentenced for up to 15 days in prison without any justified reason. They have been sentenced to prison for “using bad language”. Some of them were beaten by the police in order to confirm their participation in a peaceful demonstration of the opposition.

The actions of the Belarusian Government prove that these political forces are against democracy and against the natural process that every country from the former USSR must follow. Unfortunately, the political regime in Belarus seems that is related to tight to the deported Communist Party and to it’s universal capital: Kremlin.
We are worried for the people in Belarus, for they must stand against such regime, witch does nothing but a political inquisition.

In any normal country, it is impossible to band the freedom of speech and expression. Including the political belief. Such actions must not repeat, and we appeal the International institutions to do whatever it takes in preventing such barbarian events in the future.

The Youth Organization of The National Pesant Christian Democratic Party– himself a victim of the atrocities made by the communist regime from Romania in the 20th century - rallies to the DEMYC and IYDU’s (International Youth Democrat Unoin) appeal, and urges world governments to defend human rights and freedom of speech in Belarus and everywhere.

Victor Ionescu
CHAIRMAN- THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC YOUTH – NPCDP-ROMANIA

Aftermath of the Belarus study trip

2008-01-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

There were reports today that two persons whom we met in Minsk were "asked" to attend an interview in KGB.

More about it on my blog.

Also uploaded some pictures of the event.

non-formal alpen DEMYC

2007-12-17T01:45:00.000-08:00

hey everyone!
As we already established new DEMYC tradition of non-formal meetings, we want to invite you to participate in skiing demyc in austrian alps in the first week of March (from1st till 8th). Programme is simple- we are skiing (alternatively drinking Gluhwein and watching alpen views :P), chatting and having a lot of fun :D. We will live in a cabin (costs approx. 15euro/night/person) and we are planning to buy food before and then share spendings. for those who really want to ski (like me:D), we will have to buy skipasses, what's the most expensive (I think) thing during this event. how to get there: we will sleep in Schladming or Forstau and this places are close to Salzburg, where you can get by plane. The best would be to get there by car ( I know some people are taking cars, so probably we can arrange it somehow to pick you up from the airport, when we will know who exactly is coming).
NOW, PLEASE NOTE:
1)I have to know who is coming as soon as possible, to book a cabin, so please, let me know if you are going till the 3rd of January
2)For any further infos, contact me :)
see you all in Finland!

DEMYC tropical drops

2007-10-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

have a look at this ;)
http://www.naturalhealinghouse.com/pekana_demyc.html

Elections in Poland :)

2007-10-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

finally, after two years of neverending jokes about polish President, PM (yes, I am talking about two most famous ducks ;), polish foreign policy and tenses of very strange ideas created by our Ministers (like the one with gay-telletubbie, bcs. he's wearing a bag...), I can attend DEMYC event on which I will not have to explain why we're such a..... ducks :P
Great majority of Poles belive, that now we're on the right (nomen omen) route to become respected and developing european democracy.

and now, in a nut shell- facts:
turnout- 53,86% (polish new record!)
-41,51% of votes and 209 seats in Parliament for PO
-32,11% votes and 166 seats- PiS
-13,15% votes and 53 seats- LiD
-8,91% votes and 31 seats- PSL
-0,20% votes and 1 seat for German Minority
As you can see- PO with PSL is having majority and that's the most probable coalition for today.
(in the photo you can see election evening party we, Lower Silesia PO had on Sunday. We had a very good reason- PO got 53,20% of votes in a region and we are going to have 8 or 9 seats in Parliament).

At last, please note it's my personal opinion. MK was not supporting any political party during this elections.

Dark side of DEMYC Polish seminar :)

2007-07-30T06:54:00.001-07:00

I wanted to write many times about the mysterious event that took place late spring this year in the Polish Tatras. Well, a lot of things happened that can't be really described by words, but some others can: car theft, gun smuggling, alcohol (over)consumption... Let the evidence speak:

Some people came in with high expectation:

Some people socialized with wrong people:

Some people just flew around:

Some people thought practice makes perfection:

Can summer school beat this?

Mart Laar about future leadership

2007-07-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

When they tell you that you'll be the leader of the country one day, you might laugh. They used to tell me the same thing, and I laughed. It sounded ridiculous. But then it happened, and you have to be ready for that day.
I remember during the Milosevic era, I received a call from Maggie Thatcher. She asked me to go to Belgrade, saying, 'I have some friends in Serbia, and they could use some encouragement.' So I went and met a group of smart, young people. And when I told them that they too would be ministers one day, they laughed. The group was called G17 and, sure enough, some of them became ministers after the democratic changes.
You too will be the leaders one day. Both in old democracies and new ones. So you have to take advantage of time because you have to be ready for the future. Be brave and don't lose your ideals!

Mart Laar

(copy-paste by Veiko from Mr Mart Laar)

PPUY new web-page

2007-06-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Amigos, PPUY has a new web-page www.noorisamaa.ee.
Which is mainly a posting for general secretary to change it on DEMYC page.:)
And sorry it is not yet on english.

Veiko

2007-06-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Victor Ionescu book "Romanian Christian Democracy and European Christian Democracy" can be found in the editor's stand at this year's Bookfest, at ROMEXPO.

DEMYC Vice-Chairman suicidal :)

2007-06-04T02:48:00.000-07:00

My video about the things I do every day before breakfast. I hope to get this thing on the schedule of our next seminar since it KICKS ASS!

Religion, democracy and a trip to Brussels

2007-05-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, I had the pleasure of representing DEMYC at a debate hosted by the European Youth Forum and the Network of European Foundations.

The debate was neatly entitled "Religion and Democracy" and addressed issues such as "Taking securalism seriously", "Incorporating Islam into European Societies" and "The role of media and education" - all interesting subjects, but rather difficult to address in depth between 10am and 4.30pm. All in all, we had a lot of different opinions - the classical liberal stance of tolerance, a socialist hard-line secular point of view, and my own hawkishly moderate stance :).

I can't see there being any clear-cut solutions to nearly anything regarding religion or democracy, and I'm rather skeptical of attempts at large scale, radical and idealistic reform projects... if not just plain cynical. This is always a problem when talking with people from NGOs - their idealism and my inherent cynicism just don't seem to click.

The ensuring debates are always fascinating, though. Perhaps the most interesting part of the debate was the one regarding the underlying cause of the problems with the (largely Muslim) immigrant communities in Europe. The debate was long and rather inconclusive (surprise :)), but one point I would like to share in a bit more detail: Class and immigration.

Class, Culture and Immigration
At least in the Danish immigrant-debate, as well as the British - I've been told so at least - has for the longest time revolved around 'culture' and 'values'. Being a student of anthropology, any mention of the "C-word" arouses half interest, half annoyance. Too often, culture is used as a vaguely defined catch-all that something clouds the picture more than it helps. The ongoing debate on immigration is a great example. In Europe, Muslim immigrants are often marginal groups of low socio-economic standing with all that that entails: crime, unemployment, high(-er) mortality rates... while in the US, Muslims and Arab Americans in particular, are rather model immigrants with above-average income. If the culture of the immigrants explains how they will adapt to the host society, and - the tacit assumption of the 'Muslim'-debate in this country - if Islam is the root of their culture - why then isn't the same thing happening in the States as in Europe? This Wednesday's debate would say class; bluntly put, the difference between coming to a country as a refugee on a bus or flying on business class. True or not, the notion was worth the debate.

Free Speech
Other topics we touched on: migration patterns, majority-minority relations... and also, stereotypes in the media. This item on the agenda bugged me, though. I am quite prejudiced against the debate: Frankly, it's interesting, but fruitless. Furthermore, it needs to be fruitless.

After discussing media stereotypes and distortions for some time, I asked the girls running that part of the show something in the order of "What do you propose?". The answer was awkward silence, so I elaborated on the question. I assumed - feared - they had some call for action. Obviously, they considered media distortions a problem; I asked them for proposals for a solution, which they were unwilling to give. Of course, I admit to being perhaps a tad bit overly rhetorical with them, but the question still lingers in the back of the mind. What do they have in mind? Or perhaps, what have they planned?

I've seen and heard it before. The tacit call for action against the media; most strikingly I heard it in Istanbul in a discussion with some not-so-democratically minded Middle-Easterners, and I've heard it between the lines from the Left. Very often there are good intentions underlying the harsh criticism of the media; tolerance, understanding, peaceful co-existence. Too often, however, it has the distinct tinge of censorship that taints political correctness.

All in all, the debate this Wednesday was thought provoking. I'll give further details when I receive the minutes, and I'll post a picture or two as well.

What does it take to become a future leader in Europe? ;)

2007-05-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I am putting here one multiple choice question. An answer is written in comments to this post. I relly can't figure out what kind of tip or advice it is for us, the future leaders ;)

task:
It is time to elect a new world leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:
Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, Consults with astrologists, Has had two mistresses, Chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day
Candidate B: Was kicked out of office twice, Sleeps until noon, Used opium in college, Drinks a quart of whisky every evening
Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero, He's a vegetarian, Doesn't smoke, Drinks an occasional beer, Hasn't had any extramarital affairs
Which of these candidates would be your choice?

New blogger from Spain!

2007-05-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

DEMYC blog attracts attention world-wide (well, let's say Europe-wide). I just received a mail from Javier Hurtado, a Spaniard who is a member of Nuevas Generaciones of Partido Popular. He is willing to contribute to our blog, so I immediately granted him a permission to be a guest blogger on DEMYC Interactive.

Check his blog on hurtisliberal.blogspot.com. (It's en espanol, but maybe you will see it's worth it just from the pictures:)

Maybe we will have some guest posts on our blog soon.

Teenagers voting in Austria

2007-05-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

I just red an article about new regulations austrian government want to set up. Coalition want to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16 in all states and at all levels. And I am wondering what's the purpose..... I mean the long distance purpose for right wing parities (in a short distance it seems austrian conservatives can gain a few teen votes). First of all, most of 16 years olds is completly not interested in politics(young people are joining youth political organisations being 18,19 ). Secondly, that's the age media and mass culture have huge influence on people, what can cause lot of demagogic campaign and simply accidental votes. Lastly, there is a tendency that young voters are more sympathisant with tha left side, because of their idealized view on states, individuals and possible systems (that's actually Miha's very accurate thought :)- so we're loosing!
waiting for your opinions, maybe some counterweight ;)

Nashist's

2007-05-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

Quite similar, I would say.

2007-05-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

Hey all,
I am sending my hello from Munich. I have been in Germany for more than a week now and i try to get the updates from the DEMYC blog about EYF, French Elections, EDS, Bureau work, etc, etc... What i can say from my site is that HAMBURG ROCKS!!!!

1st of all Congratulations Ines!!!! It is very encouraging to see that DEMYC efforts in EYF are finally giving results. It seems that a new era is beginning in EYF.

2. It was Costas Birthday yesterday, 1st of May. HAPPY BDAY COSTAS...

If anybody is around Munich, please drop by and watch our theatre performance at the Gasteig Zentrum. At the weekend 11-13 May i will be in Brussels for the EYF working group. If there is a demyc friend around it will be nice to have a cup of coffee together.

Ines Prainsack elected for the BUREAU of the European Youth Forum

2007-04-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

The DEMYC Chairwoman Ines Elise Prainsack got elected for the bureau of the European Youth Forum on a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In this position she will deal with unemployment policy and related topics.

Congratulations Ines and congratulations DEMYC...

Riots in Tallinn

2007-04-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and also today we are seeing some riots in Tallinn due to government started works on "unknown soldier's" graves near the bronze soldier.

As these movements started riots then government decided to remove this grave memorial from it's current location.

During yesterday night approx 300 people were arrested, approx 60 injured and one dead civilian, 1 out of 13 injured policeman is in hospital.

Today tension is growing up again and approx 100 more people has been arrested.

Hope fully thing will be back to normal in few days.

As there is always good point about bad things then we could conclude:
We are now truly democratic European nation in this matter, as you look what has happened in France, Spain and other countries in EU.

You can read more from BBC.

Sakozy on the way...

2007-04-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Result of the 1st round in the french presidential elections...

Sakozy 30 %
Royal 25 %
Bayrou 18 %
Le Pen 11 %

Election turnout: 84 %

Now we await the 2nd round on the 6th of May, but again everything can happen...

French election on Sunday...

2007-04-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

This sunday an exiting election will take place, namely the 1st round of the presidential elections in France. The 4 main candidates are the socialist Royal, centercandidate Bayrou and the conservative Sarkozy... And then there is offcourse the mad-man of french politics Jean-Marie Le Pen, from Front National.

It looks like its going to be a close race, with the last poll today saying: Sarkozy 27 % and Royal 26%. But everything is still totally open...

Sarkozy has been a much more conservative candidate, than we are used to in French politics - being pro-US, pro market economy and tough on crime. I personally welcome a much more pro-western French president. Royal is the usual socialist propaganda, we know so well - it didn´t work in the Eastern Europe and it wont work in France as well...

So thumbs up for Sarkozy... :-)

In this poll, you can see the developments over the last weeks

Whats going on in Ukraine?

2007-04-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

In the last week there has been alot of things on the new about Ukraine - today it was demonstrations of the supporters of the 2 leading policians: President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Yushchenko dissovled the parliament 2 weeks ago calling a new election in May - and this lead to a powerstruggle between the 2 main political figures of Ukraine...

But their struggle has ties back to the 2004 presidential elections where the Orange Revolution which swept Yushchenko to power, overturning a false Yanukovych election victory.

As far as I know - the whole core of their struggle is the foreign relations - Yuschenko believes in strong ties to the West - Yanukovych in very strong ties to Russia...

Poll results and new poll!

2007-04-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, I am enjoying some nice weather back in Prague, how are all of you?

I have some nice news, our poll just finished and you can see the results below. As it seems, this place is either "damn great!" or "great, damn!" (for those of you who didn't notice - it's the same thing:) There were some traitors to call us a "Chirac fanclub", which I consider being a curse...

DEMYC blog is:

There is a new poll coming on the right menu, we just have to explore how we all stand on Tony Blair, there were some misunderstandings about that:)

British soldiers are free - and not a minute too soon!

2007-04-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6525905.stm

If it was the resolution on the DEMYC blog the news doesn´t reveal... ;-)

Belarus needs our help!

2007-04-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Dear DEMYC activists,

I have received this from our friends in Belarus, Andrey Dzenisevich was with us in Belgrade only a few days ago... if you have any ideas on how we can help him and all those in the same situation... please post it or mail it to me at krull@demyc.org

Lasse

Andrey Dzenisevich, the UCP member and YCSU “Young Democrats” leader was arrested and examined by the KGB on the 28th of March.
The captain of KGB Dmitry Svistun together with another officer in civil arrested Andrey Denisevich at his home and escorted him in handcuffs to the Minsk city office of KGB.
Andrey was examined there in the framework of the initiated criminal case against youth activists of the not registered organization “Young Front”.
Four young people are under the investigation according mentioned criminal case now – Borys Garecki, Aleg Korban, Anastasya Palejanka, Dmitry Fedoruk In the case of the trial all of them will receive the "standard" verdict – according the article 193 of the Criminal Code of Republic of Belarus "activity in name of not registered organization" – that means conviction on two years of deprivation of freedom. Andrey Dzenisevich was captured and examined as the witness yet. But he is sure that it is only the beginning – usually the "witness" is easely transformed to the "accused".
Andrey Dzenisevich thinks that his forced arrest is one of the step of the general strategy of the Belarussian authorities targeted against the most active and potentially dangerous members of the youth movement.
In his case he thinks that it is the response from the side of KGB for his not desire to collaborate with them.
Taking in attention all the mentioned
the Youth Christian-Social Union "Young Democrats" aks everybodyto :
• be not different to the destiny of Andrey Denisevich and other youth
leaders that are persecuted by the Belarusian authorities;
• put the question to stop repression against the Belarussian opposition
members before the Government of Belarus;
• strengthen the support of the political youth organizations of Belarus.