At Home in Europe

Western Balkans and Turkey

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 06:20:25 +0000

Early spring 2011, we leave for the Western Balkans and Turkey, countries in negotiation of becoming new members of the European Union. The Balkans is an often forgotten region in Europe, and often painted in dark, violent colours. Turkey is the ungraspable nation located on the last square meter of Southeast Europe, not enough to be ‘European’ some would say.

But do we know what Europe is, who it is, where it is?

The Balkans is a mixture of peoples, nations, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, cultures, heritage and more, much more… The Balkans is the very evidence of all that created Europe. It is the link between North, South, East and West. No wonder why it is complicated, no wonder why we need the Balkans to better understand each other and ourselves.

In three, one hour long, documentary films we meet with a variety of people and places, taking us to:

Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey (Istanbul)

Part I: SARAJEVO

Part II: BELGRADE

Part III: ZAGREB

1st Film
SARAJEVO // BELGRADE // ZAGREB

The war came to Sarajevo in the spring of 1992 and forever changed the local but also European history. Almost twenty years after the breakout of the war, much has happened in the former Yugoslavia, where the old capital, Belgrade has regained its role as the central point for the youth all over the Balkans; Zagreb soon being another EU capital and Sarajevo… Well, Sarajevo a city with soul, pain and humour.

In the three cities we go about questions of the past, present and the future, we meet with the youth and try to get a picture of what life is like.

Part I: MOSTAR

Part II: ISTANBUL

Part III: SUBOTICA

2nd Film
OTTOMAN // BALKAN // EUROPE

Mostar, Istanbul, Subotica, Strasbourg

The Europe that we know, what would that be and what would it look like? Who is a European and who is not? Where do we live, and with whom? Why do we differentiate ourselves from one another? Why did we and why do we fight one another?… A thousand questions and millions answers.

The Ottoman heritage in Europe is a part of what it means to be European.

Part I

Part II

3rd Film
GOING BACK // LEAVING // STAYING

Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo

Alexandra, Julien and Yoann travel throughout these four countries in the Balkans and meet with Roma, Caritas, refugees, nuns, politicians, and with the youth of the region.

The Roma who are levying their hand to us on the streets of Paris, Berlin, Brussels, are levying their hand to us in the Balkans as well. They live aside everywhere in Europe, but why?

The issues of migration, immigration, dislocation of people, the right to a piece of land, to a community… are sensitive and disturbing issues especially when it comes to Roma. On the ground our reporters have us discover a region of contrasts, between human warmth and misery in a dazzling landscape.

© Louvranges Broadcast 2011

A film by LOUVRANGES BROADCAST : Anna Sennö and André Bossuroy
Coordinator and contact: André Bossuroy // aboss@skynet.be
Reporters: Alexandra Jastrzebska, Erika Lastovskyte, Yoann Le Bars, Julien Mabin, Anna Sennö
Music: Ivo Saint

A project financed with the support from the European Commission
Directorate-General Enlargement // The programme Prince 2009 – EU 27 aims to familiarise people in EU Member States with the contemporary reality of candidate countries and potential candidates in Southeastern European Countries and to promote tolerance and understanding through people-to-people encounters…

Belgium

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:37:08 +0000

In Brussels, Medea, a Swiss student meets with the Belgian ONG COMIDE (Coopération Missionnaire au Développement). COMIDE sponsor educational projects to be carried out in Africa. They work with Belgian and European funding.

Medea travelled to Africa to visit the activities carried out by the projects sponsored by COMIDE. She travelled to South Africa and Madagascar to do reportage. The film has been carried out with support from the DG Development and relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States of the European Commission.

Once in Ivato and in Cape Town, the street children of these two capitals can receive through the help of the mentioned projects a professional, humanitarian and spiritual education. The educations are conceived to help these children to grown into responsible citizens. Their educators are from time to time themselves old street children who have profited from the education of these educational centres.

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The European Union is the premier backer of financial funding in the world, which constitutes more than half of the worldwide aid to developing countries.

http://ec.europa.eu/development/how/aid_effectiveness_fr.cfm

Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States

Development is at the heart of the EU’s external action, along with its foreign, security and trade policies. The primary and overarching objective of EU development policy is the eradication of poverty in the context of sustainable development.

Czech Republic

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:36:36 +0000

Denisa is a Czech student and lives in Brussels. She takes off to Prague, following the tracks of her childhood passion for science. Before the independence of Czech Republic, her parents could not leave their country and still after the opportunities were limited. But since 2004, and the entry within the European Union, she has been able to travel more easily and give free way to her passion.

Denisa has also met an international youth science organisation, MILSET Europe which works with the support of European funds and which give her opportunities to put her dreams in action.

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Interest holder of the European Union for scientific research… DG Research

A Direction General within the European Commission has as mission to develop scientific research in Europe and make of the European Union a major pole of scientific competencies in the world.

European research by country: http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=nationalbrochures

MILSET Europe

MILSET Europe, the European branch of the International Movement for Leisure Activities in Science & Technology, is a mouvement regrouping organisations active in the local development of scientific and technical education in leisure time and which promote international cooperation, citizenship and peace, by practicing sciences and technology in a spirit of respect, understanding and solidarity within different geographic and spiritual communities.

http://europe.milset.org

France

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:36:06 +0000

Fredrike works within the International Relations department of URCA (University of Reims Champagne Ardenne). She introduces us to several different European mobility programmes for young Europeans. Beatrice, Spanish, has done a European voluntary service and works at the CRU (Regional centre of youth information). Anca is from Romania and Iskerden from Turkey. They are doing an “Erasmus-Internship” at the URCA, whilst Maren from Germany, is taking courses in philosophy as an Erasmus student. Her professor has given courses in Russia, as a part of this programme.

Indeed, these programmes give way to a human, relational and professional evolvement, indispensable to their current lives.

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The Erasmus Programme

Alexandra, our Citizen’s reporter, has been able to profit from the European mobility programme for students, Erasmus.
Erasmus has celebrated its 20 years in 2007. Ever since its creation, Erasmus has enabled closely up to one and a half million young Europeans to travel. For the year of 2013, the European commission has set as goal to reach the staggering number of three million mobile students, either conducting their studies or a work practice across Europe. And the students are unanimous: The Erasmus experience enrich, opens new horizons, enforce citizenship, and gives wonderful cultural and linguistic experiences.
In 31 European countries, a national agency takes care of the mobility programmes; Eramsus, Comenius, Leonard, Gundtvig and Erasmus Mundus.

Germany

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:35:26 +0000

Thanks to her Erasmus experience in Ireland but also from having served the European Voluntary Service in Barcelona, Alexandra has frequently travelled around Europe. She meets with Roman Kroke, an artist from Berlin, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
The Berlin wall reminds us about the Cold War and stands as symbol of a divided Europe. The fall of the wall gave way to an enlargement of the European Union towards central European countries. But what role does the wall assume today? Roman has studied the walls that exist within every one of us (e.g. prejudices and stereotypes surrounding culture, people and different religions), as they might be the premise to the exterior ones… Alexandra and Roman have participated in a European film project produced in the memory of the Nazi victims. A projected carried out with support from the European Commission / ”Europe for Citizens” programme.

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Etty Hillesum – in the skin of a deportee

The film “the Convoy” by André Bossuroy follows two Erasmus students whilst meeting a young European Jewish woman. She belonged to a cultivated, bourgeois community of Amsterdam, where her diary was found in the 1980’s. The film was broadcasted on the 28th of January 2010 at the University of Jagiellonian in Krakow, Poland. It was broadcasted on the occasion of a memorial celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation. Present on the memorial were amongst others, the Polish Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament.
This film has received the support from the European programme “Europe for its Citizens – A European Active Memory”

Watch the movie:

Roman Kroke

Roman Kroke from Berlin participates in the film ”the Convoy”; he has created ten illustrations about the diary of the Dutch Jew woman: Etty Hillesum. In the film one discovers the main pillar of his work; Kroke’s artistic work is the illustrations of historic events with a special emphasis on the Holocaust and the history of Berlin. In these areas he is engaged in national and international cooperations with schools, universities, museums, foundations and TV-productions.

http://www.RomanKroke.de

Ireland

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:35:10 +0000

Pauline is a Belgian Erasmus student in Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland. With her friend Stéphane, she goes to Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Belfast is the last city within the European Union that still has walls separating the different communities from each other. Since 1968, a civil war has engraved severe consequences on its citizens. The civil war in Northern Ireland counts some 3600 victims, 47 000 wounded persons and the area has known 16 000 bombing attacks in only 30 years time.
Today, the so called “peace walls” divides ruthlessly the city into two, with walls that can count 7.6 meters, which represents twice the height of the Berlin wall.
David, who works at the Belfast City Council, works with help from the European programme for Peace, to support voluntaries “on the ground” like Trevor. Trevor is a protestant who encourage a dialogue and development of both the Protestant as well as the Catholic communities in West Belfast.
“It has taken a lot of time for the people to realise that a part from their religious difference, they have had and have the same problems on each side of the wall…” Trevor concludes: “but sometimes people just don’t want to change”.

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Murals

The mural paintings of Northern Ireland depict in a powerful way the region’s past and its present divisions. They constitute the most comprising “mural propaganda” in the world. Almost 2000 murals have been documented in Northern Ireland since the 1970’s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murals_in_Northern_Ireland

EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland

The EU Peace Programme’s twin objectives of promoting social inclusion and, at the same time, making the most of new opportunities to boost economic growth and advance social and economic regeneration have been central to its success.

http://www.gppac.net/documents/pbp/10/4_eu.htm

Latvia

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:34:50 +0000

Jonathan is a French Erasmus student in Riga, the capital of Latvia. We’re on the 9th of May. The Russian community of Latvia celebrates the Day of Victory, the victory of the Red Army against the Nazis in 1945. On the other side of the river Daugava, which runs through Riga, the Latvian non-Russian community celebrates the European Day.
One country, two communities, two languages…a situation that we can find throughout many countries of the European Union. How does the Latvian youth experience this event?
Jonathan meets with the Klubs Māja, an active youth organisation in Latvia and Europe, also member of Young European Federalists.

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JEF Europe

The Young European Federalists participates in the exchange of opinions and experiences and concentrates its action on the achievement of international democracy through the establishment of federal systems in Europe and in the world. The aims of JEF are to work for the creation of a European Federation, first step towards peace and World Federation, and for a freer, more just and more democratic federal society.
Federalism proposes a decentralised, self-managed society, in which all persons affected by a decision may participate in making it.

http://www.jef.eu

Europe Day

May 9, Europe Day is an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_Day

Victory Day

May 8 in Europe
Victory Day marks the end of World War II in Europe, specifically the capitulation of Nazi forces to the Allies (the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, France, the United States and other principal Allied nations) on May 8, 1945.
May 9 in Russia and countries of post-Soviet space
In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries of the former Soviet Union, the day of Victory over Nazi Germany was celebrated on May 9, because when the German Instrument of Surrender actually entered into force (May 8, 1945 at 23:01 CET), it was already May 9 by Moscow Time. Some post-Soviet countries, most notably the Russian Federation, have continued the tradition.

Lithuania

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 09:40:11 +0000

Erika is a young Lithuanian woman living in Vilnius, member of cafebabel.com, an organisation set 10 years ago by Erasmus students and gathering young journalists over Europe.
Equality between men and women is a fundamental right, a joint value within the European Union.
Lithuania can be considered to be a pioneer within the domain of legal measurements regarding gender equality. It was the first Central and Eastern European country to adopt a law of equal chances in 1999.
The protection of women within civil life, domestic violence and trafficking are questions that Erika is concerned with.

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European Institute for Gender Equality gets off the ground

The seat of the European Institute for Gender Equality is in Vilnius (Lithuania). The Institute is the first EU agency to be based in one of the Baltic States.
The European Institute for Gender Equality is a European agency to support the Member States and the European institutions in their efforts to promote gender equality, to fight discrimination based on sex and to raise awareness of gender issues.

European Institute for Gender Equality: http://www.eige.europa.eu

Lithuania, a pioneering country for gender equality

Vilnius Women’s House: http://www.javlb.org/bridges/issue6/raidis.html
Watch the movie (drapeau anglais avec le lien suivant) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6tMSlqV2-U
Women’s Issues Information Centre: http://www.lygus.lt/
Center for Equality Advancement: http://www.gap.lt/
Vilniaus miesto motinos ir vaiko pensionas: http://www.vilnius.lt/newvilniusweb/index.php/88/?mid=%7Blt;3;274%7D
Missing Person’s Families Support Centre: http://www.emmaus-europe.org/spip.php?article221

Poland

admin — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:25:59 +0000

Marine and Gaïda are two French Erasmus students in Krakow, Poland. They take the train on the occasion of the 65th anniversary to Auschwitz, liberated by the Red Army. In the train they exchange emotions and thoughts with Maria and Roman, who have participated in a film project produced in the memory of the victims of the concentration camps. The film memorises a young 27 years old European woman, Etty Hillesum. Etty lived the Nazi persecution in Amsterdam during World War II. She tried to overcome her own interior walls in order to ‘meet’ with the actual human nature. Her attitude is a prime example of the ‘co-existence’ of our European current societies.

Auschwitz is more than a museum. It is a living wound of humanity and European history. A place that has seen the culmination of segregation and discrimination can now begin to help the European peoples to meet and build a place where peace, understanding and tolerance can reign on our European soil.

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A European active memory

The European Union is built on fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. In order to fully appreciate their meaning, it is necessary to remember the breaches of those principles caused by Nazism and Stalinism in Europe. By commemorating the victims, by preserving the sites and archives associated with deportations, Europeans will preserve the memory of the past, including its dark sides. It is particularly important to do so now, as witnesses are progressively disappearing. An awareness of the full dimensions and tragic consequences of the Second World War will thereby be maintained, in particular through the involvement of the younger generations of Europeans. Furthermore, citizens will engage in a reflection on the origins of the European Union, fifty years ago, on the history of European integration, which preserved peace among its members, and finally on today’s Europe, thereby moving beyond the past and building the future. This action therefore will play an important role in nourishing the broad reflection on the future of Europe, in promoting active European citizenship and in bringing Europe closer to its citizens by promoting Europe’s values and achievements, while preserving the memory of its past.

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/citizenship/programme/action4_en.php

Slovenia

admin — Sat, 22 May 2010 17:55:56 +0000

Ana is a young Slovenian woman, who has followed an Erasmus programme in Dijon, France.
Palm Sunday in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and the Catholic community gather around the city churches. For the Muslim community it has been 30 years since they first filed a demand for the construction of a mosque, where they can practice their faith, but in vain. Tina, a member of Young European Federalists, thinks that our fears often are rooted in rumours of things that we do not really know. Only the personal meeting can give way to a valid opinion.
Ana goes to Jesenice to meet with Faila Pasic Bisic, a young Muslim woman. She has been awarded with the Face of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, and in 2010 ambassador for the Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.
“I wish to enforce peace, love. I wish to become the active force that can create more of a pacifist and just world. But in order to do so, one have to start by one self”, Faila concludes.

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Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

The 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All sought to make people in the European Union more aware of their rights to equal treatment and to a life free of discrimination.

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=555&langId=en&CFID=4564868&CFTOKEN=95753035&jsessionid=0309b6531d1c1c71d385

Faila Pasic Bisic

Faila is muslim care worker, daughter of Bosnian parents was born in Slovenia. For the last ten years, she has been travelling around the world, promoting tolerance and compassion, protection of the environment, coexistence of all religions, nations cultures and social others. She is also initiator of numerouos humanitarian aid projects, as well as activities promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding. She is also doing voluntary service in Bosnian, Kosovan, African, palestinian refugee camps. She has earned recognition from various social, healthcare, political personages.
She has been awarded the best Volonteer 2006, Humanist of the year 2007, Face of the European year of equal opportunities for all 2007, and nominated for Slovenian women of the year 2008 and Young European 2008.

http://www.positivemuslimah.com/2009/12/active-muslimahs-faila-pasic-bisic.html

“Today you only talk about Muslims related to sensational stories, violence – things that Europe does not know how to digest. You do not talk about the Muslim civilisation that has influenced the occidental civilisation considerably. You do not speak about the Islamic architecture, its art and its poetry. Why do we never hear about Muslims, who are extremely well integrated to its European society? The same question is repeatedly being posed: Why are some Muslims well integrated and some not? Integration is a two-way process. However the discourse is often held from a one-way perspective, where it is up to the Muslims to get instantly active on the work market, learn the culture and the language of a certain society. But no one evokes the need for the majority of the population, let us here say the Europeans, to get acquainted with these people, their culture, and to get familiar with the idea that these people can also give prosperity to a multi-religious Europe.”
Faila Pasic Bisic

At Home in Europe

Western Balkans and Turkey

1st Film SARAJEVO // BELGRADE // ZAGREB

2nd Film OTTOMAN // BALKAN // EUROPE

Mostar, Istanbul, Subotica, Strasbourg

3rd Film GOING BACK // LEAVING // STAYING

Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo

Belgium

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Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States

Czech Republic

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Interest holder of the European Union for scientific research… DG Research

MILSET Europe

France

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The Erasmus Programme

Germany

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Etty Hillesum – in the skin of a deportee

Roman Kroke

Ireland

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Murals

EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland

Latvia

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JEF Europe

Europe Day

Victory Day

Lithuania

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European Institute for Gender Equality gets off the ground

Lithuania, a pioneering country for gender equality

Poland

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A European active memory

Slovenia

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Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

Faila Pasic Bisic

1st Film
SARAJEVO // BELGRADE // ZAGREB

2nd Film
OTTOMAN // BALKAN // EUROPE

3rd Film
GOING BACK // LEAVING // STAYING