EYP Magazine - NSC EYP Poland - Warsaw - Issue 4

WARSAW

11 SEPTEMBER 2011 | WARSAW NATIONAL SELECTION CONFERENCE

ISSUE 4

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EDITORIALUncertainty gripped my heart. The first time I was a delegate in the Netherlands, I was not selected. For a moment past, present, and future collided. What to do now? For a moment, I believed that one of the most enjoyable events of my life had reached a definite ending.

At times doubt may take hold of your heart and the future may seem bleak, yet it remains yours to take hold of. If your present is not to your liking, do not sit idly waiting for a better situation to come along. Instead dare to dream. A world of possi-bilities opens to those who do not limit their ac-complishments by negative thoughts. To dream is an art with a self-fulfilling character. Let the dream turn into passion and let that passion guide your actions.

When your life comes crashing down, dare to look forward and take action. Love the small things and work to accomplish your grand ideas. Even if you end up only achieving half of the things you dreamed of, your life will with a hundred per cent certainty be more remarkable than you ever dared to believe true.

TIM KEEGSTRA - THE NETHERLANDSEDITOR

JOHN VON CAPRIVI DE COMO - SWEDENEDITOR

Tim Keegstra & John von Caprivi de Como

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CONTENTS

009 INSIGHTFUL MINDS boundless ideas

007 Inspiring Brilliance

008 A Gift To Consider

009 Enjoyable Punishment

015 The Reason

STYLE OF LIFE wondering why004 Behind The Scenes

005 In Memoriam

010 Reaching For The Stars

011 PED Lovers

013 Pillow Fights

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“Behind there, on the right side be-hind those three blocks is my univer-sity, you just cannot see it,” Dawid Du-reyko (PL), explains as we sit down to begin the interview. Head organisers normally belong to that small group of session members so busy that you will only catch glimpses of them as a dele-gate. This is not the case with Dawid. You have probably seen him several times throughout the week, leading the way to the party venues or shou-ting organisational announcements. He reveals that he does not even feel stressed, and managed to get a total seven hours of sleep last night.

It was therefore a surprise when Da-wid recounted that he began organi-zing the session only around the March or April, roughly half a year ago. See-ing how normally European Youth Par-liament (EYP) sessions are planned at least nine to ten months in advance, and in case of nationals even earlier, it is a great achievement.

Attaining a well organised, exciting session that would match the fame of the Polish regional session was what motivated Dawid to take the role as a head organiser. In the past, this had not been achieved so well, in his opi-nion. He explained how the Polish sys-

tem requires the board of EYP Poland to be the main organiser for National Selection Conferences (NSC). He believed that this should not be the case, and therefore decided to take the challenge of organising an NSC by himself. As can be seen, he has suc-ceeded fully. Dawid praises his team of organisers for this accomplishment.

“This is the best organising team we have had in EYP Poland that I re-member,” he claims, explaining how he cannot recall a better team in the three years he has been a member of EYP Poland. “We are not stressed, I was not angry at any moment at the session,” Dawid continues. He had been afraid that he would get angry a lot during the session, but it was never the case. This may partly be due to the experience of the team, which has five ex head organisers on it. He ex-plains to me how the organising team has worked at a level that could easily match that of professionals. “But, we have fun,” he adds.

That this is indeed true can be seen by the amount of enthusiasm he put into partying during the session. If you have not seen him yet, keep an eye out for him and his dance moves, which can only be described as unique.

BEHINDTHE SCENESA chat with the man responsible for making the past four days possible. | By Giada Benfatto (IT)

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FFor so long I thought I knew. I thought I knew exactly where I was when it happened. On the 11th of September 2001 (9/11) I was in our apartment in Helsinki, sitting on the floor of our living room looking at an image on the TV screen of two towers half covered in smoke. It was a powerful image that stuck with me for all these years. Up until I realised that on the 11th of September 2001 I did not live in Helsinki yet. Instead, my parents were still seemingly hap-pily married and we still lived in our house in Tampere. I came to the heart-breaking realisa-tion that I have no idea where I actually was on that day that, as a United States (US) citizen, changed my life.

What can you find in the stillness of remembering the at-tack on the World Trade Center ten years ago? | By Saga Eriksson (FI)

MEMORIAMIN

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My entire life I have been proud to be an US citizen. My US passport is much cooler than my Finnish one. I can cross the US border without ri-diculously long lines and iris scans. So I naturally thought that something so shocking to a nation I hold dear, despite its flaws, would faze me. On a quest to find out why I have no re-collection of that Tuesday I asked my dad where we were that day, and how he and mum tried to explain to my younger sister and me what had hap-pened. My dad just replied that they were never really good at that stuff.

9/11 resulted in the development of a new atmosphere in the Western world. All the talk of peace and co-operation now seemed vain and ir-relevant. Our people came together, not to build up a stronger and more tolerant society, but rather to seek re-venge. Sometimes I think we are still in our foreign policy decisions, see-king vengeance. The only difference being that we have now lost sight of what we are fighting for, and the con-sequence has become the cause. Fighting just for the sake of fighting.

Nonetheless that empty feeling will not go away; the hole the size of ground zero in your heart has not been rebuilt into a beautiful memorial ground covered with sleek marble.

The fear of another attack still looms over us as the front pages of ma-gazines are now filled with possible threats of new attacks on this anni-versary. We still look for someone to blame, be it Al Qaida or a US gover-nment conspiracy. Someone has to pay. Alternatively after ten years, we could just learn how to move on and set free. Tragedies take place in the world every single day, but because of the symbolism of the American at-tacks, they have gotten way more at-tention.

9/11 for me was overshadowed by

what was going on in my own life, the fact that my family was slowly falling apart. Maybe that is why the full reali-sation of what had happened only hit me three years later, that day in our apartment in Helsinki. Now ten years later, with another divorce on the way, I am reminded of where I was back then and how much I have changed. How much the world has changed. The unfortunate thing about life is that you do not get to choose the people you fall in love with, thus you do not get to choose the people who end up hurting you. All we really can do is, as Patti Griffin says; grow kindness in our hearts for all the strangers among us, till there are no strangers anymo-re.

We still look for someone to blame, be it Al Qaida or a US go-vernment conspiracy. Someone has to pay. Alternatively after ten years, we could just learn how to move on and set free.

Yours sincerely,Saga Eriksson

In memory of those who lost their lives.

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In memory of those who lost their lives.

As this session is coming to a close, so too does the work of one of the most de-dicated officials: James Benge (UK), the Englishman who talked to you during the opening ceremony, who you have seen walking around most of the session. This article is dedicated to him, as one should familiarise themselves with what makes a president. He has taken several minutes of his oh-so-precious time to answer sever-al more or less random questions by Lia Pachler (AT) and Giada Benfatto (IT).

Probably you have been wondering, how a president of a session has the time to be constantly walking around during com-mittee work. On one hand we can thank his well-working committee for this, on the other his co-chair, Katarina Warg (SE). This incredible combination allows him to have some free time to observe the other committees. Rest assured, you will never find him without a pen and paper to note down his next set of plans.

This aptitude for note-taking can be traced back to his passion for journalism. When he is not busy leading a European Youth Parliament (EYP) session, he is a journalist and spends a great time writing. This passion appears to be inspired by the work of journalism in the UK exposing corruption and phone hacking. Yet James finds it hard to find someone to relate to.

He mentions how nowadays we do not have many inspirational figures among us. The last one who was, in some way, able to fulfil this role, could have been Barack H. Obama in 2008. However, that dream has since crumbled. As disappointing as it is, James keeps both his feet on the ground and faces reality. He finds an alternative in-spirational source in EYP and its members. The reason behind this is that he feels that people who are part of EYP have an ability to go through sacrifice, which is unmat-ched.

Unmatched is also his fear of goats. While James seems to dislike anything that walks on more than two legs, making an exception for cats, goats scare him more than anything else. He was chased by one at the age of four and the event crushed his childhood dream of becoming a veteri-narian. Ever since he has sworn revenge, promising to turn them all into burgers, be-cause they are much tastier that way.

Despite this cruel attitude towards ani-mals, his attitude towards people is far more positive. His dedication to the dele-gates is such that he did all in his power, to make sure that at least the journalists would attend the farewell party, even if he could not. With such a caring personality to lead us, it is no wonder the session is such a success.

The James Benge Story

BRILLIANCEINSPIRING

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There is always the possibility that you will not get selected. Let us get real; the numbers are not exactly in your favour. However, the great thing about European Youth Parlia-ment (EYP) is that at the end of the day this selection conference is more about your development than about your selection. Whether you are one of the lucky ones selected to attend the international sessions in Zagreb and Istanbul or not, the feedback you receive is not meant as a judgment of your character. Rather it is an assess-ment of your current suitability for an EYP session on the level of an inter-national session.

At this point some of you may won-der what exactly is feedback? The simple answer being that it is a com-ment on your performance by your chair. When heading home after the session, try not to get caught up in the feeling of loss at the session en-ding or the nervousness of waiting for results on who has been selected. Dare to take the first step in order to look ahead. Contact your chair and ask for feedback and take the next step building your future in EYP.

So what do you do when your chair answers your request to evaluate your performance and it does not exactly make you feel all warm and fuzzy in-side?

You should try to look at the feed-back you receive as an opportunity to reflect on your performance and learn more about yourself. You can deepen your interpersonal skills and build new friendships, but most important-ly, this is not the end of you and the European Youth Parliament. There are countless regional forums all over Eu-rope to be a delegate, many of which you are free to apply to.

The thing to remember about feed-back is that it is merely a recount of what other people have observed you do. It is not a story of everything you are. Do not treat it as an abso-lute truth and do not get upset by it. No chairperson is out to get you. The main purpose of feedback is to evoke thought on self-evaluation and the re-alization of what you could do better. If your feedback is not what you ex-pected it to be, remember it is in no way describes the limits of your po-tential.

A Gift To Consider

Looking forward to the future and ensuring personal growth through feedback. | By Sabine Hain (AT) and Saga Eriksson (FI)

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Historically, much importance has been placed on the concept of hea-ven and hell. Many wars have been fought, and much blood has been spilled, over the right to decide who will be eternally rewarded and puni-shed. This is a quick, black and white analysis of the concept, based most-ly on a Christian foundation, with my personal interpretations on several points.

Heaven is according to the Old Tes-tament a place of eternal life and the

dwelling place of God, a place where those who live righteous, sin free, lives are rewarded for their hardships. Reaching paradise is to many the ul-timate goal of the religion. However, reaching it is rather difficult, and re-quires certain sacrifices in life.

Hell, on the other hand, is defined as a place engulfed in flames where the wicked are eternally punished. According to Dante’s Inferno, the cir-cle of hell a person goes to depends on the severity of his sins and crimes. There are many roads to hell, as any-one who does not lead their lives ac-cording to the rules and laws set forth by the holy book is sent there.

Considering people’s often absurd obsessions with salvation, why would you really want to go to heaven after your death? Yes, scriptures often pro-mise an eternity of joy and pleasure in the Garden of Eden, but how much of that can you really believe in, and do

you really want to end up there? In order to be allowed access

through the gates of heaven, you must have led an entirely clean, strictly proper, and probably utterly dull life. Considering God’s high ad-mission standards, what makes you believe that He will allow you to sud-denly abandon your old morals and virtues? Secondly, God has previ-ously punished humans for showing similar lacks of self-restraint. Finally, I find it hard to believe that people who

have lived entirely pious lives can change into people we would enjoy being with.

Hell looks much more tempting to simple sinners like you and I. Alterna-tively, living a relatively sin free lives would result in being placed in one of the higher more bearable circles of hell, with similar people, without having to sacrifice all that makes life worth living. Taking into account that all people we deem to be, or have been, “fun” end up in hell, is it really that bad to find yourself there?

At the end of the day it all comes down to individual preference. But next time you find yourself thinking about heaven and hell, or the deci-sions you make, please consider: would you rather live an eternity in paradise with dull people, deprived of all pleasures, or spend that eter-nity in hell, being punished with a fun group of crooks?

A discussion on heaven and hell was uncovered by the Angels and De-mons theme party. | By Felix Makarowski (SE)

E njoyable Punishment

”Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.”Mark Twain

Writer

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You may be wondering, why anyone would try to reach for the stars? Eve-ryone knows from a young age that they are too far away to touch, and even today’s astronauts are not able to reach them. It is human nature to always search for something bigger, more exciting, and unknown, no mat-ter how small the chance of achieving it is. Nonetheless, there is light at the end of the tunnel. EYP gives you the chance to achieve what you have ne-ver dreamed of before.

When thinking about it, you have to admit that EYP can, in addition to the word random, be best described by the three aforementioned adjec-tives. ‘Bigger’ describes everything you know in EYP. I am sure that you have never before had a bigger circle of friends, session, number of home countries, overwhelming feelings, and success.

‘Unknown’, on its own, says nothing. Still, would anyone have expected any of this before attending their first session? There is no way anyone out-side of EYP could understand what is

going on in this organisation. In ad-dition, even such experienced mem-bers as James Benge (UK), learn something new at every session and will always enjoy reaching further into this deep black hole.

‘Exciting’ can say everything and nothing. The unofficial rules of journa-lism forbid this word and it is avoided as much as possible. Still, there is no other word that describes the sensa-tion in your stomach during a session better than ‘exciting’.

By the time you get a hold of this pa-per, most of this session will be over. You will for sure have encountered uncomfortable situations, but as you are still here and reading this article, you must have mastered them with success. When you go home, I hope that you will live according to one of my favourite TV quotes: To infinity and beyond. Would you ever have thought that you would achieve what you have at this session? Probably not, and therefore be keen to always go a step further.

REACHINGFOR THE STARS

An intimate look at what makes the European Youth Parliament spe-cial. | By Tobias Satlow (AT)

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You feel lost. That is how many people feel after a session. You really want to meet the friends that you have gotten to know during the session. Do not worry, many participant of the European Youth Parliament (EYP) had to go through it many times. It is the common disorder known as Post-EYP Depression (PED). In this article I would like to guide you through the medication process and show the possible ways for further de-velopment in the EYP.

First of all, try to search for new friends on Facebook. Adding them will enable you to access hundreds of photos from the session. Probably it will only inten-sify your PED. However, you can use the other Facebook facilities, like the recently implemented webcam chat, which was thoroughly tested by the Press Team. Additionally, do not forget to upload your own photos so that your not-involved friends will become curi-ous and want to accompany you in the EYP adventure.

After some time you will realise that you desperately need to go to next ses-sions. Here comes more good news for you. There are many sessions taking place around Europe every month. An important tool would surely be the offi-cial website of the EYP (www.eyp.org).

There you can find a list of the upco-ming sessions and general information about them. If you feel that you have found the one for you, feel free to con-tact the board of EYP Poland or answer to the official call for delegates.

Those who are in the group of se-lected delegates will have the chance to participate in the truly inspiring In-ternational Sessions (IS).The flagship project of the EYP enables participants to get to know almost every country in Europe. Use this unique chance and do everything in order to attend them. If you have not been chosen you still have the possibility to apply for the wild card spot which enables EYP Poland to choose one delegate to go to the sum-mer IS.

The next important steps for you to take is to get some experience and test yourselves as an organiser, chairper-son or journalist. Do not forget to apply for official membership in EYP Poland. This will enable you to take part in the development of our organisation.

I hope that the stories from this Na-tional Selection Conference will stay in your memories and I look forward to seeing you involved in upcoming events. Good luck in the fight against PED.

Nostalgia is an unavoidable part of EYP; easing the with-drawl. | By Sławomir Pelczar (PL)

PED LOVERS

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SSleep is a scarce resource at European Youth Parliament (EYP) sessions. Officials and dele-gates alike are busy with everything from soci-alizing to committee work, and thus often find themselves neglecting sleep. The first few days might not seem like a big deal, but towards the end of the week, you may find yourself nodding off during General Assembly or in one of those comfortable seats on the bus. You know that you have reached a critical stage when you fall asleep on a couch at a party, which is when drastic measures are needed. Besides overdo-sing on coffee, what do fellow delegates have to say about fighting the effects of sleep depri-vation?

The European Youth Parliament’s science behind living wit-hout sleep. | By Sabine Hain (AT) and Giada Benfatto (IT)

?How To Solve OurReluctance To Sleep

PILLOW

FIGHTS

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Traditionally in EYP, the officials compete amongst each other to pro-ve that they are the hardest workers and get the least sleep. This often results in officials getting an hour of sleep, or less, a night. This may also cause the session organisers to start bowling with improvised materials in the middle of the corridor, driven by an apparent frenzy induced by an overdose of energy drinks. Speaking

of energy drinks, these also happen to be the favourite temporary cure for exhaustion among delegates, as Maya Zalewska (WA) tells us.

We were curious about the amount of time the delegates spent snuggled up in bed each day. According to our survey, a delegate gets an average of between three and four hours of sleep a night. Interestingly enough, all of those questioned stated that they had expected this result, as Katar-zyna Krzywicka (WA) confirmed. An unexpected discovery was that even though numerous delegates found it difficult to stay attentive while working after only a few hours of rest, many of

them do so on a regular basis. Parti-cularly on school days many people skip a night’s rest in exchange for additional studying or extracurricular activities. In the long run, this will not only ruin your marks and mood, but may actually have long-term physio-logical effects. These include confu-sion, headaches, irritability, lack of concentration, and an increased risk for diseases such as diabetes and

obesity.In the rare case that you might enter

the Organizing Room and see some-one dozing off in a corner of the room wrapped in an improvised blanket made of the European flag, you have just experienced a common EYP me-thod of coping. While this may not be a possibility for delegates, as pas-sing out in the middle of debate may not be perceived well, you still might want to consider going to bed inste-ad of partying for that additional hour. Trust us when we say that you will be grateful the next day.

You randomly find someone in the corner of the room wrap-ped in an improvised blanket made of the European flag, you have just experienced a common EYP method of coping.

Energy drinks are a good quick-fix when you feel fatigued, but in the long run, you might want to consider another alternative. The amount of caffeine in an average 250 millilitre can equates to a cup of coffee, but combined with a mas-sive amount of sugar, artificial flavours, taurine, herbs and other additives such as ginseng, these drinks become very addictive.

One should consume large amounts of these drinks with caution, as a number of immediate health issues can ensue. Anxiety, increased blood pressure and the drop-off in energy shortly after drinking are some of the inconveniences as-sociated with energy drinks. Surely an occasional Red Bull will not be harmful, but nothing is good in excess.

SCIENCE FOR THE HEART

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THEREASONJOURNALISM

A question that delegates ask me re-peatedly when I attend sessions as a journalist is „Why do you do it?“ Cer-tainly, when you look at the workload and lack of sleep that comes along with being a journalist, one might won-der what is bringing me to a session for the fourth time as such. The same applies to why people get so attached to the role that they go on to become editors, for that matter. The truth is, the-re is a side to journalism, which cannot be perceived just by observing a Press Team.

Journalism in the European Youth Par-liament (EYP) is sometimes perceived as unappealing and unnecessary. It is a pity for it to be so, but it is understan-dable. Having a role at a session for someone to turn up in a committee for a few minutes, take some pictures and then leave does not speak in favour of the press team. Being torn between a committee and writing articles, dealing with the lack of sleep and very often scarce organisation does not speak for trying out the role either. Many just see it as a step before becoming a chair. Yet if the Press Team still exists after twenty years of EYP history, there are probably some good reasons.

Attending a session as a journalist allows you to perceive EYP under a completely different light. As a journa-list, you are not bound by the session program, but rather make your own according to the deadlines you have. Furthermore, it is a role that will differ from session to session according to the editor’s whims. It allows for creati-vity, and may help EYPers that do not want to assume a leading role to con-tinue participating at sessions. As for what it adds to the session, although you might not see the interest of having a paper, I can assure you that when you go home, those articles will let you remember the session in a far better way. And, if you allow yourself to be interviewed, you might even have an opportunity to express your opinion on some very controversial topics.

Certainly, upon hearing stories of sleepless nights and sadistic, blanket-stealing editors, the role of a journalist might appear somewhat scary. It is, ho-wever, worth giving a try. There are rea-sons that Press Rooms are perceived to be legendary that cannot explained by words. You may discover that it is not really your thing, but it is definitely a role deserving far, far more recognition.

The choices behind becoming a journalist at a session; an attempt to offset sleep deprivation. | By Giada Benfatto (IT)

PATRONS

Ms. Hubner Ms. Gronkiewicz - Waltz

Mr. Struzi Mr. Kozłowski Mr. Zalewski

PARTNERS