the adriatic times 10 - outside the bubble

The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times TheTimes The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic TimeThe Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The AdriaTimes The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Time


The Adriatic TimesNovember 2012 Nr. 10

Outside the Bubble

0.5€

Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Time

People often say that studying at the UWC of the Adriatic in Duino is like living in a bubble.

Away from family and friends, cut off from television and the media, divorced from events such as national celebrations or natural disasters, we turn inwards and focus on work, so-cializing and a little bit of sleep.

Events inside the bubble seem so much more important than anything that goes on outside Duino.

But is that true?

“A concerned UWC student” certainly feels that we do not take enough time to discuss the bigger issues in the wider world. In an impassioned ar-ticle the student argues for a greater attempt to understand why other people hold views which are different from our own, not to prove them wrong, but to get to grips with why they believe what they believe. The writer wants real engage-ment about real issues.

In this edition of the Adriatic Times, you will get to read this article, but you will also see how we interact with the local com-munity through social service in an article by Manuel about Lilia Calligaris; how Jacob ex-plores his passion for dance not only in the College but also in the region; how Emma ap-proaches the need (or not) to rush into University; how Es-ther reacts to the Belo Monte dam project in Brazil; and how Asad Jamal Malik uses social media sites such as Project Uni-fy to deepen our understanding of other countries.

So, do we live in a bubble?

We hope you will answer “no!”

We also hope that you will be inspired to demonstrate on a daily basis that we are deeply concerned with the rest of the world, taking the opportunity that a place like Duino offers to step outside our local commu-nities and see events and issues from a global perspective.

The Editorial Staff

Edit

oria

l

cont

ribut

ors

Jornalists: Sibel Spahija, Camila Ruiz Segovia, Jacob Borg, Brais Lamela Gómez, Eloá França Verona, Wanda ThormeyerDesigner: Valev LaubeProof reader: Malcolm Price

Anna

Gam

s, Id

en K

alem

aj, L

uisa

Pe

ress

, Lu

Zita

n,

Nar

e Fi

lipos

ayan

, Nau

fal A

mja

d,

Frid

a O

ster

by B

erg,

Fira

s Arfa

oui.

Read the newpaper from www.adriatictimes.wordpress.com

Publish your writings by emailing to [email protected]


Cove

r pic

ture

: Val

ev L

aube

1ST yEArS PrEPArIng for ThE EE ShoW

1.Where did you get the idea from to start Project Unify?It was this summer that my friend Jehanzeb and I devel-oped the idea of Project Unify. To be very honest we were just bored and thinking of ways to spend our summer vacations productively. We were texting when we thought that we ought to do something exciting which can actually make a difference in the world. We have made websites together before so we knew that making websites can be a very exciting process so we automatically started thinking about a website which could in-fluence people, a website which would make headlines, a web-site which would be so much more than a website.We weren’t making much pro-gress when suddenly out of no-where this thought came to me “Mass media influences people’s opinions about different coun-tries and spreads stereotypes. for example our country, Paki-stan, is seen as a “terrorist coun-try” even though we’re not. Let’s make a blog where people from different countries can come and write about their country. other people will read them and misconceptions would be removed.”Jehanzeb instantly loved the idea and soon enough we both felt a surge of excitement when

we realized that something like this could actually work. I’m not a fan of talking on the phone but I quickly called him and we talked for an hour. By the time I pressed the “end call” button our little idea had evolved into Project Unify. What we have now is a lot bigger than what we planned initially and we still have a long way to go.

2. Could you tell us about your background? I know that you have initiated other web-based projects, could you talk more about them?Well, you know my name. I was born in a town called “Ab-bottabad” in Pakistan and I’ve spent all my life in Pakistan, quite literally. I’ve never been out of my country except now for UWC. I believe that life is short and one should not miss opportunities. We should do as much with our time as we can. We should be busy doing things which actually make a differ-ence in our society, country or (if we can) even the world.I have made websites in the past, but none of them is even comparable to PU. I’ve done a lot of tech blogs in the past. I would write reviews on, main-ly, mobile phones and get paid for it. I wouldn’t really call it a “project” though. I also did a blog with Jehanzeb a few years

ago. It was called “The totally unique and awesome lists” (I know, I know… The name is extremely cheesy but we weren’t as mature two years ago). We basically made top 10 or top 5 lists of everything. for exam-ple the top 10 cars, top 5 flash games etc. Another thing worth mention-ing which I did outside the web was called T.o.S.S. It stands for Teenagers’ organization for So-cial Service. This was my very own initiative and I’m still very proud of it. This is a local ngo now which works in Khewra, Pakistan. for two years we have been able to raise the annual school fees for a poor child who can’t afford education. he stud-ies in a reputable local school and we manage all his educa-tion/school related expenses. Because of the distance I can’t really help with it anymore so some of my friends now run it back home.

3. Was it helpful being accept-ed in UWC to find support for the project?UWC, in a lot of ways has been a major stepping stone in my life. It has opened new doors for me with endless possibili-ties. Project Unify, if not im-possible, would have been quite difficult without my connection with UWC. More than half of

our ambassadors are UWCers. It was very easy to find willing people through online UWC groups. I think there are still loads of ways in which Project Unify can benefit from UWC and we’re working on it.

4. What was the biggest chal-lenge before the website was launched?We had to work really hard on the website. The whole process was challenging but never-the-less exciting. In the beginning we didn’t know how people would react to the idea. We didn’t even know if we would get people who were willing to be ambassadors. There were moments when we almost left the thought. But still eventually when we opened the idea to the public the response was over-whelming. In just days we had dozens of people willing to be ambassadors.The next challenge was to keep our ambassadors excited. We didn’t have to do much in that regard because they already were. There were times when I would stay up all night to make documents which weren’t even very important (like additional things in the ambassador packs which we send when someone becomes the ambassador of their country) but we wanted to do everything very profession-

The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic TiTimes The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times TheThe Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat iAdriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Ti

Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adria4

Project Unify is a peace movement started by two teenagers from Pakistan; Asad Jamal & Jehanzeb Mirza. They have come forward and have taken this initiative to unite the fractured world as one, a world where there would be no discrimination on the basis of geographical boundaries, cultures or beliefs.

By Valev Laube

Interview with Project Unify co-founder Asad Jamal Malik

ally.I worked 12 hours every day for a month. Similarly Jehan-zeb would work throughout the night. We were available almost 24/7 for our ambassadors. All this paid off when we sat back on the launch day to watch the stats. There were 3000 page views, an awesome response and hundreds of shares on dif-ferent social media websites in just one day.

5. What is the main mission of Project Unify?The main mission is very sim-ple: to promote cultural under-standing and tolerance by re-moving misconceptions about different nations.

6. How big is the team and what role do the ambassadors play?It works very simply. We have one (or possibly more) teenaged ambassadors from different countries who represent their countries on the website. They write an extensive 3,500 word article (up to 3 people can write it together) on their country discussing topics like histo-ry, geography, people, culture, places and of course ,the PU key word, misconceptions.The ambassadors get a chance to express their views. We give them a platform where they can come and tell the world what their country really is like and how they feel about it. When they become ambassadors and submit the main article they also get a Project Unify e-certif-icate which can be printed and

be used. We also have a certif-icate for contributors who write at least ten 400 word posts per year.We have over 70 ambassadors currently but the organization-al work is all done by Jehanzeb and me. We’re actually looking for some new people who can help us out a bit. But still we want to take it as far as we can together.

7. How would you categorize Project Unify?The word we use is “online peace movement” but obvi-ously it will be present outside the web too soon so it’s a youth peace movement.

8. Why should people visit the Project Unify website?The PU website has something for everyone on it. Anyone can visit it to read about recent happenings in different coun-tries and opinions of citizens of that country on the news. People can go to the site to read about different countries and learn about them. If you want to learn about a country you would probably go to Wikipe-dia. There you would get facts but on the PU site you get facts and opinions. That’s what makes us so special. If you’re doing an MUn or some research than there’s no better way to know about a country than to read a PU article on it.People can also visit the site and express their opinion. If their country is not already taken they can become ambassadors, otherwise they are always wel-come to write blog posts. In this way the PU website (projectuni-fy.net) is an important platform for the youth to learn and share information about different countries and cultures.

9. As the website is taking shape, what are the next objec-tives?yes, the website has definitely been a success and is contin-

ually helping people. Three months after the launch we’re still getting an increasing stream of visitors. now it’s time to take it to the next level.We want to bring PU out of the web into the real world. It’s al-ready happening with PU pres-entations throughout the world but we still have a long way to go. We want our ambassadors to be organizing conferences, presentations and meetings in their local schools/colleg-es/public places to spread the message of PU. We also want to arrange conferences between different ambassadors.This is our short term plan which we’re already working on. We also have some serious long term plans which we don’t want to disclose right now.

10. How can youth from all over the world help Project Unify to succeed?We want to have ambassadors from all the countries of the world. We currently hardly have 1/3rd. The best thing young people can do is to become am-bassadors of their countries. If they can’t then they should at least share the PU idea with their friends. We also welcome blog posts and soon we’ll have a system for donations. If you have an idea which you think can help PU in its mission then feel free to share it with me. If you want to contact me per-sonally then the easiest way to do that is through facebook. fb.com/asad.jamalmalikotherwise the official PU email is [email protected]

We greatly welcome new ide-as and concepts. you can form clubs and CAS groups under the PU banner in your college. Contact me for more details.

The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic TiTimes The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times TheThe Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat iAdriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic TiTimes The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adria

5Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times TheThe Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat iAdriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Ti


Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adria6Is there a life after UWC?By Emma Sophie Burke (UWCAd 10/12)

I am bringing some very good news; the world doesn't end ... it actually sort of starts!

People tend to think that way: the uwcbubble is full of amaz-ing people ==> the world is not the uwcbubble ==> so the world isn't full of amazing people ... BIg MISTAKE.

humanity is a pretty wonderful

thing and my faith in it is high-er than ever! While biking with Victor, an incredible number of people helped us in various ways ... letting us sleep on their land or in their house, giving us food, helping us to find a way, offering coffee ... and much more. In our trip the people that have been nice to us can be represented by a blue whale and the people having been a

bit less welcoming by plankton. (héhé ... AnD BLUE WhALES EAT PLAnKTon). of course humans are capable of the best and the worst ... but the best is big (yet can be made up of lots of very small actions)!

I really encourage you to join UniSWoM ( University of In-dependent Study of the World and other Mysteries) it will lead

to situation you didn't think you would encounter, Victor being fished with a fishhook, milking donkeys, sleeping at 20h and being even less hygienic than in UWC are some samples of my experience so far.

The world is full of surprises ... it is waiting for us ... UnIVErSI-TIES CAn WAIT onE MorE yEAr :D"

A salty burg. A crowded city. Six lost Mexicans.By Camila Ruiz Segovia

The first was Lucille, whose real name was Maria. She lived in a mistaken time and chose to dress in the finest flapper style and walk brashly. She met an irrelevant man with money and moved to Europe last De-cember. She devoted her life to leisure and snobbery and so she attended a Danish Trio Concer-to last night at the fortress and gazed at the shady mountains.

The second was Marco, who studied german literature at the national Autonomous Uni-versity of Mexico and won the prize for the best tale in Mexi-co City. The story was about a lost man in Austria. he then received a modest amount of money, which allowed him to move to Europe, and so he chose to live his written destiny

and spent the last two months trying to find inspiration, but instead he visited Vienna every weekend to admire the impu-dent women that Klimt depict-ed.

The third was Mr. P Vivancos, who flew from frankfurt to Munich, from Munich to Vien-na and then took a night train to Salzburg, although his orig-inal plan was to visit Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy to find Sofia Bassi’s daughter. She was an italo-mexican duchess whose mother was a not-very-well-known surrealist painter from the sixties who murdered her husband and so painted dusky clouds in prison. he wanted to rewrite her story and perhaps, marry her. But instead he listened to an organ concert

in the franziskanerkirche.

The fourth and the fifth were Matteo and rafael. They rent-ed bikes with front yellow lights and rode amid the mist that rose out of the Salzach river. The only things they owned were a hiking bag filled with thermal clothes, postcards from Italy, the boots, two photo-cameras and a tripod. They biked from a small village called Duino to the nothingness. or rather, to an undefined destination.

I was the sixth Mexican. I was in Salzburg for unknown rea-sons. I did not listen to Mozart’s requiem because I went to a tasteless bar; I did not try the famous apple strudel because I ate a cherry biscuit; I did not hike in the alpine mountains

because I preferred to walk in the city. I missed the train back home and so I froze my bones and slept in the Kapuzinerberg.

one day, someday, these six Mexicans will fly back to Mex-ico, when the affair dies, when the inspiration is gone, when the proposal gets rejected, when the nothingness becomes an endpoint, when the reason for the unreason appears. They are all of course from the cap-ital. We are always from Mex-ico City. They may meet, they probably won’t, because by that time they’ll be part of the mas-sive crowd that flows in all di-rections and no one, not even an outside eye above them, can recognize lost entities among lost people.

Where is one of Europe’s largest accessible caves?Where is one of the eight ex-isting star-shaped cities in the world?Where is the only bathing resort in the western world in which a wall divides males from females?Where is the world renowned International Centre for Theo-retical Physics?Where is this incredible, won-derful mountain?

The answer is only one: in friuli Venezia giulia!!!… Exactly where you are living now. here is what italymag.co.uk says about it:-“Lonely Planet, the largest trav-el guidebook publisher in the world, recently published a list of “10 of the world’s unsung places” on their website. This list in-cludes cities which usually don’t make it onto tourists’ must-see lists and are largely undiscovered for a variety of reasons, including geographical position and their proximity to more glamorous and well-known cities. Trieste, in friuli Venezia giulia, was the top city on the list, followed by Arras (france), gujarat (India), Chóngqìng (China), Aberdeen (Scotland), Utrecht (The neth-erlands), Meknès (Morocco), helsinki (finland), Jerez de la frontera (Spain), and Takayama (Japan). Described as a “cultural melting pot” Trieste, added to the Italian peninsula in 1918, borders Slo-venia and is situated on a spit

of land thrust into the Adriat-ic Sea. The city has a distinct Central European atmosphere and the neoclassical architecture and Viennese-style cafés recall its past as the sole port of the Austro-hungarian Empire. As Lonely Planet describes, Tri-este “retains an enticing, elegiac sense of the past”. In addition, the city was the site where James Joyce began writing Ulysses, in-stead of in his native Dublin.

The city offers visitors a varie-ty of sites to explore including roman ruins, castles, churches and interesting museums. Tri-este is also a convenient base for exploring the Miramare Castle, built in the 19th century and of-fering a 22-hectare cliff and sea-shore park, and for continuing on to Slovenia and Croatia.”(http://www.italymag.co.uk/ita-ly/trieste/trieste-1-lonely-planet-s-list-overlooked-cities)

Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times TheThe Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat iAdriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Ti

Where?By Paola Pesante


7

Image by ho visto nina volare

My Most Pleasant StoryMy ears are exploding from your silenceI am dying of your fatigue.

flies are sticking on my skin, Their blood is spreading around, when I hit them.

I had opened the sea out through a loveI had thrown my sandbags into the seaI had shed my leaves downBut, as if you leaned towards my skin, I felt youMy skin drained through your fingers.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter whatever you doSometimes ...

Sometimes, my blood speeds in my veinsMy eyes are becoming bloodshot in the mir-

ror, with my signboard on my neck

While I was completing our puzzle I realized a missing piece of you, a large one, where the heart should be.

Sometimes I furl a body just to taste its savourI encourage myself to love him.I cannot.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter whatever you do

A sorrow taste stays in my mouth,forgetting, I swallow it,But sometimes I spit it out.

Sometimes, I wake up with only a single breath, sobering up,

I face a back of a nameless, tortuous silhou-ette, lying next to me.

I turn the water valve to coldAnd I cryI look inside my head, disrupted, perturbed.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter whatever you do.

There, under my skin, successful separation notes are writtenWith the junked suicide letters

I throw my body onto the streets, to the dreamsAnd my life onto my shoulders.

(The translation of lyrics from Teoman (yakupoğlu)-En güzel hikayem

Translation from original text: Burcu Sağıroğlu)

A war against nature and against humans, an absurd warBy Esther Podolak (UWCAD 2009/11)

In Brazil, in the State of Para, in the Amazon forest, a war is go-ing on for too long, whose aim is the destruction of the Ama-zon’s nature, forest, rivers, and the spoiling of the land rights of its primary guardians, the native people. This war was started against the indigenous peoples of the Xingu by the building of the Belo Monte hydro-electric dam, a huge complex of dams which, once built, would be the third biggest in the world.

The Belo Monte project is a huge irresponsible exploitation of the heart of the Amazon forest, whose role is essential to human-kind survival and to the fragile equilibrium of our Earth and of all of the species who form life on our planet, life only possible here on this small Earth.

In order to develop its energy potential and ensure its place among the world big powers, Brazil decided to construct up to 60 dams on the Amazon’s riv-ers, with the pretended ambition being to provide electricity for the big cities of the south of the country, but the real actual ob-jective being to provide energy for huge mining operations. Belo Monte is presented as a magnificent and ideal solution by the Brazilian government, with a way to produce “clean” energy... but is it really “clean” energy?

The reality is in fact very dif-ferent: the construction of the dam, started a year ago, would eventually 'eat' about 668 sq.km. including 400 sq.km. of prima-ry virgin forest, thus producing huge quantities of methane and

Co². It would provoke the de-struction of the flora and fauna, the alteration of the ecological dynamic of the local ecosystem, the loss of the aquatic habitat, and the destruction of the ar-cheological patrimony. It would cause the displacement of over 20,000 people; several indige-nous communities would see their ancestral traditional life-style disrupted because of the reduction of natural resourc-es. This is talking about both a short-term ethnocide and eco-cide!! A bit of historical background in terms of what should prevent all of this happening.

In 1978 Brazil signed a treaty of cooperation (then re-launched in 1998) with the other coun-tries of the Amazon Basin, com-mitting to the preservation of the rainforest and the conserva-tion and rational utilization of the natural resources.

Brazil also committed itself in 1988 to recognize Indian terri-tories, and to demark and pro-tect them. This promise was supported through the interna-tional program of environment protection PPg7 (pilot program to preserve the Brazilian rainfor-est) and was officially launched at the World Earth Summit in rio in 1992. The country prom-ised the international commu-nity to consult the indigenous people whenever they could be affected by projects on their lands.

But then ... the dam complex of Belo Monte re-questioned all of these promises: the native peo-ples were never consulted before

the starting of the dam construc-tion, and the project is about to provoke a huge environmental disaster!

The problem was recognized and criticized by the United na-tions, which in 2009 urged Bra-zil to act. The Inter-American Commission of human rights, the International Labor organi-zation and the Brazilian federal Court all asked Brazil to remem-ber its commitments and respect them, in particular the one to consult the native peoples, who had deliberately been ignored!

on August 14th of this year, a decision of the regional federal Court invalidated the license of the hydro-electric dam of Belo Monte. The construction permit given by the national Congress was declared illegal because the indigenous peoples affected by the dam had not been consulted.

Construction was suspended, under the threatened fine of EUr 200,000 per day. Possibly, the speech given at rio+20 by the Brazilian President, Dilma rousseff, the prospect of the upcoming football World Cup and olympic games and the in-ternational mobilization against Belo Monte had eventually ex-erted effective pressure.

But ... just a couple of days later, on August 28th, the President of the Supreme Court, Carlos Ayres Britto, allowed the con-struction of the Belo Monte to start again, suspending the fed-eral court decision, without any further investigation, under the request of the Brazilian govern-ment! The suspension of the construction, after months and

months of judicial fighting, last-ed only four days!

on September 4th, the feder-al Public Prosecutor’s office asked for the decision to be re-considered. The general Pros-ecutor, roberto gurgel, and the Vice-general Prosecutor, Deborah Duprah, reminded the Supreme Court that the Indians should have been consulted by the national Congress before the launching of the Belo Monte construction. Will they possibly be heard before it is too late? An important element to point out in this story is what is hid-den in the shade: a Canadian company, Belo Sun Mining Cor-poration, is about to start the ex-ploitation of newly-found gold in the region of Volta grande de Xingu, 15km away from ... the Belo Monte dam. The report of environmental impact of that project mentions that it will be the biggest gold mine in Brazil and will be provided with ener-gy by … the Belo Monte dam!

The report of the Environ-mental Impact of the Belo Sun Mining gold extraction project implies that the Belo Monte dam would be built to respond to the high energy needs of the mining exploitation of gold of the region of Volta grande de Xingu. In one of the paragraphs of this report, while underlying the necessity of the installation of electric generators in order to implement the mining pro-ject, it is written that when the exploitation will really start the energy used will come from...the Belo Monte dam!

It seems that a big plot is going



on in the shadow of a Brazilian world showcase project, and it also seems that the green im-age of a “sustainable” Canada is hiding a pretty big amount of hypocrisy... The Brazilian government has issued a ruling this month which plans to adjust the demarcation of indigenous lands and give priority to industrial projects over the territorial rights of lo-cal native communities. Brazil wishes to reform its forest code, under the influence of the lob-bies of the forest and agricul-tural exploitation. Even though President Dilma rousseff put a partial veto on these plans in the early summer, the modifications to the forest code of 1965 will al-low the appropriation of indige-nous lands by small agricultural farmers, who will then be able to sell them to the grand firms of the food processing indus-try. Absurdity keeps going, and keeps going ... we really should ask ourselves, where are we go-ing...?

opposition to the construction of the Belo Monte dam is not

a fight among others. That is why the citizens of the world should express their indigna-tion against this controversial project, whose consequences will be heavy on future genera-tions to come.

Belo Monte is a symbol, because it attacks the heart of the Ama-zon, the green lung of the Earth, and its emblematic peoples, in-cluding the people of Cacique Kayapo raoni, a prime figure in the fight for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest for over 40 years. It is a symbol of the absurd exploitation and exter-mination of our natural world.

Belo Monte is a symbol, be-cause the dam project is being imposed at a moment when humankind is at the crossing between two roads, a crossing where we already know that the destruction of the environment and ecosystem essential to life will eventually mean the fall of our civilization. Belo Monte is a symbol, because it puts into confrontation two ways of de-velopment, the one of our civi-lization and the one of the first

native peoples, while we could live together in a way beneficial to everyone ... can't we?

The project of the Belo Monte raises essential questions. What can now be the space of nature and Life in the economic, ex-ploiting, selfish, human centrist, society scheme of pretended “modern” humans? Are we re-ally “modern” when what we actually do is to lose little by little our connection with the Earth that created and hosted us? When what we actually do is to lose the meaning of respect and the sense of life?

Why are we always willing to ex-ploit more, to destroy more, to kill more, to be more excessive, to be more greedy and careless? "Ser indio es una actitud, un es-tado de la mente,una manera de estar en armonía con todas las cosas y todos los seres.Es permitir que el corazón sea quien distribuya la energía en este planeta;permitir que los sentimientos y la sensibilidad determinen don-

de va la energía;es absorber la vida desde la tier-ra y desde el cielo,metiéndola dentro y sacándo-la desde el corazón." (Brooke Medicine Tagle) ("To be Indian is an attitude, a state of mind,A way to be in harmony with all things and all beings.To allow the heart to be the one distributing the energy on this planet;To allow the feelings and the sensibility to determine where the energy is going to;To absorb life from the earth and from the sky,Putting it inside and getting it from the heart.") Maybe we should all be a bit more Indian inside ourselves, feel more, respect more, and amar mas? Sources: diverse articles in www.raoni.com (raoni is the chief of one of the indigenous commu-nities of the Amazon)


9

Extracts from the Tao Te Chung

Extracts from the Tao Te Ching: an interpretation and

translation of the fundamental text of Taoism.

(Translation from the original text: Celine Tan)

70 My words are simple

My words are easy to understand and very simple to perform.

yet nobody under heaven can do either.(…)

Those who understand me are rare,those who understand me are precious

The wise one is crudely clothedyet carries a previous gem within.

71 Know thy ignorance

Knowing thy ignorance is wisdom.Being ignorant of thy ignorance is illness.

recognise this illness as an illness,and thou shalt not be ill.

The wise one recognises this illness as an illness,and for this, he is not ill.

Lilia Calligaris, In MemoriamBy Manuel Fernández Canque (former teacher at UWCAd)

Lilia died exactly 5 years ago.

Saint Exupery’s Little Prince, in his ramblings through asteroids and little planets, once found a little fox whom he dared call “my friend”. The fox promised the Little Prince a precious fare-well gift (“Je te ferai cadeau d’un secret”). As the Little Prince is about to resume his journey, his friend delivers the wondrous gift: “Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”

“you can’t see properly but with your heart. The essential is in-visible to the eyes”

“The essential is invisible to the eyes” repeated the Little Prince and the same expression comes to our minds when we think of Lilia. Because you see, if you never knew Lilia, she was a person endowed with a mar-vellously penetrating vision that could get deep into the essence of human nature. And yet, she was blind.

Lilia was one of the not very many inhabitants of ronchi. She was the only child born to Luigia and Mariano as a belated Christmas present on 27th De-cember 1923. Mariano every day rode his bike to the fin-cantieri, the shipyard in neigh-bouring Monfalcone. he would bring home a meagre wage to pay the rent and survive with dignity. As Lilia used to say, “We did not have everything but nothing essential was missing”. She went to the village school and, at the dawn of adolescence, she embarked on a course to be-come a primary school teacher.

Soon after graduation in 1941, when she was still 17, she was commanded to serve as a pri-

mary school teacher in the Slo-vene territories just invaded by Italy. When the war ended, she found a vacancy in the local pri-mary school of ronchi. There she was “la maestra” for many generations of ronchi children. She still is “Maestra Lilia” in the memory of all the ronchi folk who knew her.

By the late 1960s a tragedy be-gan to unfold: Lilia’s sight was quickly deteriorating. She saw doctors and specialists in sever-al parts of Italy as well as france. The diagnosis was always the same: “your optic nerves are inexorably decaying”. The final blow happened one day in 1976 when she had to stop the car she was driving. She was no longer able to see. She got out of the car and staggered to a telephone to tell the family the devastating news. She was blind.

Tragedies sometimes do not come alone. Lilia’s mother died two years later. Mariano died in 1988. As he was dying he told Lilia “At least, I have looked af-ter you for ten years, as I had promised to your mum”.

Mere routine could have com-pleted this biography from then on: Betty gorjian, a wonderful Slovene girl, helping Lilia for a few hours a day, Lilia struggling to learn how to prepare a cup of tea or a soup for herself, a small number of visitors perfunctori-ly asking how she was, maestro Casimiro Quarin from the ritt-meyer Institute in Trieste, an in-stitution for the blind, teaching her Braille and everything hap-pening in cyclical sequence. All this was to change one day.

The College’s initial contact with Lilia came in 1990, two years af-ter the death of her father. In that particular year, as the co-

ordinator of community service in the College, I was facing a difficult problem. how to offer our students enough social ser-vice possibilities? The Istituto rittmeyer was closing because it needed structural repairs. We had a sizeable number of stu-dents performing their social service at the Istituto and we had to find alternative place-ments, particularly for those who wanted to work with the blind. So I approached maestro Casimiro Quarin.

I asked Casimiro early in 1990 whether he knew of any alterna-tives available for us to continue working with the blind, now that the rittmeyer was temporari-ly closing. he gave me several names of blind people living in the area of ronchi/Monfalcone (felice, Dora, Anna, Bruna and Ermes are some of the names I remember and we had a very happy connection with them). Casimiro added “There is also signora Lilia Calligaris in ron-chi, but it seems that she would not be willing to get visitors now. her father died recently.” I very politely approached Signo-ra Calligaris and she very polite-ly refused our visits for the time being. This was in July 1990.

At the beginning of october 1990, when our community services were all operating, we organised a “festa” in the Col-lege for the blind of friuli Vene-zia giulia. There were over one hundred blind people attending, plus an equal number of “ac-compagnatori”. Lilia Calligaris was one of the participants. As she got to know the college bet-ter during that festa, she told me that she would be pleased to be visited by our students after all. That was a problem for me because I had no student avail-able then.

But, on checking the social ser-vice allocation list I discovered that two “rascals”, for myste-rious reasons, were without a social service. They were gui-ga from Brasil and Sergei from russia. With my prejudices, I did not have guiga and Sergei in mind as the ideal students to visit a delicate blind lady still be-reaved from her father’s death. Indeed I confess that I would have preferred two nice and kind girls to be the first visitors to come to Lilia, but I had no choice. guiga and Sergei were the only ones available and they went. These two “bandidos” were just wonderful in their pioneering service and inaugu-rated the marvellous and unin-terrupted sequence of human relationships between Lilia and our students.

In november 1991, when she was attending one of our in-ternational shows, I asked Lilia how she was getting on with the Braille lessons she was receiving from Casimiro Quarin. She said that she was beginning to read better and had acquired a Braille typewriter. Then I proposed to her to come to the college as an activity leader and teach Braille to our students. She immediate-ly said no. She was still not able to communicate in English, her Braille knowledge was imper-fect and, besides, she was learn-ing Braille in Italian so teaching it in English was a very different story. “never mind” -I replied- “you do not need to start im-mediately, so there is time for you to prepare.” I proposed the activity at the next staff meeting and it was enthusiastically ap-proved.

Carlos, a boy from guatemala, who went for his winter vacation to glasgow, contacted the Blind



Section of the Mitchell Library there and came back to College loaded down with Braille mate-rials in English. Lilia immersed herself in practicing both her English and her Braille and in September 1992 she became one of our activity leaders. The Unione Italiana Ciechi in rome sold us the utensils needed to write in Braille and a large num-ber of students enrolled in the course.

If I remember well, natalia orué from Paraguay was the first co-leader in charge of handling the Braille materials and Ingrid Piccone from Venezuela was her successor. Cherinet yemane from Ethiopia was Lilia’s “cava-liere” in charge of waiting in the piazza in Duino every Thurs-day at 15.00 hours sharp when a friend brought Lilia in her car from ronchi. Cherinet then had to guide Lilia to room num-ber two in the school building where the activity took place.

Lilia became a familiar pres-ence in the College and, more

importantly, her wisdom made a powerful impact on all of us. As an economics teacher, con-strained to consider in my class-es the conflict between limited resources and unlimited wants, I was made to re-evaluate the principle of scarcity while listen-ing to Lilia’s presentation as the main speaker during the open-ing of our social service work-shops. her discourse as always was very optimistic and full of hope. “Life” –she said- “consists of the management of endless possibilities.” When directly asked by students about how she felt being blind she always replied- “Se ci vedesi, no vi avrei conosciuto” (“had I been able to see, I would not have met you”). That was a solid argument to explain her joy of living and to make us feel so important.

What else can we say? The rest is clearly told in a long sequence of testimonies written by many of the students who knew Lilia. Every student she met gave her a powerful reason to live and en-joy life. At one point she could

repeat, every morning when she woke up, the names of over 50 students she had known, their birthdays and the word “thanks” in their language. As students stretch their abilities to get close to their full potential in the col-lege, Lilia equally lived a rich life and responded to all chal-lenges with enormous spiritual strength.

Today, in the fifth year from her death, I devote these lines to all those students who helped Lilia

reach her wonderful potential. Certainly she gave us all the strength to get closer to ours too.

(This is an extract of a longer article and facebook conver-sation that Manuel started, which can be found at http://www.facebook.com/notes/manuel-fernandez-canque/li l ia-cal l igaris-in-memori-am/10151060072151910.)



11

"Le Legs"By Robert Desnos

And here, Father Hugo, your name on the walls!You can turn the bottom of Fame

To find out who did this. Who did? On!It is Hitler, Goebbels is ... This is the scum.

A Laval, a Pétain, a Bonnard, a BrinonThose who know and those who betray feast,

For those who are righteous retaliationAnd this is not a large number of names.

These little people in mind and weak cultureNeed alibis in their dirty adventure.

They said: “The man is dead. It is tamed.”

Yes, the man is dead. But before a notaryHe made it clear what legacy he wanted to do:

The notary name: France and the legacy: Freedom.

Translation from original text: Doris Sandra Mbango Mbappe

Being a hidden language itself is one of the many fundamental beliefs of being a dancer. Dance is a performing art which is all about the ability to express yourself through movements and shapes whilst being rhyth-mic with the music provided. It was when I was 5 years old that I started dancing after being asked by my mother whether I was interested in doing so. I said yes without any hesitation. It was something which I loved doing, dancing in front of my mum’s full length mirror. I start-ed off with a local dance compa-ny, but then was asked to move on because of my potential. At the age of 6, I started learning Latin American and Ballroom Dancing from professionals. I competed in several local and international dance competi-tions placing amongst the top couples, if not first place. I had the opportunity to have classes with world renowned dance coaches and teachers. I was even luckier when I had

several dance classes with the Italian Latin Dance world cham-pion Stefano di filippo. It was actually he who suggested to me that I should start learning clas-sical ballet. This was five years ago, when I was 13. It was at that time when I started attending a professional dance school in Malta called Brigitte gauci Bor-da School of Ballet. I studied the Checetti method, which is in-ternationally recognised. I was awarded an overseas scholarship by one of the Checetti Examin-ers because of my potential and ability when it comes to dance. That was one of the best expe-riences I have ever had when it comes to dance. I spent 2 weeks in forli, Italy at Ateneo Danza. There I had classes with coach-es coming from national and royal Dance Companies from all over the world, including America, russia, france and the UK. It was actually at that point when I realised that I could ac-tually do something with my dance and started thinking that

it could be one of my future pos-sibilities as a career. Dancing is my soul’s expression. A bolt of energy coming from my own body and a reflection of what I am feeling at the time of performance. After doing it for over 14 years, dance is like breathing, a necessity that I can-not live without. Dancing has become one of the many ways of procrastination here at the college. In fact when I am on my own, I would be going over

some dance routines. I am at the point where I have no idea what sport I would be practis-ing if dance itself did not exist. for me, dance has also become a way of escaping from everyday problems I encounter.Although I am not seen to be dancing or practising at the col-lege, I have not stopped prac-tising the sport. I attend dance classes at Scuola Di Danza Clas-sica Tersicore Citta’ Di Monfal-cone, ballet classes to be exact, where I am lucky to practise my Italian too :D). Last year I had the opportunity to perform in several dance performances including regional ones. I am proud to say that I performed in the theatres of Trieste, Mon-falcone, gorizia, Udine and also in ravenna. They were amazing performances, where I had the chance to show off what I am capable of doing thanks to solo dancing. My next dance show will take place on 26th January 2013, when I will again be per-forming in the memory of Cori-na ‘Mary’ Brandolin (the found-er of the school).In my opinion, the truest ex-pression of an individual is in their dance and musicality!

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul” ― Martha Graham

By Jacob John Borg



The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Ti

Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adria


13Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times TheThe Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat iAdriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Ti

Research shows diamonds aren’t forever

Associate Professor Richard Mildren and his team from the Macquarie University Photon-ics Research Centre learned that diamonds evaporate from ex-posure to light. "Although this type of light-induced evapora-tion has been observed in some materials, this is the first time it's been shown to occur for di-amond," Mildren said.

But how can evaporation of di-amond be proved? how much time will it take?

The diamonds were bombarded with strong light pulses in the UV-C band (the harsh ultravio-let rays filtered out by the ozone layer), and tiny holes in the di-amond surface were noticeable after only a few seconds. The amount of lost mass in the dia-mond decreased markedly with lower light levels but the etching process still continued, but it did so at a slower and slower speed, Mildren said.

However diamond lovers and investors will want to hold off on going into massive panic mode. Mildren also notes that the rate of deterioration is very

slight and it’s barely noticeable under normal situations. Ac-tually, even very bright UV con-ditions, like intense sunlight or being under a UV lamp would still take an incredible amount of time to see an observable dis-tance. In theory it would take 10 billion years, which is the age of the universe.

If there is nothing to panic about the evaporation of our diamond rings and necklac-es then how will this research help us?

The research results give observ-ers information about the sta-bility of diamonds, but they also give scientists many options for future research.

It's a very practical discovery and we are now looking at how we can exploit this," Mildren said. "If we can make structures in the diamonds that enable us to control the position of the light within a very narrow fila-ment in the diamond, that's the first step to making smaller and more efficient optical devices such as those used in quantum computing and high perfor-

mance lasers."

Does it really make sense? how could a beautiful shining rock help the efficiency of opti-cal devices such as lasers?

Well, it can. Considering the fact that diamond is quite a bi-zarre material with unique and extreme properties, diamond crystals have a significant po-tential as an optical and laser material. Compared to some common materials used for la-sers such as crystals of silicon, barium nitrate or metal tung-sten, diamond has a higher op-tical gain (ability to amplify) as well as a greater thermal con-ductivity (ability to conduct heat). The speed at which heat travels through diamond is the highest of all known materials, and it is hoped that this prop-erty will enable us to simulta-neously miniaturize the device and increase the laser beam power to unprecedented levels making it ideal for high-power applications. Diamond crys-tals can also be made to gen-erate a wider variety of wave-lengths of light. This makes it perfect as laser material.

What would it change in peo-ples’ lives? A current diamond laser, which uses a 6.7 mm long diamond, achieves an ef-ficiency of 63.5 percent, which is competitive with the 65 per-cent efficiency achieved by ex-isting raman lasers. Diamond lasers are currently optimized to produce yellow laser light useful for medical applications such as eye surgery, but other applications should be possi-ble with different optimization schemes.

What if we think outside the bubble?

They even think that the devel-opment might be able to one day show us how to find diamonds on the surface of other planets, Mildren said.

So, diamonds aren’t forever, but they may have a use as something more than a girl’s best friend.

(http://www.tgdaily.com/gen-eral-science-brief/57332-re-search-shows-diamonds-ar-ent-forever)

By Sibel Spahija

The Adriatic Times


Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adriat ic Times The Adria

11th edition is not far...

Send your articles to [email protected]

The UWC Fallacy



By a concerned UWC student

What does it mean to be open-minded? According to the Oxford Dictionary of Eng-lish it is to be “willing to con-sider new ideas; unprejudiced.” And of course in order to try follow our so often quoted mission statement: “UWC makes education a force to unite people, nations and cul-tures for peace and a sustain-able future” UWC students are supposedly all open-minded.I say supposedly not because I believe that there are people here that are not open-mind-ed, but rather because people generally think that one is ei-ther open-minded or not, that to be open-minded is a natu-ral characteristic of a person. I totally disagree with this idea. I think that in the same way some people are born with a natural tendency to learn mu-sic; some people are born with a natural tendency to become open-minded.In order to learn how to play a musical instrument well, one has to keep practicing again and again, developing one’s skill. To be open-minded is much like knowing how to play a musical instrument; it is a skill that one can learn, not a nat-ural characteristic that some are born with. And in order to learn that skill one has to practice again and again, and as with every learner one can and will commit some mis-takes, but that should never be accepted as a reason to stop trying.Going back to the definition of open-minded: to be “willing to consider new ideas”. When one is willing to consider new ideas, it is understood that one had old ideas, and is ready to listen and consider new ideas that are different from one’s previous ideas. That seems very simple; almost easy to do, and in fact I think that here in the college we all can do that,

up to a certain point.The cartoon above shows only one of many examples that might happen in an environ-ment like ours, where peo-ple that come from so many different backgrounds, have so many different and some-times contrasting ideas. My point here is it might be easy to listen, consider and accept ideas that are simply different from ours, but when it comes to ideas that go against our values and beliefs it is really hard to simply listen to them, let alone accept that some-one you consider your friend

thinks that way.For instance, I think someone must be really brave to ad-mit publically that he or she is against gay rights here in the college. That person would probably be dragged to be burned in the piazza. And it is a real pity that things are like that here. We should try to understand why they are against gay rights.We live in an international so-ciety and many delicate issues, with many different ideolo-

gies and points of view, exist among us. A couple of times, I have heard of people that while engaged in a discus-sion of one of those delicate issues ends up losing a friend, because it is really hard to ac-cept that a friend’s beliefs and thoughts are so different and contrasting from our own.But I have heard of things like this only a couple of times at the college because they do not happen very often, I believe. People here in the college try to avoid delicate topics, in order to avoid con-flict. And it is here that we fall

into the UWC fallacy: when people in the college who come from so many differ-ent backgrounds, sometimes from countries that have been enemies for generations, sit together to eat in Mensa, or dance together in one of the shows, this is all very beautiful, but it is not real international understanding and it is not real peace.Peace is not simply the ab-sence of conflict, and here in the college we do advocate

for the absence of conflict, but we do not advocate for real peace. To avoid conflict, means not trying to solve it, but if we cannot have a rea-sonable discussion of interna-tional issues with our friends, going above any ideology or beliefs we might have and try-ing to find a solution to them, I cannot expect our leaders to do so. I cannot expect that our leaders, that might even hate each other, whose minds are probably closed, can do things that we as friends can-not do.The UWC as a movement and the UWCAD as our school, put us physically in the presence of people from a great variety of cultures and backgrounds, and creates a space where we can share our cultures and traditions, and this is already a big step towards international understanding, but it is not enough. We have here a great opportunity to share, discuss, argue and try to find solutions to issues of our world, but we do not. Here we have a better opportunity to achieve true international understanding than our diplomats and the UN will ever hope for, and yet we cannot do it. Why is that? What stops us from opening our minds a bit more so it will allow us to try to under-stand why others’ feelings are so different from our own on the same issues? What keeps us from having these discus-sions that could be so fruitful, to the point they might help us to renew our own ideas and values? Why are we not open to discussions that might challenge our own ideas and beliefs? We as a college, as part of the UWC movement, should be trying to work these issues out.

TO BE CONTINUED…



15

El LepidopmacRafael R. Valcárcel

Cientos de parejas aguardan su turno. Da gusto verlas porque no son comunes. Es evidente que se aman. y no porque vayan de la mano o se miren con ter-nura, sino porque sería absur-do estar de pie tantas horas si no portasen las pruebas que lo acreditan. El letrero, donde ini-cia la fila, anuncia: “Pagamos 20 gramos de oro por mariposa”. Se sabe que el método es indoloro y que cada estómago enamora-do alberga entre 10 y 15 espe-címenes. Además, el intervenido puede generar nuevas mariposas al cabo de una semana. Sin em-bargo, existe un inconveniente. Con frecuencia, sólo uno de la

pareja las porta, demostrándose que no es correspondido. El dra-ma es inevitable.

Los detractores del doctor Lor-ca, inventor del Lepidopmac (aparato para cazarlas), lo tildan de “antiromántico”. Unos, por ponerle precio a los sentimien-tos más nobles. otros, por llevar al abismo a tantas parejas cor-rectamente constituidas. ni los oye. no hay tiempo. Su amada aguarda la sentencia. Cuando el número de mariposas iguale al de personas, Lorca las soltará. Confía en que nadie querrá sos-tener un fusil.

The LepidopmacRafael R. Valcárcel(Translation by Liuba González De Armas)

hundreds of couples await their turn. They're pleasant to look at because they're not common. It is evident they're in love. And not because they walk hand in hand, or look at each other with tenderness, but because it would be absurd to spend hours standing in line if they had not brought proof to credit it. The sign, where the queue begins, reads: “We pay 20 grams of gold per butterfly.” The method is known to be painless and each enamoured heart hosts between 10 and 15 specimens. Besides, the patient can grow new butterflies within a week. nevertheless, there is an inconvenience. often, only

one lover carries them, reveal-ing his love to be unrequited. The ensuing drama is inevita-ble.

Critics of Dr. Lorca, inventor of the Lepidopmac (the appara-tus used to capture them), call him “antiromantic”. Some, for putting a price on the noblest of feelings. others, for destroy-ing so many properly formed couples. he doesn't heed them. There's no time. his beloved awaits the verdict. When the number of butterflies equals that of people, Lorca will release them. he trusts then no one will want to hold a rifle.

Contents

The UWC Fallacy Page 14What does it mean to be open-minded? According to the Oxford Dictionary of English it is to be “willing to consider new ideas; unprejudiced.”

A salty burg. A crowded city. Six lost Mexicans.Camila Ruiz Segovia

Page 6

My Most Pleasant StoryTranslation: Burcu Sağıroğlu

Page 7

Is there a life after UWC?Emma Sophie Burke (UWCAd 10/12)

Page 6

Where?Paola Pesante

Page 7

The LepidopmacTranslation: Liuba González De Armas

Page 9

Research shows diamonds aren’t foreverSibel Spahija

Page 13

Interview with Project Unify co-founder Asad Jamal Malik

Page 4

Project Unify is a peace movement started by two teenagers from Pakistan.

Valev Laube


“Le Legs”Translation: Doris Sandra Mbango Mbappe

Page 11

Lilia Calligaris, In MemoriamManuel Fernández Canque (former teacher at UWCAd)

Page 10

70 My words are simpleTranslation: Celine Tan

Page 9

A war against nature and against humans, an absurd war

Page 8Esther Podolak (UWCAD 2009/11)

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul” ― Martha Graham

Page 12Jacob John Borg

the adriatic times 10 - outside the bubble

Documents

adriat ic times thetimes

adriat ic timepeople

real issues

concerned uwc student

bigger issues

jacob explores

lilia calligaris

social service