creationRe:fuel - Second issue

Editorial

Braga doesn’t know what’s hit it, has it?

We hope you’ve all enjoyed your time so far at the session as much as it looks like you have been, judging by the photos from the 90’s party!

Whilst you’ve been tirelessly working away during your Committee Work and getting to know your fellow delegates’ embarrassing habits, stunning selfie faces and guilty pleasures, our beautiful media team has been tirelessly typing away to give you your second issue of the session. So, welcome to Re:Fuel – an issue designed to give you a quick boost of energy during your day of General Assem-bly. An elegant amalgamation of current affairs, past EYP experiences from your lovely journalists themselves, together with some sound advice for the ses-sion (both during and after!), we’re sure you’ll fully enjoy reading the issue you currently hold in your hands.

We promised to tell you the love story of the Editresses and their masculine assistants. Here it goes:

There once were two handsome fellows, let’s call them Olli and JJ for the sake of the story. Ollie and JJ had a dream, a dream that one day they could finally leave the nest, fly out and have a glimpse of what mystifying adventures were waiting for them. Their journey ended quite soon after that to be entirely hon-est. A few emails, Skype calls and some hilarious Facebook comments later, the Belgian damsel and British mademoiselle realised that the little birds were the final elements to what was to become a fabulous editorial team.

Great minds do think alike, so without further ado we re:filled our coffee mugs, got re:inspired and with the tremendous help of our exquisite journal-ists, Re:fuel was born.

Braga 2014? Challenge Accepted.By José Eduardo Feio

Being a Sterling EYPer…By Catarina Ferreira

More to ExploreBy all of you awesome peeps!

A Possible Threat to Europe?By Marta Ocon

A Lost InheritanceBy Edoardo Zaniboni

Crazy FacesBy José Eduardo Feio

A First Glance at EYPBy Thomas Willems & Francisca Patricio

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CONTENTS

Stay tuned for our third (online issue), where our lovely president will explain what's what.

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As human beings, experiencing new things and new challenges that push us out of our comfort zone can be some of the scariest things we can ever do.

And being afraid of them is normal. We all fell a bit scared when we face new sit-uations.

Why? Because we are jumping into the uncertain and to a possible situation where success is not guaranteed. And this makes us want to stay where we are, with the people that we already know doing things we are already comfortable with.

But look, here you are - the 31st Na-tional Selection Coference of EYP Por-tugal has engulfed you. Maybe you had no idea what you were getting into when you signed in. Maybe teambuilding was a bit scary, strange, awkward at first but you manage to do it, didn’t you? And how amazing was it? We all remember the be-ginning of our first session. We also felt strange at first, screaming as loud as we could, sometimes even words without meaning (“alele”? I still don’t know what that means) but we all got back to our beds that night felling differently. Feeling like this day actually changed something, made us feel different and very looking forward to what was to come.

In a sentence, it challenged ourselves to push us out of our comfort zone and it felt good.

And now General Assembly is com-ing, and with it huge challenges: public speaking, defending your resolution, at-tacking others. Stating our own opinions and explain our deepest beliefs. How do you feel about that? Exited? Worried?

When facing challenges like this one, there are a few things you should always keep in mind:

First, understand what you are getting into. Sometimes it is amazing to just let you go into the unknown, but in chal-lenges like a GA it is crucial to under-stand what is going to happen, what you will have to do and when you will have to do it.

The second step is to understand what scares you about it. Are you afraid you are going to fail? That you block while speak-ing and embarace yourself?

Thinking of what draws you back from something is crucial for the next phase: preparation. If you fear blocking while speaking in the podium, prepare your-self not to! Work on your speech, revise it, practice it and make sure that even though failing might not the worst thing in the world, you diminish its probabili-ties to a minimum!

Above all, remember why you are here. Instead of thinking about what draws you back from participating now think about what makes want to do it. What is it that is so exciting about being here in Braga 2014? What made you come here and what is making you stay?

Think about it. Since you arrived you have already overcome so many fears - do you feel like stopping now? You can never know what will happen if you take a chance and involve yourself, participate and face your fears. Maybe you will try it, maybe you will fall in love with it and let it change your life in a way you never knew could be possible.

Always remember that you are the one controlling your fears. You are the one who chooses whether to face them or not.

The EYP is a place to meet friends, to have fun. To laugh but also a place to face fears, gain confidence and surprise yourself and others with things you never though you would ever be able to do.

So, work, have fun, challenge yourself and let yourself be surprised by the re-sults.

Take this boat to a whole new level and let Braga 2014 change you.

Are you in for the challenge?

Braga 2014? Challenge Accepted.

By José Eduardo Feio

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Like with every first experience, you may be wondering what you can and can’t do, the things you are allowed to do, that you should do; it’s a new world where you leave your comfort zone and start over. The same thing happens in EYP every time you start a new session and for things to go correctly, there are rules that need to be followed; there are “do’s” and “don’ts”.

Being a sterling EYPer…By Catarina Ferreira

Follow the superiors’ orders, prepare the topic very well and be as active as possible in the discussions, hear everyone’s opinion and respect them, sleep well, drink a lot of coffee, eat a lot of food (as many as you can!) and enter this great EYP spirit are some of the “do’s” you should accomplish.

With regards to the “don’ts”: be respectful to the work that has taken several months to prepare, in order for the session to be as unforgettable for you delegates.

Try hard not to completely ignore others’ opinions and mock them; embrace the diversity within the session and take every-one’s thoughts as a new learning curve.

As human beings, we are all different. Our behaviors, the way we speak, our perspective of everything that surrounds us. In every EYP session (whether National Selection Conferences or International Sessions) you will find some people that fit the profile of delegate archetypes:

The mouse - is the shy delegate who is not really comfortable expressing his/her opinion in a crowd. Although the mouse takes a lot of notes, he or she will very rarely actively take part in the discussions during Committee Work;

The hipster - is a very stubborn delegate. He/she has a very personal vision of the resolutions;

The socializer - who is the energy of the committee, the passionate of committee spirit. This type of delegate come to any session to have fun, to make others have fun, party hard and for a lot of group hugs!

The bull - is the opposite of a mouse. These delegates are always ready to express their ideas and will defend them fiercely. They can also be called “the leaders of the committee”;

The dedicated - is the delegate with the best academic preparation, best knowledge regarding EU and will actively participate in the Committee Work;

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More to ExploreBy all of you awesome peeps!

Another - often argued the most - important aspect regarding EYP is The Wardrobe. It is of absolute importance to look stylish, suave and embrace your inner swag at General Assembly. This is your moment to shine! Everyone is eager to hear your opinions, and you deserve to look as good as you feel.

We know, it’s a lot to think about. Don’t worry, you’ll find that everything will eventually fall into place and you’ll naturally find yourself gleaming amongst your fellow delegates.

And remember: stay classy, EYPers of Braga!

With the recent alarm situation created in the past months about the Ebola dis-ease and its rapid spreading, many are the people that still question themselves what it exactly concerns.

Ebola virus has been present since 1976, almost 38 years ago. However, there has been a severe widespread since March of this year all over West Africa. It is trans-mitted by animals and humans via blood or body fluids, and it causes high fever, diarrhea and profuse bleeding inside the body. Currently there is no specific treat-ment for this disease. Nevertheless, peo-ple receive supportive therapy and ex-perimental cures when diagnosed.

It was first discovered in the Democrat-ic Republic of Congo and little by little spread to Sierra Leone and Guinea. It primarily occurred in remote villages but deaths started multiplying as it got to ur-ban areas. This rapid expansion is mostly due to the physical contact between cit-izens in African countries, integrated in their cultural practices.

As it grew inside the limits of those countries, European member states start-ed feeling uncomfortable with the virus getting closer to their borders and their citizens.

However, it was not until current Euro-peans caught the disease that the massive alarm went up. The EU doesn’t have pow-er regarding international diseases, so each member state was able to response to the epidemic as they considered better for they own country.

The entire international commission was put to the est. The EU as a whole has already mobilised over €600 million to fight the epidemic, sent medical and hu-manitarian experts to the affected coun-tries, and deployed mobile laboratories. A co-operation with the health authorities of the member states has also been set up in order to protect Europeans.

With regards to member states, each has taken its personal decision. Spain was the first country to medically evacuate two patients from West Africa, followed by UK and Belgium among others. Is this response from developed countries in accordance with human rights or on the contrary it shows how some lives are worth more than others in the world we live in?

Despite the number of infections seem-ingly rising quickly in Sierra Leona and Guinea, however, the possibility of evac-uating West Africans relies unconsid-ered. Not only would it stop the disease from spreading all over the world, but also more importantly it will save lives that have the same importance as first-world ones. This harrowing rise could be stopped if the millions of euros we have spent in evacuating citizens were invest-ed in building hospitals and in carrying medicines and the necessary equipment to West African countries. A line cannot be drawn between Africans and Europe-ans. The day two Spanish citizens were being evacuated, 28 people died in an isolated hospital. Counting that there are lots of hospitals and provisional medical aid around the infected countries, hun-dreds of people died that day.

The majority of these countries popula-tions live in poverty, with little sanitation and poor public-health system. A travel ban won’t stop outbreaks.We have to take into consideration everybody’s interests and not those of the developed countries, so it is essential to tackle the source of the virus.

A possible threat to Europe?By Marta Ocon

There’s no doubt that in our lives we carry the values and ex-periences that we have learned from the people with whom we have lived, and there’s still no doubt that for many of these val-ues we definitely don’t realise about their existence.

Nationality is the legal bond that guarantees every person the full enjoyment of their rights as a subject of a state community. The person’s right to a nationality and a fundamental right is recognised in Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states: “Everyone has the right to a nationality” and in Article 4 of the European Convention on Nationality of 1997 that states “Each State Party shall facilitate in its internal law the acquisition of its nationality”. Having a nationality means to belong to a particular nation, as a unitary organism in all its ethnic, cultural and social aspects.

What if you don’t have a nationality?

The attention should be brought to those who are not the first thought of the countries of the world; they are amongst the most vulnerable people in Europe. Imagine: what would life be like without a common sense of belonging?

At least 10 million people in the world are currently without an official identity, with a stateless child born every ten minutes.

Although this phenomenon is particularly acute in South East Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, there are still estimated to be over 600,000 people living in Europe today without an official identity.

There are several causes that can lead to statelessness: the refugees of wars or military occupations, the division of some countries of the ex-USSR and the former Yugoslavia between 1990 and 1993, the fact of being son of stateless or being unable to inherit the citizenship of the parents, being part of a social group at which was denied citizenship on the basis of discrim-ination.

Article 1 of the 1954 Statelessness Convention signed in New York defines a stateless person as one “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”. In prac-tice, however, not having a nationality means to live in a “legal limbo”. In other words, not having access to services needed for access to fundamental rights or simply to chance, from school to work, from health care to the purchase of a house. It may be impossible for anyone to get married, open a bank account or get a driving licence – many of the things that we are all known to take for granted.

(see more on the next page)

A lost inheritance

Crazy faces

By Edoardo Zaniboni

By José Eduardo Feio

“To be without documents and a nationality is as if you never existed in this world”.

Cristiano Matos - I am afraid that in the future I will not be the person I aim to.

Francisca Patricio - I cannot stand if people say that I am unworthy.

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Steps are already being taken to address the issue, mainly in the international field. For instance, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) together with United Colours of Benet-ton created “I Belong”, a campaign which aims to bring global attention to the disturbing consequences of statelessness. The UNHCR campaign was launched during some great changings throughout the world. Just three years ago, there were only 100 signatory states of the two treaties on statelessness - the 1954 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Stateless-ness. Other political actions were shown in September 2012, as the European Union and its Member States have proclaimed in front of Ban KI Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, their solemn commitment to take action to combat the problem of statelessness through the implementation of international in-struments for the protection of stateless individuals.

Despite these advances, new risks of statelessness have emerged with the rise of conflicts. The wars in the Central Af-rican Republic and Syria, for example, have forced millions of people to leave their homes and become refugees, meaning for them to emigrate in other countries with the risk of not being recognized as citizens anymore.

The present case can still be solved on more roads:

• Explanation: simplify the procedures and the bureau-cracy for applying for the status of stateless persons in adminis-trative

• Inspiration: stimulate other countries to ratify the In-ternational Convention (August 1961) on the Reduction of State-lessness, which would enable stateless persons to attain citizen-ship faster

• Organisation: establish dedicated determination pro-cedures that are fair, efficient and easily accessible. This enables states to identify and regularise stateless persons on their terri-tory, thereby both fulfilling their obligations under relevant in-ternational treaties and providing a sustainable policy solution for individuals who cannot be removed.

In the words of Antonio Gutierrez, United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees, “Unlike what happens in many armed conflicts, the solution of the problem of statelessness is entirely in the hands of any government interested in doing so. We have the opportunity, as never before, to address this injustice.” Let’s take it.

João Bernardo - The thing I most hate about myself are my drama queen moments.

Stella Hedlund - I regret doing too much of what other people tell me too.

To be continued in the next issue.

I was extremely nervous before attending the national selec-tion conference of Belgium 2014, which took place in Brussels 9 months ago. I knew on advance that the General Assembly (GA) would take place on my birthday, which didn’t help with my stress levels. However, I was very lucky to be surrounded by a great chair, a helpful journalist, well trained organisers and a great group of fellow delegates.

I must admit, the first day I remained stressed and felt a lot of pressure for the upcoming GA, but after a while I realised that I was not the only one suffering from this problem, and final-ly most of us got pretty soon rid of our nerves. I experienced a great session and was lucky for being selected to attend the National Selection Conference of EYP Portugal in Abrantes. I remained astonished by the kindness and the opening of the Portuguese participants; I had never met such a nice group that was willing to create friendships in a short period.

Once back home, in Belgium, I couldn’t wait to see some friends again. I immediately booked a trip to Portugal and toured around the biggest cities: Lisboa, Evora, Coimbra, Porto and Braga itself in summer!

Twenty Portuguese friends were willing to see me again, driv-ing for hours in their cars and taking exhaustingly long trains to meet me again! Even their families were willing to me host me in their houses and transport me to the places I needed to be. I experienced the best holidays I could wish for! All of this kept me motivated to stay involved in EYP, I attended local trainings and help the future delegates of my school with their EYP-work.

Now, totally unexpected, I am attending the national selection in Braga as a journalist. Just six months ago I had no plans to visit Portugal - now I have all of a sudden suddenly been there three times! I couldn’t encourage you all enough to continue be-ing active in this organization.

I hope that you will all enjoy this session to the fullest, make good friends and stay involved to meet even more people with the same interests and passions like us.

A First Glance at EYPBy Thomas Willems &

Francisca Patricio

Every session is unique. Well-seasoned or new to the organization, we all have our vivid memories of our first time as an EYPer. We asked Thomas and Francisca from Braga’s media team to discuss their first experiences within EYP and share with you how they felt in your position as a first-time delegate…

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Have you ever found a place that pushed your limits, the truly challenged you? That wanted to be so perfect that you thought you were going to fail? European Youth Parliament is the one that builds and improves you; it shows you that you are much more than you first thought you were.

I remember my first session like if it was yesterday, the 29th National Selection Conference of EYP Portugal; everything started when I heard from my teachers that I was one of the 9 students chosen. I didn’t know what to expect, what to wear, what I would need, how things were going to go. Although I felt proud, I doubted my capabilities, I couldn’t resist to compare myself with my friends, and that didn’t end there, from the first time I met the other delegates I was constantly noticing their action, and language capabilities.

Teambuilding was strange, I have to admit, playing with tennis balls, going to the forest, hitting people with a piece of paper… I couldn’t memorize every name; I wasn’t comfortable with pass-ing an orange without using my hands. All of that went away once I got to know my chair and my colleagues better; they were as scared as I was, they felt everything I felt, they were just like me.

Committee work was different, the chairs found ways to teach us things through games. And then I noticed something, each delegate had a role; I saw the quiet, the balanced, the extrovert… Everyone was an irreplaceable piece of the puzzle; these peo-ple were all working together, and only with everyone’s effort it would be possible to create something bigger and better than each one of us.

The parties are an important part of the session as they can give you the confidence you need to be yourself and express your real feelings without feeling pressured with evaluation and juries.

Every session gets its climax at General Assembly, that’s where all of the work you have done is shown, you feel fulfilled and proud one more time; you finally understand that it is possi-ble to aspire bigger because you capable of doing it. Going to the podium is the most amazing feeling in the world, you feel your legs shaking, your heart starts to beat faster and faster, and you finally get there, you can’t hear your own voice…everything looks blurred. Don’t worry, because you are going to say exactly what you were supposed to, you are going to feel it much worse that it really is.

After my selection at the national session, I went to Riga and then Barcelona, and yes, I loved to be a delegate, the problem was that I feel like I was capable of doing more, I didn’t want my experience to end there; I filled my body with courage and I ap-plied as a journalist for this session, my first time as an official. I thought, one more time, that I was not going to be capable; I was much younger than the others and I didn’t had the experience of being an official before, but I still did it and I have to admit that it was one of the most intelligent decisions I made. We should always want more, work for more because eventually, one day, all of our work is going to be recognised.

PARTNERS

BRAGA 201431st NATIONAL SELECTION CONFERENCE OF EYP PORTUGAL5-9 NOVEMBER, 2014

Under the patronage of the Municipality of Braga and Instituto Português do Desporto e da Juventude I.P.

With the support of Universidade do Minho, Escola Secundária Carlos Amar-ante, SYnergia, Hotel Residencial Centro Comercial da Avenida, Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian, Fundação Bracara Augusta, Xerox and Xdoc, and Chocolate com Pimenta

Associação Portuguesa do Parlamento Europeu dos Jovens/EYP Portugal