The Power of Involvement

The EUforIA Youth Summit 08 (EYS’08) event organized by the European Youth for Informed Action organization gathered more than 100 active young people from all over Europe on October 17-19 in Geneva. I, a Belarusian student of Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Helsinki), decided to be part of it. And I will explain why this has been a good idea.

Our planet has never been such a nice place for the strong: rapid development of transportation and communication systems allows outsourcing production to the poorest countries with basically no labor legislation and environmental control to gain super-profits; speculations in the global food market make gamblers rich overnight, impoverishing at the same time entire nations; new advances in mass media and public relations technologies allow corrupt governments to find ever more crafty ways of holding control over their people’s minds and to justify ineffective administration as well as human rights violations. The examples are many. Let each and everyone be for him- or herself, the good old saying goes. However, the invisible hand of the market can not only be generously giving but may also be ruthlessly depriving, as Bangladesh sweatshops, Amazon deforestation, Indonesian food riots, and hundreds of other examples prove.

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Whether building a community center in a Brazilian favela, developing a game for integration with the whole city of Bern as a board to play on, or finding creative ways of influencing the world’s most odious human rights violators – there’s very little that youthful enthusiasm and a sense of mission can’t do.

The gigantic scale of these problems, their growing number, and the spread information being scarce and discrepant – all of this can make even a firmest person of good conscience get close to giving up. Making first step always takes courage, but to get to know the right direction is even more difficult. That is why a platform is needed which would give indifferent young people (the eagerest change makers) a tool of picking up the right status quo for them to challenge. And when I, a second year business student, was going to the EUforIA Youth Summit 2008 in Geneva, I had an intent and hope of finding such a platform.

One thing that was special about EYS’08 event is that there was really what to choose from. The workshops’ topics covered issues ranging from human rights, conflicts resolution and migration to responsible consumption, global finance, transportation and much more. And those workshops were not a mere reflection on the problem; once you started seeing your own role in whatever problem to solve, an experienced change maker ready to help you in getting started was at the hand reach.

Another great thing was that the workshops were conducted by doers, not talkers. Global issues covered by the EYS08 event have been a part of Western politics and media discourse for a long time, but only person-to-person experience sharing and lustrous eyes of the speaker can shift a young person from passive awareness to active involvement. Whether building a community center in a Brazilian favela, developing a game for integration with the whole city of Bern as a board to play on, or finding creative ways of influencing the world’s most odious human rights violators – there’s very little that youthful enthusiasm and a sense of mission can’t do.

Atmosphere. Getting away from everyday round of relations (family – friends – university – work – whatever) and becoming engrossed in the whirlpool of new names, accents, jokes, backgrounds, personal stories and global viewpoints is always a vibrant experience. Add here a joint sense of commitment to change, gorgeous location, and quality of organization (which is even more surprising given it was the maiden event by EUforIA), and you’ll understand why EUforIA Youth Summit 09 and other EUforIA’s projects will not be something to miss.

Thinking globally and acting on whatever level you like can not only make your CV look nice and shiny, but also give your extracurricular life both depth and meaning. Consider EUforIA as a jumping-off place.

Aleksandr Kozhura

For more information on the EUforIA organization visit http://www.euforiaction.org/