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Studenten bezoeken de nieuwste Europese staat

May 2nd, 2008, by Hilko

*Persbericht*

Utrecht, 24 april 2008
Van zondag 4 tot en met 10 mei reizen vijf Nederlandse studenten op uitnodiging van vredesorganisatie IKV Pax Christi naar Kosovo om daar met leeftijdgenoten uit Servië en Kosovo te praten over identiteit, etnische scheiding en Europese integratie van de nieuwe staat Kosovo. De reis vindt plaats aan de vooravond van de verkiezingen in Servië.

Op 17 februari 2008 heeft Kosovo de onafhankelijkheid verklaard. Dit leidde tot spanningen en protesten in Servische gebieden in Kosovo en in Servië zelf. Als gevolg van de erkenning van Kosovo door EU-landen en het sturen van EU politie en rechters naar de gloednieuwe staat is de Servische regering gevallen. Nieuwe verkiezingen vinden plaats op 11 mei. De Servische minderheid in Kosovo mag van het VN-bestuur niet meedoen aan deze verkiezingen.

Vijftien jongeren uit Servië, Kosovo en Nederland gaan in de week voor de verkiezingen in gesprek over identiteit en Europese integratie. Kan Kosovo een multi-etnische staat worden en kan het op termijn toetreden tot de EU? Bovendien gaan de jongeren zélf wat doen aan het wegnemen van de haat tussen de verschillende bevolkingsgroepen. Samen zullen de jongeren op 9 mei, Europadag, in Pristina Loesjeslogans verspreiden die aan het denken zetten.

De studenten ontmoeten beleidsmakers, politici en activisten en gaan in gesprek met ‘gewone burgers’. Ook bezoeken aan de Servische enclave Gracanica en de verdeelde stad Mitrovica zijn onderdeel van het programma. Later dit jaar reizen dezelfde jongeren naar Servië en in oktober zal een bezoek aan Nederland en de Europese Instituties in Brussel plaatsvinden.

De Nederlandse deelnemers zijn:
Emil Andel (25) uit Waddinxveen, student Communicatie aan de Haagse Hogeschool; Hilko Blok (23) uit Amsterdam, student Sociale Psychologie aan de Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam; Jacqueline van Dooren (20) uit Utrecht, studente Sociale Geografie aan de Universiteit van Utrecht; Evelijn Martinius (19) uit Amsterdam, studente Politicologie aan de Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam; en Lenneke Sprik (22) uit Groningen, studente Internationale Betrekkingen aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

Voor meer informatie over Our Future zie: http://ourfuture.ikvpaxchristi.nl.
—

Hoera!

Tags: journalism, personal, travel
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And Time Stood Still

February 29th, 2008, by Hilko

On October 27th, time stopped for five whole minutes, and I lay clame to some of the blaim.

At 17:30 PM sharp, more than 200 people at Utrecht Central Station froze while going about their business; tying shoelaces, eating a banana, lighting up a cigarette, taking (and posing for) a photograph, or locked in an intimate embrace. Five minutes later, they continued as if nothing had happened, and the ‘audience’ applauded.

A video:

The inspiration for this flash mob is “improv everywhere“, a bunch of New Yorkers who like to “cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places”, and who came up with the original “Frozen Grand Central”.

Our meeting point was outside the station, at five PM. The amount of participants grew, and everyone wondered who the instigator was (known only as “Andries”). A sixteen-year-old stood up, climbed a nearby statue, and after a short, confused pause from the audience, received a thundering applause. He explained the plan, gave some tips, made sure all our watches were synchronized, and wished us good luck.

It turned out to be a huge success. I froze as I was taking something out of my bag, which was a relatively comfortable pose. As we stood frozen, people started reacting. Two girls were “seriously creeped out,” a guy bumped into someone and made an effort to ‘catch’ the frozen statue, and a mother tried to explain what was happening to her confused daughter. I think it worked.

Even though all the credit for this goes to “AltijdAndries,” I feel ever so slightly responsible for what happened. A few weeks ago I posted a short ‘challenge’ on the dutch section of the improv everywhere forum, which was completely inactive and had less than ten members. I then forgot posting the message. Three weeks later, there were more than a hundred members, and ’some guy’ had set up a separate website and planned a ‘mission’ in Utrecht.

There’s a lesson here. When you do something irrelevant and then forget about it (because it’s irrelevant), it can lead to something of even greater irrelevance! Remember this.

For more reports, see the official site.

Tags: humor, improv, Links, photo, video
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A Hitchhiker’s Guide To Albania - Day 2

February 16th, 2008, by Hilko

One of the most interesting things about hitchhiking is the different mindset you have as soon as you are on the road. An example of this is sleep. This is what happened…

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Tags: albania, hitchhiking, personal, photo, travel
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A Hitchhiker’s Guide To Albania - Day 1

December 15th, 2007, by Hilko

After half a day of travel, we have arrived in Germany. A ‘convoy’ of Polish guys with three cars just agreed to take us along. There’s something unsettling about them, though; perhaps it’s because their cars are a bit too fancy, or maybe it’s because they are quite obviously talking about us - in Polish. I bet wondering how much money we’re carrying, or how much our livers would be worth on the black market. Since my mastery of the Polish language is limited to the word ‘ousta’ (meaning ‘lip’, thank you Veggie Tales), I couldn’t make much sense of it. Still, I had been craving for some more excitement, so I can’t complain.
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