Volunteer work

While researching volunteer work organizations, I found these two which awoke my interest the most:

1. European Voluntary Service
(http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/european-voluntary-service_en.htm)
2. GoAbroad
(http://www.goabroad.com/providers/geovisions/programs/volunteer-programs-in-turkey-88062)

I am interested in these organizations because...

I would really like to do another gap year during my studies, maybe between the Bachelor and the Master studies. This year I would like to spend on doing volunteer work, and these organizations would offer me opportunities that totally fulfill my requirements. When I come home after the six months in New York I want to go on learning turkish. Before I left I did a first course, but for sure that's not enough, especially because I already forgot so many things. The GoAbroad organization offers a very good program, which means you going to Turkey as a English teacher - I think this could be very cool as I will have the required English skills after my stay here and furthermore I can work with children there, which is my preference when thinking about volunteer work. On the other hand the European Voluntary Service is really well government-funded so that you find a lot of support and opportunities and it makes it very easy for you to join the program.

Experiences or skills you need to participate in these programs...
For participating in the GoAbroad program to teach turkish people English you don't have to fulfill many conditions: Of course your English has to be on a proper level and you have to be 18 years or older, but it is no experience required so that it is joinable for everybody (with the particular English skills). The European Volunteer Service also requires nothing but an age of 18 years of higher and of course your "will to help people".

The skills you will learn...

Of course it depends on the social work you will do, what specific skills you learn. When you are an English teacher in Turkey (like you can do it with GoAbroad), you will improve your pedagogical skills and you will get used to speak English again as you don't do that in daily life in your home country so often. When you work with children from the streets you will get a better sense for how tough life can be, how people and even children life, which gives you a better social comprehension. But after all I think it doesn't matter what you do, but you will become a lot more independent, you will learn to appreciate the luxury we live in in our home countries and you will of course get to know a totally different culture - especially when you go to countries like Turkey (like I want to do it) and not to very close ones like France, England etc. you will live in a culture, that is totally different from the one of your home country: Different language, different buildings, different food, different people, different habits...you see there are a lot of things that are worth it to be discovered.
I think a volunteer year is always a wonderful, long-lasting experience.

press release

Music festival for the benefit of breast cancer research in Tarrytown, NY


Supporting the current Breast Cancer Campaign, the organizers of the Baltimore festival arrange a festival called "Pink Party" in New York on the second weekend of november - with all its proceeds going to research on breast cancer and its therapies. 

Normally organizing the annual Baltimore festival, Mark Ryson and Christopher Bladen decided to line up a second festival this year. "When we heard about the big breast cancer campaign going to public in 2011, we both knew that we wanted to take part in it", says Bladen, whose mother herself died as a consequence of breast cancer five years ago. And they do: From november 11 to 13 Kingsland Point Park in Tarrytown, NY will host the charity festival "Pink Party". The two men from Baltimore, Maryland are looking forward to a great festival with a wide spread type of artist: "As we wanted to address as many people as possible, we decided to split up the event into three different days: On friday there will be a lot of pop gigs, while on saturday the focus is set on techno music and on sunday a lot of rock bands will perform on the two stages." Ryson explains. "We regarded it as kind of symbolism - as breast cancer concerns everybody, we wanted to create a festival that appeals to everybody." Bladen adds.
During the festival, there will be a cross-section of several different breast cancer organizations present, to inform about the early diagnosis, the risks and the therapies of breast cancer. Furthermore representatives of the "Breast Cancer Campaign"will build up a little store with the products that  recently support their work, like we already see them in the supermarkets and shops of our cities.
"Sooner or later everybody gets curious about the things we sell and our stalls which are more than just a table with leaflets on it. There are people talking about their experiences with breast cancer, how it was diagnosed and medicated. And they want to give hope to new breast cancer patients, so that that one day they'll be able to live a normal life with regarding their illness as part of it." says Alicia Hallson, initiator of the "Breast Cancer Campaign", explaining her motivations and goals for the festival.

So if you also want to support this charity festival, which is at the same time an accomplishment and many glorious and famous actors, you should come to:
Kingsland Point Park, Tarrytown, New York
on November 11-13
always between 10 AM 11 PM

tickets are available on www.ticketmaster.com for 35 $ and up.

music festivals

as we were supposed to do research on music festivals we would like to go to, I picked one that I already knew as a friend of mine sent me a link for youtube. Now I wanted to know more about it, because it impressed me so enormously, and I would really really like to go there in 2012.
The festivals called "tomorrowland" and is located in Belgium. Curiously the name of the town where it takes places every year in the last week end of July is "boom". As it is a techno-festival one could call this a real symbolism between the name of the town and the marvelous things that happen there.


To get an impression, one should take a look at the after movie of "tomorrow land 2011" on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7CdTAiaLes


When my friend sent it to me, I only took a very quick look at it because I wasn't sure what it was about and thought it might be a boring video of one of the umpteen techno-festivals, that in the end are all the same. 
But this is so different, when I now watched the video in a whole I couldn't sit still on my chair and wanted to google tickets for this festival immediately - I want to go there SO BADLY!

You can choose between the opportunities of camping and getting a room in a hotel, which of course is a lot more expensive. On the other hand I can imagine that after one day (and night) of dancing and partying to techno music, a (comparatively) quit hotel room might be a real luxury. Nevertheless you have to consider the fact that actually when you go on a music festival, you don't go there for luxury but for the real "festival feeling" - which argues for taking the tent...
however, I think joining this festival might REALLY be fun, as it is not only techno music from various and partly very famous DJs - but the whole locations with all the decoration and the atmosphere that this causes should be so amazing! I think one could really have fun there, just forget about daily life and immerse oneself into another world, a world of a amusement and fairytales, the world of tomorrow land.


It might also be interesting to visit the official website of "tomorrowland", as you get an impression of the concept and the idea that stand behind this production and what it's all about. And of course, you can see what artists have been there this year so that you get an impression about the music played during these three days of total frenzy. Maybe next year, I will be one of the thousands of people partying there day and night, I will let you know - but first I have to convince all of my friends, which shouldn't be too difficult, because I can't think of anyone in my age (who is not totally disaffected by techno music), who wouldn't want to go to this place.

Fair trade

"Fair Trade is a system of exchange where purchasers agree to pay a slightly higher cost to make sure providers are able to maintain a decent standard of living."


- definition of www.worldwidefairtrade.com -


As coffee is the second most valuable commodity in the world after oil, there is a significant human trafficking and exploitation in the coffee industry. Being mostly located in Central and South America and Africa, workers on large plantations are often forced to harvest and dry beans for lots of hours with little or no pay. Little farmers often struggle to compete with the low prices of the large farms, as they sometimes also use child and exploited labor. But even in the U.S., coffee is not always fairly produced: Kaua'i Coffee, a hawaii-based brand, has recently been accused to have six enslaved Thai workers on their plantation. To end this misery "fair trade" has been initialized as a certificate on products, to give the consumers a choice whether to support human exploitation or to make a first step towards a better world where people live and work under human and equal conditions.


During the lesson we collected several organizations who either supported fair trade or got in the medial focus because of a scandal concerning it. Looking them up I found out that:


- Starbucks makes great efforts to support fair trade, especially referring to their own website, but that there are still some people demanding more fair trade products and less ignorance concerning costumers' demands for this. But still, in opposition to the two other ruling coffee companies in the U.S. Costa and Caffe Nero, Starbucks is the only company selling fair trade products after all. In the UK for example exists a coffee shop called "AMT Coffee" - the first UK coffee shop to go 100% Fairtrade with its coffee, and offer 100% organic milk. Hopefully more of stores like that will grow in the U.S. and Europe as well, so that we get a opportunity in everyday life to do our bit for more equality and humanity.


- GAP is involved in a huge scandal concerning child labor - even if they talk about a policy in their official statement, which says that every child that is discovered being used by contractors has to be removed from work, brought back to school and deserves a guarantee of no need to work until it reaches the official working age. But his policy often doesn't succeed as current test show, so that there a still too many children working under degrading circumstances.

one of seven billion

Being one of the 7 billion people on earth, I prefer to state this as my home: the earth. For me there is no point in saying which region of the planet you're from, because in the end all of us are citizens of it, being human with the same needs, the same dreams and the same goals - just with some variations depending on the culture we live in and the opportunities the region we come from offers us. To explore these different cultures and ways of living my dream is to travel around the world, meet people from different backgrounds and learn to appreciate life in all its moments - because I think this is something we forget too often. We are not here to accomplish a mission, to save the world or achieve any other utopia goal. For me there is no individual determination in life but LIVING it, doing the things you want to do, fill it with pleasure and enjoy every single moment of it - because we always should remember that every day, there are too many people who lose this most valuable thing on earth: their life.

Assignment on organizations

Greenpeace & Red Cross






Greenpeace is a non-profit and also non-governmental organization, which focusses on environmental issues. It wants to protect the earth and every creature on it to enable a sustainable lifestyle for human and animals. They deal with the topic of global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling and nuclear issues. 
As they have got 2.8 million individual supporters, they refuse money from the government, political parties or foundation grants, so that their work is always objective and not influenced by any political or economic views but their own ones. The international coordination body is placed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but they are operating in over 40 countries all over the world. To focus on a current issue I'd like to mention their work concerning the global warming, which they consider as the "greatest environmental problem facing the Earth". Greenpeace calls for a total decrease of green house gas emissions by 2050 and at least for a 40% decrease by 2020 (referring to 1990s' levels). Additionally they have launched the "go beyond oil" campaign, which is focussed on ending the world's consumption of oil. One way to reach this is to apply political pressure on the governments who allow oil exploration in their countries and who keep the dependence on oil alive like this.
Another great and also well-known campaign of Greenpeace is their work against whaling, as you often see them in the TV, with their little boats in front of the big whaling ships.
Like this and with a lot of protest actions they want to 
protect the whales, as there are already species that have been exterminated by whaling. They also want to make people aware that the blubber of many whales is highly contaminated with organochlorines so that it normally should be classified as toxic waste.
Greenpeace accomplishes its capacious work on all the several issues by having many volunteers and private sponsors, who make it possible to deal with several topics in several countries at the same time, which makes it to the biggest and most influential environmental organization world wide. 

The international Red Cross movement classifies itself as the "largest humanitarian network in the world. Their main goals are to end human suffering, protect life and health and protect human dignity especially during crisis like armed conflicts or other emergencies.  They are supported by millions of volunteers so that they are able to operate all over the world. The Red Cross as we know it isn't a single organization as it seems to be, but it is composed of the "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross, Red Crescent societies and the 186 individual National Societies. They are all independent from each other, like they have their own legal identity and role, but they are united by seven fundamental principles as well. These principles are:
humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

One of their biggest issues is the assurance of water and habitat in conflict zones. Like this they enable life in regions of emerging, acute, chronic and post-crises situations. They try to compensate urgent water needs as a consequence of large population displacements because of armed conflicts. These conflicts and population displacements also often effect a need for shelter and contemporary housing, which people can't accomplish on their own. The Red Cross movement helps these people and makes life during these difficult situations possible.






Both organizations have a wide spread area of influence and their world is enabled by many volunteers and private sponsors, so that they are independent from governmental help and free from corruption.




Personally, I'm not always sure what to think about the organizations, especially about the Red Cross movement, because there have been several rumors that peoples' donations don't reach the real areas of conflicts but the organizers themselves. 
Greenpeace I consider as a really good organization even if their goals are sometimes a bit utopian and not really realistic.

Essay about racism

iLab on Friday, 30th of september 2011

page 9, exercise G

"Initiatives to improve my community"

There is one issue in our community that is very dear to my heart. Unfortunately I have to assert that there are still members of our community coming to me and telling me about personal experiences with racism. I'm not talking about non-involved people, not about those who just notice racism as an unlovely part of our society - I am talking about people being discriminated against themselves, those who suffer from this completely unacceptable behaviour.

Despite the fact, that there are still people looking at immigrants on the streets as if they were disgusting, there are still people verbally harassing them or ignoring them as if they were not worth being noticed. I want to focus on a worse problem: The systematic marginalisation of foreign people in our society. Not by a single person or small groups of Neo-nazis, but by serious enterprises.

Let me give you an example:

About 2 weeks ago I talked to a friend of mine who finished school one year ago by passing his Abitur with an excellent grade. Mehmet comes from a very well-educated and well situated family, that originally comes from Iraq but since they immigrated to Germany 14 years ago they are very well integrated into society and even get involved a lot with our community issues.

So as usual the high-school graduates  were planning their so-called "Abi-parties" - parties they organize themselves to earn money for their prom  and their final year book. My friend organized a lot and took a big part in the work himself, so that finally the party that took place in the MAX-discoteque became a great success. Only one person couldn't enjoy the happy party: It was Mehmet. And you know why? Because they didn't let him in!

Imagine yourself doing a lot of work, getting involved in such a great project not for your own benefit but for that of your community your part of, standing there in front of a club knowing that YOU made all this happen, and then being rejected by security without any reason given.

The worst thing about it is, that this is no exception in Kiel. I remember many evenings I wasn't able to go out with my friends because all of us knew they would be rejected by security, most of the time by rough words but sometimes even by physical force.

We have to recognize the need for action, we have to help these people, we have to stop people being discriminated against just because of the color of their skin, the origin of their parents or even of their grandparents!

We bear responsibility to protect these people from being segregated against for no reason.

The root of this problem is the high aggressive potential coming up in clubs where people are drinking and being troublesome. The operators of these clubs might think they could reduce this potential by rejecting foreigners or even people looking like they could be foreign, but they are totally wrong. Of course they only seek for more security and a better atmosphere for peaceful visitors, but they completely chose the wrong way.

There have been, are, and will always be young people who want to checkout the limits and who run riot, but this is not a question of nationality or color of skin. 

Operators of clubs must invent new criteria for selecting aggressive people, they must stop selecting only those people who are not originally German, and they must stop allowing their securities using bare violence.

We should support advanced trainings for security men to learn how to read body language, recognizing the aggressive potential of young visitors of their clubs, to have on the one hand a more efficient system to make attendance at a club safer, and on the other hand solve the problem of antiracist discrimination.




This was an essay we were supposed to write concerning a topic that we feel strongly about. I enjoyed writing it, because I'm really upset about  the racist judgements of the security in my hometown, so it was really easy for me to write a proposal about it. We were also told to include the 'three-point' device, which I evaluate as very useful but still easy to integrate at the same time, as it makes the text sound stronger and more powerful.

About this blog

This is a blog about me, Anne, and my time in New York. I will stay here for 6 months for doing the EF Master English Media&Art program, which I really enjoy so far. I especially love the three arts lessons which are photography, advertisement and graphic design, as they include very much practical work and deal with topics I'm highly interested in. I look forward to share my experiences and the results from the iLab lessons in this blog so that they are available to everybody including Anne-Marie, my english teacher, the only female teacher I have so far. My other teachers are Mr. Grau, Darryl and Jacob and I think we'll have a great time with them and learn a lot of useful things as they seem to be real experts in what they are doing/teaching us.
Besides the time I spend in school I live in a host family, which lives within walking distance to school but also to the shops and restaurants of the city I actually live in, called Tarrytown, being located in the north of NYC. I guess I'm really lucky to have this host family, not only because of the excellent position of the house, but I really feel ease with staying there as they are very caring and keen to make us feel as comfortable as possible. "Us" that means Olivia and me, she's a girl from Martinique who has been currently living in Paris for 2 years to do her studies which she stopped out for 1 year to improve her english skills by coming here. We get along with each other very well as we can talk and laugh a lot, but also just hang around on our beds, don't talk at all while each of us does his own stuff.  Unfortunately we're not in the same courses, but maybe this has its good side too, because like this we always have things we can talk about when we come back from school. So far so good, enjoy reading this blog about me and the probably best time of my life!

Olivia and me on our way to Manhatten

                  "home"

2 famous buildings

1.)

a) name of building: Brandenburger Tor/Gate

- name: there has been a gate on the same place before, that was an essential element of the custom system, and this gate stood on the road to Brandenburg, so that it was called Brandenburger Tor

b) name of architect: has been built by Carl Gotthard  Langhans

c) date of construction: has been built from 1788 until 1791

- located in the west of the city centre of Berlin, Germanys capital city

- atop the gate is the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory

- this Quadriga has been taken to Paris in 1806 by Napoleon after his victory over prussian (Preussen), but has been restored to Berlin in 1841 after Napoleons defeat 

- during the Nazi-Regime it has been used as a party symbol

--> several uses during the years

- today its a place to spend leisure time, there are a lot of cafes, restaurants, people walking around because there are no cars allowed, artists on the streets

d) cost of construction: 200 mio "ostmark" that would be 100 mio Euros or 140 mio dollar

- 2000 it has been privately refurbished at a cost of six million dollars

e) original use: it has been commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to represent peace and was part of the surrounding wall of Berlin

g) height: 26 m, and 65 m wide

2.)

a) Blue mosque / Sultan Ahmet Mosque 

- got its name from the blue tiles in the inside (> picture)

- placed in Istanbul, the biggest city in Turkey

b) architect is Sedefkar Mehmed Agha

c) constructed between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. (> name)

d) cost of construction have been

e) & f) it is still used as a mosque but it has also become a popular tourist attraction

g) capacity for 10,000 people, it's 72 m long, 64 m wide and the hight of the dome is 43 m 

- it has 6 minarets 

- pope Benedict the 16th visited the mosque in 2006, which marks only the second papal visit in history to a Muslim place of worship

- he removed his shoes and paused for 2 minutes praying

> s.th. very special