Global media 2, a la Crossing Borders

The global media are on the way of losing their values. They are getting more focused on making money, making a living for their owners, being the first in delivering news. They are covering their own interests and curiosity with the “lie” of others’ being curious. To cut long story short: They are getting selfish.

I believe we can call it the recent crisis of the media. This is not about the journalists losing their jobs, the newspapers and the TV-channels being forced to close down. In my opinion this is a crisis of values and of attitudes.

For me the question is: Do they want the story to get out or do they want to be the first to tell it? Why is that so important? Is it about the money or about their personal pride?

Besides these problems, the abuse of media for personal and political reasons is happening more often as well. Not only politicians, but also businessmen are using their money and power to get a hold of the media as much as they can. It can be very dangerous sometimes. Even if we do not know about it, it exists.

by: Daniel Jadi (HUN)

Media Consumption by Zsuzsi

Today's post was inspired of My Studies about Global Media at Crossing Border Group.

How I consume the Media?

I don't watch TV, because I feel it's so agressive in many way and people can be addict on. The news are always about conflicts, cheating, natural catastrophe. In a way it keeps peoples's mind in a continous state of fearing, or the worse in apathy. In that state of mind, people are easily get being manipulated at all the time. They consumes opinions from the talkshows, ideologies from the political shows, lifestyle from the series and advertisements. If you turn on the TV, it's really hard to stop and run away from all the shits. The ownership of Magazines, Papers and TV Channels are very concentrated. The Mainstream media is just about making profit and power, not to get you to be informed. They are so manipulating. All the system is a big bubble, the price of 1 second advertising time is outrageuosly huge amount.
I prefer to read weekly newspaper. I get used to read 3 type of newspapers in Hungary to have a coverage of all political sides and get some objectivity. It's a fun to explore the political line, and how the news can be served in totally different way. And I can filter them more easily than the TV. But what I really like to read, are the alternative media sites, like Indymedia or several blogs, and I've also started my own blog. I think it's the best way to know about the reality through the ordinary people's opinion.
What is Indymedia?
"The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity."
http://www.indymedia.org
You can reach in many languages and you can edit it freely if you want.

By Zsuzsi

17th November 1989

Today, 20 years has passed since the students demonstration took place in the streets of Prague. This demonstration was brutally supressed by the police and it started the so-called Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. A social movement that has changed the political regime. Today is the 20th Anniversary of the new Czech (and Slovac) DEMOCRACY.
Why was it exactly on this day that the students went to the streets? We have to go back in history to find the answer. In autumn 1939, when Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Nazi Germany, a Czech student Jan Opletal was heavily injured in an anti-Nazi demonstration. He died a few days later and his death initiated a new wave of revolt against the occupiers. These actions were not left without answer and on November 17th 1939 the University dorms were attacked by Germans and the Czech Universities were closed down - 9 students were executed and many were sent to concentration camps.
The events of November 17th were recalled every year during the official commemorations in the communist era. In the year 1989, the students wanted to organize the 50th Anniversary on their own and their way. This was not in link with the official policies and that's why the students were attacked by the police during the peacefull manifestation. This was the last drop that made other people come into the streets and actively manifest their thirst for freedom.
Today, 20 years later, I live in a democratic country. I can travel, I can be here in Krogerup and study together with people from all over the world. I am free.
November 17th is therefore an important day for me.
At the end of this article, I would like to pass foward a message that Mr. Václav Havel (one of the leaders of the dissent, former president of Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic) brought out this week during his various speeches in Prague. Freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility. Therefore, lack of freedom might seem attractive. Because it is easy for a human being to get used to the fact that he doesn't have to decide, make his choice. There are still millions of people around the world that are being manipulated every day, that live under a totalitarian regime and suffer from oppresion. It is our moral responsibility to help them out, the same way as the international community and many individuals helped us when we needed it. It is our moral responsibility not to set economic interest higher than basic human rights. This counts for both politicians and single individuals. Keep awake. Let's not forget!
- Eva (Global Citizen with Czech roots)

Feeling the struggle - meeting the DTP

Friday 30st of October, Van, East Anatolia.

After having visited the governmental AK Party, we hurried to the headquarters of the DTP - Demokratik Toplum Partisi (Democratic Society Party). The DTP considers itself as social-democratic fighting for equality and freedom, and especially the rights of the Kurdish people in terms of identity, cultural and language rights. The final aim for the DTP is a self ruling model for the Kurds. The Kurds constitute the largest people in the world without a country.

We went up through a narrow old building and were seated in a cold, decayed and dark room – where the only thing lighting up was the red rose of the DTP (DTPs official symbol) and the burning idealism in the party members’ eyes. As we sat on the dirty plastic chairs our prominent colleague from ROJ TV (the only independent Kurdish TV channel) joined us.
After having learnt Turkish for the last days we were glad to be enriched with a new language - the difficult Kurdish. On principle the DTP only speaks Kurdish at their meetings. Luckily we had our beloved translator and guide, Sami, with us, who got quite a challenge explaining the hard struggle of the DTP to us.

At fearless eye level
DTP met us at eye level contrary to the AKP earlier, where a high stage separated the speakers from the crowd. The speaker Ibrahim Demir, member of executive board and with a hard history about 5 years of prison and no job possibilities because of his support to the PKK, started speaking very fast and full of commitment.
DTP was founded in 2005 and since then they have tried to build a dialogue with the Turkish state. Within recent years many parties fighting for the Kurds’ rights like the DTP have been shut down by the Turkish government for being against the Turkish Constitution, and now the DTP have a case against them. However, the party members seem fearless in their struggle.
The DTP are having a hard time doing their political activities. During the last elections 52 party members were arrested. The DTP is by far the biggest party in the region with a great majority in the respective councils, however, their headquarter is a dump compared to the AKP headquarter – the DTP has tremendously little financial support. The financial source is open for the AKP because the Turkish state uses the governmental party in the area to secure itself. The only ones supporting the DTP are the people in the streets, as Ibrahim Demir says.

Quite a lot of woman were among the party members contrary to the AKP, where the only present woman delivered magazines. As we went through the building we stumbled on a meeting room for the Women’s organization, where the DTP particularly focus on women’s rights.

We got a bit surprised when we heard that the DTP has relations with the PKK- Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanz (Kurdistan Workers Party). This could be a problematic allegiance because of the fact that the PKK are on international lists of terror organizations. Though Ibrahim Demir explained that PKK is the fundamental organization for the all the conscious Kurds and has been an active guerilla movement because to them, there were no other possible ways of fighting for many years.

No real changes without the DTP
The AKP government has carried out some reforms called “the Kurdish initiative”, and that shows the failure of the Turkish assimilation politics over the last decades because the government has now realized that those politics had no future. However, the DTP doubts the sincerity in these reforms, because the AKP totally ignores the DTP and the Kurdish opinions in their initiative. According to the speaker the government uses a “do what we say or you get nothing ” procedure against the Kurdish population. The government cannot make serious democracy reforms without including the DTP. If the changes are to be persistent and sincere, a change of constitution is necessary.

Ibrahim Demir ended the meeting with the message; Be aware of us! Do not let us alone in our struggle. Leaving the room we heard a whispering voice saying:”Biji serok Apo!” (Long live Abdullah!). A courageous feeling of hard struggle warmed-up our souls as we left the cool room.

Written by Jasmin & Niels

Ping-pong practice

Da der som regel er kor hver mandag kl. 20, og hverken Maja eller jeg har brug for at show'e off vores skønne sangstemmer, besluttede vi os for at begynde til bordtennis med målet at blive prof. inden opholdets afslutning i december.
Vi hyrede canadiske Kennedy som coach hver mandag, når han ikke skulle til fodboldtræning. Han lærte os at serve, skrue og smashe, og vi gjorde hurtigt fremskridt, men pga. interne stridigheder på holdet TEAM MAJA måtte vi afskedige ham til fordel for noget individuel træning.
Siden har Niels med sin japaner-moves været en god hjælp. Personligt har han trænet mig i bordtennishop - to skridt til højre, et til venstre, et frem, tilbage og forfra. Og ned i knæ!
Når Maja og jeg øver uden for den officielle træningstid, er der flere af drengene som med glæde joiner en omgang rundt om bordet, som oftest resulterer i, at Maja og jeg ender på sidelinjen, hvor vi så kan vente til finalen er overstået, og et nyt spil begynder.
Den sidste nye opfindelse er "de uendelige liv", som kun gælder Maja og mig. Dette var til stor frustration for Jasmin, Hans og ungarnske Daniel, for hvem det nu ikke længere gav mening at smashe os ud. Ja selv Niels var ikke helt forstående over for min nye regel.
Der er nu ikke andet at gøre for TEAM MAJA end at træne i smug, så bordtennis ikke lige vækker interesse for andre.
Dog har der været lidt problemer, da boldene bliver slidt op. Vi har heldigvis en hemmelig aftale med vores sponsor Jeppe, der har private bolde liggende på værelset, som vi kan træne med.
Og vi træner hårdt! Lige til det bliver sløret for øjnene af træthed, og blæren er ved at sprænges. Om vi bliver hjulpet eller eller modarbejdet, skal vi nok nå målet! Og ellers begynder vi bare at træne bordfodbold..
- Cecilia

Top 10 things that rocked and sucked by Hans

Yesyes, I'm back in Denmark, and after reflecting upon our voyage into the great unknown I think it's fitting to do a top 10 of good and bad things about out trip and the country. That way we'll also broaden our reader-base to include the MTV-segment, a group of people I felt we've left behind in our blog so far.

SUCKS
10: The weather. Condering how few things actually sucked about the trip, I have to be nitpicky with the first few points. Generally speaking the weather was not bad, but rain and overcasts are never welcome guests at any trip involving out-door activities. Minor flaw, but a flaw nonetheless.
9: Airport security. Turkey gains extra minus points for actually scanning you and your backs twice, once at the entrance and once before boarding. Who knows what kind of bombs I could've picked up inside the airport. Silly.
8: Lack of time adjustment in Van. When the sun sets at 6.30 AM and goes down at 4.30 PM in Van, perhaps Ankara should get off the moral high ground and issue at least another timezone for the very eastern part of Turkey?
7: Barbed wire. Barbed wire is bad. It's especially bad when placed at heights at which one might scratch his head. Barbed wire = bad thing.(To those implying that only idiots miss barbed wire before running into it, bear in mind that even heroes need a break)
6: Getting up at 7 in the morning. Yawn, literally speaking. Getting up before 8 involuntarily is a crime against humanity. I don't care if Jesus is showing himself to us, let me sleep damn it!
5: Turkish TV. Man, I watched 2 hours of this in total and I had had enough. All Turkish, all bad shows, all poorly produced, and when an English show comes on, it's dubbed. This makes Hans a sad panda.
4: 'Special price for you, my friend'. This doesn't work when you yell it at everyone who passes by your stand, my Bazaar friend. Restaurant owners need to stop persuading strangers to enter their place and extra minus points are again earned by the guy who told Niels he would screw his mum if he didn't buy his perfume. Not cool, Turkey, not cool.
3: Nationalism. Turks, your country is not heaven on earth, so knock this self-adoration the fuck off. Please. You have minorities, so start accepting that they do exist. You have huge socio-economic disparities, work on those. Allow your women to wear scarfs, stop banning parties and redistribute the cash flow from the military to places where it's more urgently needed. Until those issues are addressed, you're just the guy bragging about getting a D- in Nationbuilding.
2: Atatürks personality cult. Knock it off. Mindlessly adoring a guy is so 1930s Europe and reeks of dictatorships, oppression and unification. Is Atatürk a good man? Compared to the other leaders of certain countries at his time, he's not bad. Does that mean we should hang a picture of him in every class-room around the country. No.
1: Lack of English-speakers. Wow. I was taken aback by how poorly the Turks speak English. You wanna join the world economy? Acquiring a basic English vocabulary would be the first step towards such a goal. English: learn it, love it.
OR
1: Alcohol prices. A beer should not cost 2,5 liras when I can get 2,5 ltrs of Coca-Cola for 1.5 lira. We are danes, we crave alcohol, so lower those prices.

ROCKS
10: The speakers. An overwhelmingly positive experience, except for one or two of them. Props to Martin, Sammi and Garba for putting such an awesome program together.
9: Beer. Yes, there is beer in Turkey. It's expensive, not very good, but it's beer nonetheless. Props for that.
8: The open mindedness of most Turks. Turks love to talk about nearly everything, and striking up a conversation with a complete stranger is very easy. I wish Denmark could acquire a bit of the Turkish mindset in this area, it makes the everyday so much nicer.
7: The history. Coming from a country whose history is comparable to Titanic in terms of excitement (yes, that's negative) Turkey really has something to brag about. Ottoman empire, Roman empire, Seljuks, Atatürk and tons of other things make Turkish museums genuinely interesting. 'This rock christened the danes'. Thumbs down. 'This church was build 400 years before Denmark was christened and still has the 4th largest dome in the world'. Thumbs up.
6: Taksim. Undoubtedly the coolest part of Istanbul, Taksim is most cities nightlife times a 1000. So large, so great and so awesome. A nice vibe over arches the area, meaning that everyone is friendly (violence is neigh zero) and the place is too cool to describe with words.
5: Topkapi Palace. Partly belongs in the history section (#7) but Topkapi deserves its own spot. I wrote about it another blog, but the gist of it is that it's huge, pretty and has a pretty effing awesome treasury. Must see!
4: Van. Van was nice, because it showed us a different side of Turkey, much unlike the buzzing metropolis of Istanbul. Much poorer, but also with its own charm, Van showed me a side of Turkey I wouldn't have wanted to be wihtout.
3: Prices. A döner for 6kr? Thank you. 2,5lrts of coke for 5,50 kr? This way please. 150g of saffron for 35kr? Yesyesyes. The prices of Turkey appealed very much to me. I went to Turkey as a poor boy, but it was still possible to have fun, eat well and go partying with going broke.
2: Sammi, Garba and Martin. I don't think I can stress enough how well planned, thought out and mixed this trip was: good speakers, nice places to see and stunning nature at the Van lake - the trip had something for everyone. I know it's not easy to satisfy 25 people aged 18-34, but you did a grand job. Big ups!
1: The students. Nothing is more important to a trip than the people you travel with, and the diverse group of Krogerup didn't disappoint. Even sickness, snoring at night and early mornings couldn't kill the group spirit, and I must say that Turkey wouldn't have been the same without you. Thanks!

- Hans

Goodbye Van...

Saturday October 31st was the day when we moved westwards again – back to Istanbul. I won’t tell you about the delay of our plane nor about how hungry we were when we finally reached the Cheers hotel late in the afternoon. I will rather focus on what we are bringing back from Van in our minds and hearts.

I talked to couple of my fellow-students about their impressions from our 4 day long stay in the Kurdish - obviously less developed – part of Turkey. Some of them were reminded of other places that they have seen before in another part of the globe. Like Kia – „Van looks like a provincial town in the Phillipines, only that people stare much more at us here“ or Karla „visit of the primary school reminded me of my work and studies in Mexico“. For Mathilde, on the other hand, Van and its surroundings was very unique „I have never seen such a place before, so untouristic“. Most of the girls were surprised about the number of men in the public space. Zsuzsi pointed out „not only on the streets, also in the bar, in the shops – lot’s of men everywhere. The women are probably at home, cooking“. Ida N. further comments: „this experience was very good, but people were staring at us and didn’t know how to act, very few spoke English, but they were very nice to us“. On the last day, Anemone saw two young boys figting on the street and realized „that there is a certain hierachy in this society“.
I also talked to a few boys from our group. They didn’t get as much attention outside as the girls and Morten even liked walking on the streets of Van more than walking in Istanbul: „I enjoy the fact that there is not a hundred shop owners who are offering you something to buy all the time“. For Daniel, the visit of the primary school in the village was the most interesting experience. This visit made him wonder: „The kids in the school were so excited about our arrival, they were smiling and talking to us – they behaved the same way as any other small kids in Europe. But how does their future gonna look like? Will they become smugglers? Guerilla fighters or activists? Will they maybe leave to Istanbul to make a better living and never come back?“.
My impression is that we all appreciated very much the unique opportunity we got by visiting Van. It might not stand on the Top 10 places to see in Turkey list, but it is definietely worth seeing. It showed us another face of the country, the contrast between Van and Istanbul made us think and look for answers to questions we wouldn’t come up with earlier. Being guided by a local, visiting the home of an ordinary family and experiencing the traditional Kurdish wedding celebrations made our experience even more unique.
When someone will ask me one day with a suspicious tone „So, how was Kurdistan?“, I have plenty of stories to tell. For me, it is not an unknown territory with a bad reputation any more. It is concrete places, concrete pictures, concrete smells and concrete faces. I am very thankful to all the people who opened their homes to us, who answered our curious questions and were so kind and welcoming.
-Eva