THE LEGACYSUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2013 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2 THELEGACYONLINE.WORDPRESS.COM

Cliché dictates that one attempts to begin an article on a theme by inserting a generic quotation. Herewith John F. Kennedy pro-vides us with a suitable pearl of wisdom with which we may find insight: ‘conformity….’ argues Kennedy, is the ‘jailer of free-dom’ and the ‘enemy of growth’. Whereas Kennedy was speaking to the United Nations’ General Assembly and not to a meeting of polygamists as one may have expected; one can also view this in the current paradigm of EYP as a participant at this session. Issues have normative con-tent. EYP seeks to move beyond

conforming, normative expec-tations for discursive content. Conforming to the status quo, in terms of applying simply exist-ing solutions, does not show the originality of thorough thought and the innovative potential of this continent’s young people. Hence, if one seeks to avoid imprisonment, the mind forged manacle of expected responses, one should embrace the oppor-tunity to develop by at times casting aside the norms for your topic and consider ‘why?’ these norms exist; a classic example, and by no means the only ex-ample, may be the continued pledged to have a two-state solution for both Palestine and Israel. Why? Why do we no longer consider a single, toler-ant, federal entity?

Liberating one’s mind to the possibility of the unconven-tional is a difficult process, but it is not beyond the realm of our capacity. Plato’s allegory of the cave identifies the challenges an outlier may pose for a society (in this case cave dwellers) who are not au fait with alternative experiences. EYP is a warmer and more welcoming place than most. Thus, in your Committee and during General Assembly why not welcome the outlier? EYP is not, one would hope, like the cave wherein Socrates and Glaucon determine that the outlier would be put to death for heretical thought. EYP encour-ages tolerance, patience and re-straint from malice aforethought and murderous intent… most of the time.

Kennedy’s exclamation that growth is at odds with conform-ity is perhaps a little simplistic; sound bites tend to be so. Yet the central message is clear enough for us all to embrace. If we do not think of alternatives ways of being, or indeed, a raison d’être, then we as people will personify the poorest of EYP Resolutions. Let us avoid thankless and fruit-less repetition; let us avoid a paucity of pensiveness; let us avoid taking an easy route for the sake of our convenience. Let’s account for our pasts, the topics’ past. Let’s consider the future, let’s embrace the chance to help solutions grow in the consciousness of us all.

BY RICHARD ROYAL(GB)

BY DELIA BERNER (CH)

Accounting the Past, Embracing Growth

More than playing games

They all have funny names, be it “Skin the snake”, “Fruit salad” or “Funky chicken”. Observing team building makes clear that delegates usually enjoy playing these games as well. However, the obvious fun of these activi-ties might neglect the fact that team building is crucial for a successful committee work. In order to understand why it mat-ters, it is worth to have a look into theory. It was Bruce Tuckman who developed a four steps model of team building in 1965. As this theory became a standard model for team development processes in professional businesses it’s

not surprising that teambuilding of EYP is mostly based on it as well. The first step in Tuckman’s model is called „Forming“. A committee is coming together for the first time and without knowing each other. Through icebreakers such as Jellyfish or Zip Zap Zop and following introductory games like Two truths and a lie the students get to know each other and see who is belonging to the committee. “Storming” is the name of the second step. It describes the mo-ment when different opinions are appearing and starting to get in conflict with each other. A chairperson can provoke such a situation quite easily and is starting with problem solving games such as the Spiderweb. In this step committees are some-

times failing at a task and thanks to a following debriefing they can detect weaknesses in their group dynamics. As the rising conflicts demand for a harmonisation within the team, the next step is called “Norming”. A committee will work on its strategies and com-munication difficulties and start to find common agreements. Every problem solving game more will be better solved and the roles within the team are de-fined. To grow the ties within the committee, trust games like the Drunken bottle complete a suc-cessful first round of team build-ing. Being able to solve complex problems enables a committee to enter the fourth step: “Per-forming.” This is what team building in EYP is aiming at,

to ensure that a committee is working together on a common resolution and is able to use its vast resources within the whole team. To sum up, if you were to look at team building games as an entertaining-only activity, you would underestimate this pro-cess dramatically. In fact, it is the key for every success that is follows.

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2 SUNDAY, MARCH 31 2013 THE LEGACY

Opinion

Media has branched into some-thing new that we simply call ‘social media’, but it’s more than just that. This newborn baby seized the power of tradi-tional media and gave it to ordi-nary people who own a gadget with an Internet connection. People like you and me. Being a platform for the dis-semination of information, for surveillance, education or just entertainment we know how everyone places high reliance on social media. That didn’t just happen suddenly. Social media established this this trust by be-ing accessible, cheap (free, actu-ally), and, especially, ‘fast’. In January 2009, US Airways flight 1549 and its 155 passen-gers crash landed in Manhat-tan’s River Hudson - right in the center of the city. News broke on twitter just 4 minutes after the incident by a regular user. Same year in June, TMZ , a website featuring celebrity news, broke

the news of Michael Jackson’s death and it got viral via Twit-ter. Also, Whitney Houston’s death was announced on Twit-ter 27 minutes before press and reached to 2.5 million messages in the first hour. Social interaction is another key factor. Change seekers are now using social media as a ma-jor tool to speak out. Last year in China, hundreds of people, demanding local government to scrap plans for an $8.9 billion expansion of a petrochemical plant, gathered by using micro-blog called Weibo. Protesters in the Middle East have been us-ing social networks to organize themselves in so many ways and leaking footage under censor-ship of the governments for the last few years. Stepping away from protests, when the powerful earthquake rocked eastern Turkey, in the city of Ercis, social media had a massive impact on the phase of rescue. Google opened the person-finding tool which al-lows people to both request, and post information about the safety of loved ones missing

in the rubble. Vast number of people started creating pressure on the companies, urging dona-tions or any possible conveni-ence for the survivors of Van. A disaster victim even sent a tweet to President Gül via Twit-ter after the earthquake saying that he was trapped under the rubble. Message was received and the search and rescue teams extracted the man from under a collapsed building. These are but some of many examples of how social media transformed the way we connect but this revolution also ampli-fied the importance of media literacy. Even back when more traditional media were at the top, their level of reliance was problematic. Imagine how is it today and what it will be tomor-row.

BY ARDA BURAK ALTUNTAS(TR)

BY MAELLE LAFOND (FR)

Social media, today’s news.

Feminism or sextremism?

On Friday, March the 23rd 2013, after two weeks of negotia-tions, 193 members of the UN, finally getting over their differ-ences, found an agreement and released a common declaration fulminating violence towards women and announcing a code of conduct to fight them. They especially underlined, in a sol-emn speech of that 57th annual session of the Commission on woman’s status, that violence against women and girls could not be justified “by no custom, tradition or religious belief”. It is happily noted that Muslim countries, which at first were very reluctant towards it, finally signed it. The progress of equality be-tween men and women in West-ern countries trigger violent re-actions, especially represented by the appearance of very sig-

nificant neologism. The concept of “humanity”, which usually refers to the global commu-nity of human beings as much as to a moral value in French – l’humanité – is unfortunately being nowadays deflected to “manity” in order to insist on the so-called superiority of men over women. Another concept has been ap-pearing online for a few years to oppose feminism: masculinism. In their opinion, modern West-ern societies are weakened by the domination of over-feminis-tic values: it’s a social order that needs to be abolished. But some actors are strongly determined to keep on fighting for the end-ing of this unfounded patriarchi-cal supremacy. FEMEN (Фемен in Ukranian) is a feminist Ukrainian protest group based in Kiev, founded in 2008. The organization became internationally known for or-ganizing all over Europe topless protests against sex tourists, re-ligious institutions, international

marriage agencies, sexism and other social, national and inter-national topics. On their website, they describe themselves as “a global wom-en’s movement, the name of a new woman and an ideology of sextremism, new ideology of the women’s sexual protest pre-sented by extreme topless cam-paigns of direct action. FEMEN is sextremism serving to protect women’s rights, democracy watchdogs attacking patriarchy, in all its forms: the dictatorship, the church, the sex industry.” Often regarded as hysterical and castrating, some of their op-ponents argue that they actually have the opposite impact on im-proving women’s situations: by being too extreme, they suppos-edly take away any credit given to feminist movements. But is it accurate that just because one small group uses over-mediatic and sometimes pretty violent ways to be heard means that all feminists do and that the cause is not worth fighting for? No, it is

not. Feminist movements since the beginning of the 20th century have made the life of women in Western countries mostly simi-lar to men’s: being able to vote, participate in elections, be inde-pendent. However, the actions taken in order to extend this progress should not stop, as the way to 100% equality in Europe – to mention only this part of the world – is long and sown with obstacles. Their impact, as FE-MEN’s, on politics must not be neglected. Such powerful pres-sure groups are forcing govern-ments into seeing what is really happening, taking into consid-eration that things can still move forward if they decide to give it a real try. Society needs groups like FE-MEN to open people’s minds and eyes, we need citizens to speak up and vote wisely, but we need the ones from above – poli-tics, CEO’s – to make it happen.

SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2013 3 NEWSPAPER OF THE 13TH NSC, EYP TR

Opinion

Throughout the annals of his-tory Turkey has occupied an in-termediary position unparalleled anywhere else on the globe. Just as Asia-Minor was a theatre of contention between the Mac-edonians and Persians in the time of Alexander the Great, it was the pivotal gateway on the famed Silk Route for well over a millennia and the entry point for Baldwin’s Crusaders into the heart of the most reverent Le-vant during the time of the Byz-antine Empire. Even today, this legacy en-

dures. The eyes of the world are at this very moment fixed on the events transpiring in the Middle East. The Western countries have have stated their intentions; that goes without saying, but what about Turkey’s role? Indeed, the only question that remains unanswered in this conflict is – ‘Where does Turkey stand amidst this turmoil?’ Turkey lies upon the cusp of the Middle East and, as such, on the fringes of the wave of un-rest that has come to be known as ‘The Arab Spring of 2011.’ However, the impact of this up-heaval upon Turkey was mini-mal. Turkey’s well-established liberality and April 1987 appli-

cation to join the EU has led to the ongoing forging of firm con-nections with the West – as well as ingratiating the nation with the likes of Britain and France. Nevertheless, in of itself, this engenders new concerns. Britain’s candid support under Conservative Foreign Secretary, William Hague, for theAnti-Ghaddafi insurgents and the Syr-ian rebels of Homs has dragged Turkey to the forefront of seem-ingly impendent war. These overtures beg the ques-tion, what are the repercussions of Turkish involvement?First off, Turkey has an inherent right to protect its borders – no one disputes that. Nevertheless,

it remains to be seen whether an armed struggle on Turkey’s behalf is beneficial long-term. Namely, direct conflict with Syr-ia could lead to confrontation with Iran and thereby threaten an already fragile situation and sow the seeds for Iranian nucle-ar proliferation. This imbalance in the Middle East could trigger a ‘Domino Effect’ and plunge the region into further chaos. It seems to me that Turkey’s role is identical to that of which it always has been – a media-tor, a link between the East and West.

BY ASLI KORKMAZ(TR)

Burning the bridges

Censoring has been around at least since the days of the Ro-man Republic. As new media appeared, they first flourished as unstoppable sources of enlight-enment, since the present leg-islation could not control them. Then they usually faced the risk of getting closed down com-pletely, after which a controlled integration became possible. Today we see a similar process happening around the internet, as it transformed from an un-controlled snarl of ideas to the centre of political controversies regarding freedom of speech, and we’re hopefully on track to a legalised Internet. One mile-stone to note is the resolution adopted by the Committee on Culture and Education (known in EYP as CULT) of the Euro-pean Parliament in October 9 2012, which could be the sign of a great shift from the viewpoint held during the time of ACTA. As the Internet dwellers among you might know, 2012 was a year filled to the brim with the fight for the freedom of the Internet. First the American Congress considered passing two acts that would endanger people’s privacy and free access to the entirety of the Internet, all in the name of protecting copy-

right. After the dangers of SOPA and PIPA passed, an internation-ally controversial treaty showed up: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, known as ACTA, signed by the EU, and thus by all EU-member states. All these were more or less attempts by corporations to secure their own copyrights (and the linked profit), but the situation took a new turn when the protection of minors became an argument for a controlling mechanism on the Internet. The main aim was to help regulate the Internet, just like any other media, but as much the idea seemed logi-cal, it was not feasible due to the Internet’s peculiar nature, with the chance to hide your identity behind a thousand routers, with the final one placed in a country where piracy is legal, being ever present. Furthermore, giving governments the power to close down websites could lead to jus-tified censoring, as it did in P.R. China. These counter-arguments were enough for the proposed acts to be rectified or outright ta-bled, while ACTA still does not have enough signatures to be implemented. Yet the concerns regarding the security of the mi-nors remained unanswered, until October 2012. Stating their agenda as “pro-tecting children on the digital world”, CULT (later with the cooperation of LIBE) first de-fined in this resolution the rights

children have over the internet, emphasizing the importance finding a legal framework (es-pecially by working out ways to better classify sites with unsuit-able content for children), and later on urged using education on all levels to raise awareness among adolescents and children, but also underlining the impor-tance of respecting people’s right as digital citizens, and especially their privacy. What made this a huge milestone is the fact that the committee never mentioned a ban on any kind of content at all (except illegal content... Understand-ably). Compared to the propo-sition the European Parliament voted against on March 2013, which planned to ban all forms of pornography to promote gen-der equality, CULT’s resolution personally looks much more down-to-earth and empathetic towards the group it’s trying to protect. It was, by all means, a step towards reconciling Euro-

pean laws with the Internet, and accepting that it’s bigger than the whims and desires of such or such country, and only request-ing proper classification and protection of privacy, while still refusing an Internet working as the haven for all illegal activity. What was surprising for me was that it still received criticism from some Members of the Eu-ropean Parliament for being too restrictive. Still, it would be too much to assume that all of the European Parliament would hold ideas as extreme as the Pirate Party’s. Plus, it is actually good to see that minor people, who form a great part of Internet users, are not forgotten amidst copyright issues and fighting illegal activi-ties. Only time will tell if the EP (and rest of the world) will fol-low the way towards a normal-ised Internet, or if a controversy in the future will prove to block the path.

BY BARIS CAN KASTAS(TR)

Legalising the Internet.

4 SUNDAY, MARCH 31 2013 THE LEGACY

OPINION

March 28, 2013: Banks reopen in Cyprus nearly two weeks af-ter being shut down. Being that the country’s economy has col-lapsed and is facing great trou-ble this is an enormous step to a brighter more stable future. The bleeding has stopped and the wound has now started the heal-ing process. Despite the positive start, the citizens are still left in rough po-sition. Banks are only open for a limited amount of time, to be precise six hours a day. A total of $383 (298.76 Euros) can be withdrawn daily and a maximum amount of $3,831(2,988.38 Eu-ros) can be taken if you are plan-ning to leave the Mediterranean Island and visit other countries. When it comes to the restric-tions that are placed, they are extremely rough especially for workers who have to continu-ously withdraw money, for ex-ample farmers that have to buy food for animals on their farm. Hundreds and thousands of ani-mals need to eat, but with the limited amount of withdrawn cash only a certain amount can be fed. This brings up a greater problem for farmers and people with jobs in the similar area. As negative of an affect the limits may present to several

citizens, they also provide the opportunity for banks to stand on their own feet for the upcom-ing future. If everyone were to withdraw their money or valu-able belongings, everything would fall apart. It is essential that a certain amount of money is reserved in the banks so they can profit and the system intact is not broken up. On the 27th when the Europe-an Central Bank flew in a con-tainer carrying around 1.5 bil-lion Euros, the people of Cyprus were given a chance to breathe, a chance for hope. Citizens filled the streets waiting in lines to get the money they have been long-ing for weeks now. In addition to this they are irritated and angry at the European Union’s most prolific member, Germany, with it currently being at the boiling point. The future relations be-tween these two Member States look shady at the moment. With this unfortunate turn of events the Cyprian Economy is extremely unbalanced and is in need of a solution as soon as possible. A huge reconstruction process is in effect which could still influence the economy for the upcoming ten or so years. Cyprus has dove head-first into a crucial situation and the next few steps taken could be the de-ciding factor of how well it will move on.

In 1948 the United Nations adopted The Universal Declara-tion of Human rights. This non-binding official document re-ceives a great deal of attention in the 21st century and is one of the main components of the inter-national customary law. These fundamental rights are based on the following rule: Every man and woman, irrespective of race, colour of the skin, nation-ality and caste is born with cer-tain rights and freedoms which should be respected by all the countries. Human beings are free and equal in their rights all over the world. They can express their opinions, participate in cultural and economic life and be a part of education and government systems of one’s country. Although these basic rights are constantly promoted, the num-ber of human rights abused is still disturbing. Apparently, the problem arises from a different understanding of the term by many eastern and western states. The true fact is that not all of them guarantee basic human rights to all their citizens. That’s why the main idea concerning

these principles is to maintain and ensure fundamental rights which would be suitable for all nations. Nevertheless, the style of hu-man rights violations is chang-ing all the time. Starting at Apartheid in the past and ending on current human rights abuse in Syria. It’s a global problem created by people and can be changed only by them. There-fore, education about it should be a priority and primary goal to encourage high school stu-dents and university students to take an active part in the build-ing process of human rights by sharing their visions and experi-ences. What’s more it is worth to mention that a lack of knowl-edge about your human rights is even worse than failure of them and may cause discrimination, intolerance and injustice. Irrefutably, the responsibility to protect human rights belongs to the states themselves; how-ever the important fact is that without youth’s involvement it is not possible to stop humani-tarian interventions. Unfortunately, despite the existence of such organizations like Youth For Human Rights International many of us are not fully aware about the topic and hence not interested in its pro-

BY FURKAN KALENDER (TR) BY GOSIA OSYPIUK(PL)

BY THERESA LINDLAHR (DE)

Life begins again On Human Rights

Mass media - a gain through and through?

The Internet, the mass medium of the 21st century, has been praised to be an essential pro-gress towards democracy as it facilitates political participation. Thanks to the Internet, every-body can participate in the po-litical process without having to lift a finger, like joining a party or something similiar. But is this actually a good thing? By now, it isn‘t rare to find expressions like “shitstorm” in a dictionary. Open-Source-Networks like YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia allow every In-ternet user not only to be a user,

but also a producer. It was Axel Bruns who implemented the ex-pression produsage, stemming from the term produser, which implies the connection: Today, every user is also a producer, whether actively by contributing information in form of articles or commentaries or passively by giving feedback on products or just following links. The flow of information on the Internet is growing so fast that most of us are overloaded by it. This infor-mation flood is a disfavour to-wards the “actual” information, the one we consider knowledge; everybody can publish some-thing on the Internet, which means you need to be very criti-cal in handling this so-called “knowledge”. Most of us lack the ability to criticise and sim-

ply adopt the opinions we find online. According to the Ger-man philosopher and sociologist Theodor W. Adorno the society is numbed by the mass media and that‘s why instead of a gain of general maturity, they rather cause the opposite: a tendency towards incapacitation, which is the inability or the refusal to use one‘s own intellect and think for oneself. But aside from the content, the medium itself is having a fun-damental impact on our society as well. I don‘t have to go into detail about the changes the in-vention of mass media caused, but I think it is important to re-fer to Marshall McLuhan in this case who stated: “The medium is the message.” While usually we would think the expressions

“message” and “content” are the same thing, McLuhan draws a distinction between them. Ac-cording to him the content is for example the text, or another me-dium like writing or language, whereas the message is always the overcoming of scales - for instance time and distance. Although the mass media of-fered a lot of opportunities to the consumers, it is also putting a lot of pressure on them: It doens‘t force people to become consum-ers, but it is practically saying: “You can decide whether or not you want to join, but if you don‘t you‘re going to be excluded from the rest of us.”

SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2013 5 NEWSPAPER OF THE 13TH NSC, EYP TR

EUROPE

BY DELIA BERNER(CH)

The noble Union

If you logged into your Face-book or Twitter account on the 12th of October, you saw that something important must have happened that day because all your friends were commenting on the same story. It was the day when the Norwegian No-bel Peace Prize Committee an-nounced the awardee for 2012, the European Union, and man-aged to immediately let discus-sions arise about its justification in light of the Euro crisis. The award was officially given “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”. This long term perspective – from the beginning of the EU as a measure to bind former enemies from World War II up to the integration of 27 states into a Union guaranteeing peace and democracy – was happily emphasized by everyone in fa-vour of a strong European In-tegration. A typical example is Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel interpreted the prize as

an award for „the idea of Euro-pean agreement“ and German newspapers such as Die Zeit and Spiegel online dedicated articles full of praise for the awardee. Across the British Chan-nel there was another emotion dominating politicians and media. Prime minister David Cameron, whose conservative party declared to be euroscep-tics ever since, refused to attend the award ceremony and British newspaper The Guardian col-lected all critical voices they could find to show the paradoxi-cality of the prize. Whereas Germany and Great Britain show that the prize was used to once more bring their approvement or criticism for the EU, there were also other voices trying to find more profound ar-guments than the first reactions had brought up. However, there were still two opinions fighting. For some the award meant to be a message against emerging na-tionalism and to remind Europe to work closer together, whereas for others it simply ignored ex-isting democratic deficits within the European Union and didn’t consider the dominating role

of Germany and France over almost bankrupt states such as Greece and Spain. Acknowledg-ing both sides of arguments, the blogger about European politics of The Economist simply chose one word as headline for his col-umn about the award: „Hmmm.“ Whatever the real intention of the Nobel Peace Prize commit-tee was – to award the European Union was certainly wise. Un-fortunately they lost credibility for some people but they man-aged to bring all issues about the EU on the table that had to be discussed, from the need of Eu-ropean cooperation and integra-tion as an opposing movement to nationalism up to existing democratic deficits. At the same time they made the people aware what the EU stands for and what was possible to achieve in the past as a model for the future. Seeing the deficits in democ-racy as an important issue to be discussed we can only look for-ward to the resolution presented by the Committee on Constitu-tional Affairs II (AFCO II) dur-ing our General Assembly.

When Islamic groups command the legislative and executive powers in a country, the Islami-sation of society is apt to be in the epicenter of public interest. Young, enthusiastic, and ideo-logically driven members want rapid moves: clear legislation, conspicuous political positions, and social policies to reflect what they consider to be their ‘victory’. After an absence of about two centuries, sociopolitical Islam is coming back to dominate a rap-idly increasing number of soci-eties. Almost all elections, that could credibly be described as free, that took place in the Arab world since the “Arab Spring”, resulted in impressive showings by political parties or groups

with Islamic backgrounds. In Iran, Pakistan, and to some ex-tent, Indonesia, political Islam has been the dominant force in local politics for decades. It has also been rising on the political stage in the past decade in Tur-key, Nigeria, as well as in the large Muslim communities in Europe and the US. The intensity of passion -and violence- that the world saw in the previous months across dif-ferent parts of the Islamic word compel observers to reflect on how this current wave of Islami-sation will shape the future of Europe as much as the rest of the world’s. From Casablanca, Cairo, Da-mascus, Baghdad, Istanbul, Tehran, Jakarta, to Islamabad, the number of mosques mush-roomed; Islamic groups regu-larly led universities’ student unions, municipalities, profes-sional syndicates, and labour associations; Islamic symbols became increasingly obvious in most parts of life; groups that

define themselves as “Islamic” (though with varying interpreta-tions of what “Islamic” actually means) significantly expanded their presence, moving from preaching and proselytising to building economic infrastruc-tures. Three reasons might explain the current rise of political Is-lam. First, the major political Is-lamic movements have changed their arguments in the last fif-teen years. They have moved beyond the rejectionist positions and adopted progressive ones: their social programs became more tolerant (especially to the new habits dominating young Muslims’ social lives), and they developed multiple loyalties, recognising the notion of ‘citi-zenry’, and agreeing to work through national elections – as opposed to theological hierar-chies. Second, most political Is-lamic movements built socio-economic infrastructures that have been proved extremely

effective at entrenching their presence in electoral processes; this has been very conspicuous in Egypt and Morocco, but the same phenomenon, under differ-ent guises, took place in Turkey, Indonesia, and in different Mus-lim communities in Europe. Third, they faced very limited competition; with exception of Turkish nationalism, not a sin-gle alternative ideology tried to take religion out of the public life – even in relatively liberal societies such as those of Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, and Lebanon. In addition, their competitors – the secular regimes that ruled many parts of the Islamic world in the past seven decades had fallen to scandalous levels of corrup-tion and a gap between power and wealth that has significantly weakened their legitimacy. As European youth, shaping the future, it is our duty to make sure those cultural or religious believes do not take over the democratic process.

BY MAELLE LAFOND(FR)

Islam and politics in Europeand its neighbouring countries

6 SUNDAY, MARCH 31 2013 THE LEGACY

CORPORATE NEWS

BY SAMUEL MUHSIN(CZ)

The situation with internships

The topics chosen for the ses-sions of the European Youth Parliament are selected from a diverse supply of contemporary issues. The level of involvement of said topics in our lives varies. Our concern towards the current situation in Mali might be much lower than our concern regard-ing the amount of horsemeat in our burgers. I was lucky enough to be allocated with a topic that

is dealing with a phenomenon probably affecting vast major-ity of us, the studying youths of today. Exploitation of free workforce is a feature of our labour market created by few circumstances, such as the recession, overhang of educated applicants, creation of workplaces suited for expend-able workers or just the simple rise of life quality that lowers the need for an income right after the finalisation of studies. It is a phenomenon that is cur-rently being seen, questioned and challenged. Governments,

NGOs, youth groups and sepa-rate individuals are mobilising to resolve this pressing issue; the fight against this unfairness can be felt all around Europe and all around the World. We, the youthful students of today are foreseeing the inevi-tability of avoidance of the now unnatural transition between ed-ucation and employment, thus having time to take action and help resolve this matter before it negatively affects our future career. My committee will be in charge of creating a resolution

that will tackle the problems fabricated by this unpleasant phenomenon that will be pre-sented at the General Assembly, thus generating an occasion for the rest of you to express your opinions towards this pressing issue. I would like to urge you, the lucky delegates to seize this op-portunity to approach this issue that will most probably affect you in your future and go down the Rabbit hole with your peers to enjoy the discussion of this fortunately selected topic.

BY DILGE IMER(TR)

Women on Board

The gender gap in corporate management boards has been described as an issue of jus-tice, company economic per-formance and democracy. This article will review the evidence on the effectiveness of legal instruments as compared with voluntary regimes in narrow-ing the gender gap on corporate management boards. It will also report on the recommendations of international bodies on this matter. Attempts to narrow this gen-der gap in corporate manage-ment boards have drawn on an extensive repertoire of actions, ranging from legal instruments to voluntary regimes. The note identifies the several different forms of legal instruments and voluntary regimes. It finds that legal instruments to enforce quotas are an effective and fast means of achieving change. The

use of voluntary regimes has led to some increase in the pro-portion of women on corporate boards, but the effects are signif-icantly smaller and slower. The only instance of achieving 40% of each gender was through the use of legal instruments to enforce quotas. The use of vol-untary regimes has led to some increase in the proportion of women on corporate boards, but the effects are significantly smaller and slower. Very re-cently further legal instruments have been introduced that take a wide diversity of forms, includ-ing of available sanctions; it is likely that such variations will have significant effects on the effectiveness of these legal in-struments. Companies across Europe are picking up this message and deciding for themselves how

to improve the gender balance, recruit more female talent and benefit from a potential source of sustainable growth. In 2010, women on average made up 12% of board members in the biggest publicly-listed compa-nies across the EU. Only 3% were board chairs. Europe’s listed companies will be forced to reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive director board seats for women by 2020 or face fines and other sanctions under a proposal being drafted by the European Commission. Although several EU coun-tries – including France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands – have already adopted their own national quotas, such hard limits have run into fierce resistance by Britain and Sweden, which currently have no limits. An of-ficial in the UK’s business de-

partment said the government had yet to see the commission’s proposal, but added: “Our posi-tion will still stand – we are op-posed to legislation for quotas.” However, the proposal can be adopted by the EU through its complex majority voting pro-cess, meaning neither the UK nor Sweden would be able to veto its passage. Companies larger than 250 employees or with more than €50m in revenues would be re-quired to report annually on the gender make-up of their boards. Those that miss the mandatory quota would be subject to ad-ministrative fines or be barred from state aid and contracts. Ms Reding has decided to push the legislation after a voluntarily scheme failed to improve gen-der balance among top manage-ment.

“I want to send a clear message to corporate Europe: women mean

business”-Viviane Reding, EU Justice

Commissioner

SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2013 7 NEWSPAPER OF THE 13TH NSC, EYP TR

HEALTH AND FITNESS

BY JANIRE SANZ SEVILLA(ES)

The Mediterranean diet and its benefits

More and more scientific studies are suggesting that a Mediterra-nean diet is an excellent choice when it comes to good health. Not only this but the people of the Mediterranean generally are plagued with far less dis-eases than other western parts of the world. They normally live longer as a result of this diet. This also depends on the person and everyone’s lifestyle. I mean, someone can follow a Mediter-ranean diet but in fact can be a couch potato. There is little doubt that a Med-iterranean diet confers health benefits and can reduce risk of various diseases if followed for an extended amount of time. So is this diet something we should all be aiming for? How easy is it to follow for people who aren’t used to it and why is so healthy for us? First I would describe Medi-terranean diet as one based on the traditional foods eaten in

Southern European region. This diet is based on a high intake of fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, wholegrain cereals, as well as fish and poultry which are the main sources of protein. Red meat is limited and low fat dairy is consumed only in mod-erate amounts. This regimen contains moderate levels of fat and provides a wide variety of food which includes all the daily nutrients required by our body. Nevertheless, this fat is from healthy unsaturated sources such as olive oil, nuts, etc rather than saturated fats like the ones from animals. Furthermore, this diet ideally contains limited amounts of pre-cooked or fast food. In terms of beverages, water is the main drink of choice and the most economical one as well! How-ever, it is well known to drink moderate amounts of wine, par-ticularly red, daily. Regarding hot drinks, tea and coffee are the most common part of this eating style. Aside from the food compo-nents of the diet, the attitude to-wards food bound in this region

is also thought to be important in developing healthy habits. As I said before, not all is related with food. In order to keep good health levels it is highly recom-mended to combine your diet with daily exercise. And how about the eating schedule? Meal times are seen as important and should not be rushed, they should with the family usually sitting down to-gether to eat. A Spanish study this year looked at the effect of a Mediter-ranean diet supplemented with nuts and olive oil in one group compared with a group advised to follow a lower fat diet. This study concluded that the Medi-terranean diet was associated with warding off heart attacks and other cardiovascular risks. Some of the components of this eating style are olive oil which is high in healthy mono-unsaturated fatty acids and plays an important role in reducing the risk of heart disease. Another important actor is fish which is highly rich in omega 3 fatty ac-ids. Going up through the food pyramid we have got fruit and

vegetables, both of them have a high content of fibre and are an ideal source of vitamins. High vegetables intakes have been as-sociated with lower body weight only if consumed sensibly. A wide variety of fruit and veg-etables can provide you a good array of different essential nu-trients. Then, whole-grains and nuts aren’t less important than fruit and vegetables in terms of helping the body to func-tion correctly. In fact, nuts and fruit are the best and healthiest snacks you can have. A moder-ate nut intake has been linked as well to a decreased risk of car-diovascular matters. If you take a nutty-snack, it would be better if they are unsalted or unroasted. Finally, this is a quite complete and varied diet, but in the end everyone chooses the lifestyle they really want to follow and when I say lifestyle it includes each eating culture. In fact, I have always thought we are what we eat.

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