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SPLASH

We are all in the same Boat

Daily SplaSh

From the top: antwerpen 2011

h2o hanS maeS &

lucaS Somevilletwo elementS oF GeniuS

BelGium Go to one country

Get two

Melting Icebergs - Rising Waters

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We are all in the same boat 6

Featured: As necessary as water is for mankind, as dangerous it can become. From metling icebergs to rising waters.

content.

The more the merrier: Group Showering

Interview with the Head Organisers

Daily Splash: From The Top - Antwerpen 2011

Halloween Costume Guide

Belgium: Go to one country - Get two

Meet and Greet - The Chairs

Wordle

Content2

Message From HQ / Credentials3

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Question of the day5

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SPLASH// Message FroM HQ

Gals This session’s theme is one of high priority, as you all have been adequately reminded at every turn already, no doubt. Splash has been created by a dedicated, lobster-esque team of journos, as yet another means by which to convey water’s importance to you, but with a drop of typical EYP humour. Water shortages are at an all-time high, a fact which creates a paradoxical thought when com-bined with daily reports of the thousands of lives destroyed by devastating floods around the world. Not only is this subject of water-based natural catastrophes a head-line feature of this issue but you have at your disposal a simple solution in the form of communal showers, a phenomenon known to anyone who participated in Nordic EYP. We also have the inside scoop of your very own HOs on the session, the theme, and everything in between.

From random facts about your chairs, to DIY Halloween costume ideas, the swapping pheno-menon that is sweeping the internet to the political and social division present in modern day Belgium, Splash aims to entertain all degrees of interest. Throughout each issue, we will have the regular spread of the Daily Splash – a space in which we’ll hear from you, the delegates, on the Question of the Day, paired with coverage on how the session has been progressing. So, with that, we bid you a good session and hope you anticipate the next edition.

Your Editors, Max & Rita

Editing

Editors in Chief

Rita GrantMax Karpf

Contributing Writers/Photographers

Noura Berrouba / Nicola Solomou Oona Kiiskinen / Gregor Rawert / Monica Mantovani / Fred Fischer / Sigrun Fagerfjäll / Simone Passeri / Waltter Suominen / Louise van

Benschop

The information and opinions con-tainned in SPLASH solely represent the thoughts and opinions of the

contributors and are not endorsed by, or reflect opinions of Europolis

Belgium.

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C lip clip and “welkom” my de-arest readers, this is your lobster highness speaking. Arriving in Ant-werp on Saturday meant finally get-ting started with the International Forum Antwerp 2011 we’ve all been so looking forward to. A bit shy and unsure at first and not knowing what to expect, in the next days to come I felt relieved that everything went off so smoothly and as relaxing as a warm bath on a winters day on Sa-turday night. Till that point, I had ne-ver been to a chip shop with a group of more than 100 people. But the Belgian organisers proved: it works. And those Vlaamse frieten proved their notorious reputation absolutely well. Overloaded by the variety of dif-ferent beers in the pub next door I got to talk to some of you alrea-dy, and you do seem like a re-ally easy going bunch of people. Even later that night when even I was feeling the downsides of

DailyDaily SplashSplashDaily SplashBy Fred Fischer and Louise van Benschop

a long day, I met some of you in the lobby of the hotel, easily chatting and chilling out like real gangsters ought to do. So mingling within the group seems to be going well, however the beginning of teambuilding on Sun-day morning was probably the real kick off for the session. And I find it quite astonishing how the weather god has saved us from getting so-aked – after all I hear Belgium is a rather unpredictable country. Spea-king of water, that very substance has made it to be the overall theme of this gathering. So here is my ad-vice on the water issue: If it starts to rain, just stick out your tongue and catch the raindrops. Let wha-tever may come come, open your-self up to new things, learn as much as possible. Get the feeling of trying something new, be up for the chal-lenge and dive in there. What sound that makes? Of course that sound is:

Talk

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In ‘Question of the day’ we, the lobsters, will be wandering around the delegates, asking them a question that will give us an inside in the EYPers’ head. What kind of persons are we? What goes on in our heads? What strikes us,

What do you think EyPErs havE in common?

>> To me Eypers are young, engaged, European, dynamic and simply awesome.

Lucas, France

>> We EYPers are young, we have common interests, we want to make things better and create a better world, and differentiate ourselfs by having the spirit and the courage to do so. Alejandro, Spain

>> I think what binds us is the taste of being associated with each other all over Europe and the feeling to be connected to each other overcoming boundaries. Filip, Belgium

day.QuEstion

of the

inspires us, excites us? We will find out. With the session just having started and everyone just warming up their EYP-spirit, we kept our ears and eyes open to get the best insights, as-king the first question of the day.

By Fred Fischer and Louise van Benschop

>> We have the same interests and the same goals and we all want to be a part and a voice of Europe.

Jana, Belgium

>>

Question Time

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By Simone Passeri

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We are all in the same Boat

>> With such emphasis placed upon the necessity to conserve one of life’s vital elements, it’s easy to forget its direct connection to flood related catastrophes that are destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands the world over. Is it time that we see ourselves as all in the same situation?

Featured

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Whenever the sun rises high in the sky, we call that good weather; bad weather associ-ates itself with the clouds. Still, there are coun-tries where good weather comes when it rains. Big parties and long runs in the downpours immediately follow those first instants of surpri-se. These are moments of great joy for those people who manage to live them but for those who are suffering as well, as there is hope once again. The children play in the mud and drink with their mouth facing the sky; the adults take care of the refilling of the storage tanks before this miracle comes to an end.

Despair in the areas between Tuscany and Liguria shocked the whole Italy: nine people died and thousands of people lost their entire life‘s work. Floods destroyed connection roads between the subjected areas and the surround-ing regions, people were stuck under involunta-ry house-arrest, waiting for help for days.However, the clearest witness of the power of water is to be found in Thailand, where, after a series of strong seasonal storms recently, an exceptional rainfall caused the death of 373 people, affected a total number of 9 million peo-ple and 28 of the nation‘s provinces. The capital

Nevertheless, the-re are nowadays parts of the world that are living and experienci-ng the exact opposite situation; sometimes downpours are not only abundant but also ex-cessive so that what starts as normal rain ends up in a catastro-phe.

This is what happened in Pakistan‘s province of Sindh in September, when heavy rains and floodings killed 226 people and totally affected 5.3 million people. Severe floodings like this instance have re-cently affected Europe, too; Italy and Ireland are two such countries which sustained the worst consequences of huge rainfalls: floods caused transport havoc in Dublin and 2 people tragi-cally drowned in the catastrophe. The weather situation continued to escalate and households were hit by floodings leaving thousands of peo-ple without homes.

city‘s roads became rivers and the airport shut down isolating the affected area from the world.Despite the common damages and conse-quences in all these countries, what charac-terises every situation is the positive reaction of the whole globe to the

se catastrophes; funds, services and humani-tarian help are being provided, coinciding with support from the political authorities. Despite the disaster involving only some limited areas, the whole world is now dealing with these is-sues, proving that we all truly are in the same boat.

What starts as normal rain ends up in a

catastrophe.

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If I would get a euro for every mi-nute I spend in a shower wasting water, I would probably be a millio-naire by now. I sing, dance, heck, in rare occasions I do my homework there. As the global water crisis is ri-sing we can’t afford to behave like I do. We need new solutions on how to cut back on the water we waste on a daily basis, since it is clear that just keeping the problem in mind is not efficient enough. In general, combatting against the climate change, public transport is seen as one of the most poten-tial ways of reducing CO2 emissi-ons, as we still need to travel long distances from A to B, doing it in a group causes only emissions from one bus instead of twenty cars. Why not try and adapt the same system to showering? Group showering is proven to reduce vast quantities of water. In groups, sharing is a vital part of suc-ceeding and thus hoarding the wa-ter for one individual is not possible.

Having more than one person in the shower also ensures that no water is wasted during the sham-pooing process as usually people tend to just stand under running wa-ter for that time. The inappropriateness of this solution might be questionable but when you think about it, how does it differ from the time you go to a swimming hall? The showering just happens in turns instead of simulta-neously. I do understand that diffe-rent cultures have differing opinions about this “liberal” approach, but try to take and embrace the idea and mould it to something suitable for you. Next time your planning on show-ering think about the different pos-sibilities to save water. Turn off the water when using the shampoo, sing and dance the inspiration off before getting in or, even, take a friend with you. Doesn’t the saying go: The more the merrier!

By Waltter Suominen

Group shoWerinG:the more the merrier

Ideas

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Carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, watching horror movies, dressing up in frightening costumes and experiencing a generally creepy atmosphere. Masses of people are gathe-ring outside on this very night, but neither are they insane, nor is this an ordinary night: it’s Halloween’s night.The Antwerpen International Forum will provide you with the wonderful chance to spend an incredible evening at a theme party. We are obviously referring to tonight’s Halloween party.As you all prepared for the session you might have forgotten to bring the right equipment for this event. It’s our job then not only to make sure you’ll all be ready but, fortunately, we have figured out methods for you to stun everybody with a mysterious, scary or fabulous costume. Here are some suggestions on how to produce an easy yet successful DIY costume, using things you could find around:

halloWeen Costume Guide

Sheets and towelsTo look like an oil sheik, take the sheet from your bed and put it around you. Seal it with a knot. As a headscarf, use the small towels provided in the hotel rooms and add a black or colourful ribbon to tie it.

Make upIf you don’t have the right clothes for a Halloween outfit, just use your own or someone else’s makeup. With a red lipstick you can create several injuries and draw blood. With eyeliner you can draw a spider web or just create a gothic look.

By Monica Mantovani, Noura Berrouba & Simone Passeri

Guide

Dress up in less than 10 minutes

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he president. That’s the position most of the EYPers associate with in terms of ar-ranging a session. However, there’s more to EYP than the most visible figures chairs and the press team: the most vital characters in this session are two good loving, hard-working and committed persons, the head organisers Hans Maes and Lucas Somville.

These two, together with their ama-zing organising team, had put an incredible amount of work and hours into making this session happen. Our team catches them in the morning of the first day of the session, sitting and watching the teambuilding taking place in the yard. How did they end up here? “I started as an organiser in the national ses-sion, and continued to be a head organiser in Europolis. That’s how I got into it.” tells Hans.

And when did their EYP-career start? “Together in 2008, as delegates in national sessions, then the IS at Rennes in France.” Despite organising this international forum, but it wasn’t always that way: these two had to start it from scratch. Is there an inspira-tion that ignited the EYP-fire in them? “In Frankfurt International Session 2010, there it struck me: this is what I want to do.” – Hans tells. There is one person who’s way of working had been especially inspiring to the two : Jorg Körner, the Head Organiser of Frankfurt IS. “He is amazingly organized, as a person very approachable and he really got into the task with all his heart: he made that session happen.”

Like with all the EYP positions, organis-ing also has come with its high and low points. What is arranging the international session at its best and its worst? Lucas finds it simple to come up with an answer:

“it’s best when everything runs smoothly. That’s the rewarding point.” And its worst? “Breakfast at 6pm”.

Water was chosen as a session theme, which at first seemed like a surprising factor. However, the head-orgas quickly pointed out why they decided to go with this theme: “Antwerp is the second largest port in Euro-pe, sixth largest in the world as well as being the largest oil port in the whole world, espe-cially known for the petrochemical plants.” The explanation for the choice of water itself as a session theme was simple: it’s not a common EYP- theme. “We don’t like main-stream” both of them state firmly.

The planning for the session was star

T

Interview

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ted a year ago, in November 2010. The first concrete action for Hans and Lucas was to start looking for the venues in February past, searching for the best possible option. It has been a long process and not always easy to get to this point: Last-minute financial trouble and cancelations from several dele-gations, to name but a few, put obstacles in Hans and Lucas’s way. There was also a name mentioned as a special help during all the arrangements: Philippe Heeren. “He has loads of connections and has been a great help organising the session with us.”

Looking at those two sitting next to each other one can easily tell that they’ve known each other for some while. “We became

friends during nationals, and have done se-veral projects together since. Organising nationals, working for the CLUB, European Student Circle in Antwerp.. you name it: we did it.”

Long days, sleepless nights, early mor-ning wake up calls and living under the constant pressure,one must question what these two themselves get out of all of this? “Experience” is the first word Lucas throws into the conversation. Hans’s answer follows straight after: passion for the task and the satisfaction that follows from it- “we made this happen”.

IntervIew wIth h2OsBy Oona Kiiskinen & Gregor Rawert

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GO tO a COuntry - Get twO

Close Up

By Sigrun Fagerfjäll

Mannequin PisOne of Europe’s most renowned sta-tues, despite it being no taller than a real 6 year old child.

Waffle Belgium’s unofficial national delicacy – sweet or savoury, Liege or Belgian, always delicious.

Cathedral The Cathedral dominates the skyline of Antwerpen city – surrounded by modern structures, it defines an era of great ar-chitecture in Belgium

Atomium The only one way to view Brussels, and practically whole of Belgium - from the top of this science in-spired Ferris wheel.

‘Welkom/Bienvenue’ A display of Belgium’s friendly hospitality and multi-lingual culture.

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Welcome to Belgium. Bienvenue en Bel-gique. Onthaal aan België.Willkommen in Belgi-en. When you arrived at the airport you probably noticed that all the signs were in several langua-ges, French, Flemish and some also in German. To some, might seem like Belgium is suffering a crisis of identity. It is divided into to three re-gions - the French speaking region Wallonia in the south, Brussels in the middle and the Dutch speaking region, Flanders, in the north, the regi-on where we are right now. In a country with dif-ferent communities there are also bound to be different wills and opinions. This is something that Belgium has experienced and is still dealing with today. The history of Belgium is a turbulent one. Due to its location in the centre of Europe it has been the battleground of the two world wars. And just a couple of years after the end of the Second World War, Belgium took the first steps towards becoming a federal state. The first sta-te reform was made in 1970 and resulted in the forming of three cultural communities represen-ting the different regions. These communities gained more and more power throughout the years. Today Belgium is clearly divided; the three different regions have their own parliaments and their own laws. There are schools that only ac-cept students who speak Flemish, companies that only hire francophones and when you tra-vel through Belgium you can’t help but notice how the language commonly used suddenly changes somewhere in the middle of the coun-try. Celebrities from one side of the country can travel to the other side and suddenly adopt a completely anonymous identity.

There have been plans to split Belgium in two. In that scenario Wallonia and Flanders would eit-her become independent states or join France and the Netherlands. In 2007 a survey purpor-ted to show that Flanders would be one of the richest countries in Europe if it became indepen-dent while Wallonia would be one of the poorest. It’s these economic differences that are one of

the major causes for the tension between the different parts of Belgium. Flanders has a lot of successful industries while Wallonia has experi-enced an economic decline over the past years. Some political movements in Flanders believe that the Flemish people are paying more taxes and that most of the tax money goes into soci-al services in Wallonia, simply put,“a stream of money” from Flanders to Wallonia.

Belgium is divided today: se-perate parliaments, different

languages and mutual misun-derstanding. Can there be a

common future? In 2010 the Belgian government fell because it was unable to agree on how to run the regi-on of Belgium where Brussels is located, Brus-sels-Halle-Vilvoorde. When elections were held 11 parties were voted into the parliament and none of them had more than 20% of the votes. After that negotiations started in order to form a government coalition. These negotiations are still going on, 505 days later. This means that Belgium has the world record in time taken to form a new democratic government. This has fueled the speculations about a partition of Bel-gium.

Despite the differences and disagreements, Belgium is still united in many ways. Flemish people and Wallonians all enjoy their beers, their frites and their chocolate. They all cheer for mixed sport teams and they have the same king, Albert II. Belgium has still managed to be-come a powerful country in Europe, hosting the headquarters of several important international organisations such as the EU and NATO. Some argue that Belgium will get through the identity crisis united, and emerge stronger on the other side.

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Chairs

the Who ...?

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1 Lucy - Ireland: ‘My best friend had dinner with Emma Watson last week’2 Alex - Finland: ‘I kissed a camel’3 Pashi - Cyprus: ‘Mougli is my nickname’4 Gustav - Sweden: ‘My kitchen has a shower in it ‘5 Mariela - Greece: ‘I’ve met Mulatu Astatke, a famous 70 year old musician, and he flirted with me’6 Danijel - Croatia: ‘I won a 30km kayak competition’7 Tatiana - Germany: ‘Most people think I look 12 years old’8 Panayiotis - Cyprus: ‘I’m scared of girls’9 Maite - Holland: ‘I like men with scars’10 Celine - Germany: ‘I wear an elephant costume in my free-time’

By Nicola Solomou

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What is the First Word that pops up in your head When you think oF eyp?

Wordle

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