Times of Change, Times of Opportunity: November 2010

Prologue

With this blog, I wish to engage in a dialogue with you on how the voice of young people can be strengthened in Europe and the world in the next years. This is, after all, the main reason for why I have dedicated a big part of my life to volunteering and work for youth organizations at local, national and European level, and why I have accepted the nomination for running for the position of President of the European Youth Forum.

My first engagement with youth work started at the age of nine, when I joined my local scout group. After that, I have been engaged in a variety of different organizations like the youth organization of my political party, The Nordic Association of People Hard of Hearing, the Young European Federalists in Finland and of course, the Finnish National Youth Council Allianssi, through which I ended up in the YFJ:s Council of Europe Affairs Commission, the Advisory Council of the Council of Europe and finally two years ago in the European Youth Forum Board.

When youth work permits, I dedicate my time to studying political science, reading, walking and fishing in the beautiful archipelago of my home country and spending time with my family and friends. Having lived in Italy, I also have a keen interest in Italian history, culture and language – and use every possible opportunity to visit the country.

I believe fundamentally, that our generation has a big responsibility meeting the challenges facing our planet today, and I know that the European Youth Movement has the opportunity to bring forth real change. We should work for this change together and remember to enjoy, be inspired and motivated while doing it.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Let's Take a (Citizens') Initiative

Yesterday I picked up my umbrella, put on my waterproof coat and forced my self out of the door into the gray Nordic weather to have a coffee with a friend in the even grayer concrete heart of Stockholm, to discuss what we could do to raise the profile of the youth movement in Europe.

The thing is, we need to be more active in finding ways to demonstrate what lies behind our various positions and go out in the wider world, outside the meeting rooms, to collect support and raise awareness. The means are there. One thing that immediately come to mind was a useful tool that crept out of the dark tunnel of Lisbon Treaty negotiations: The Citizens' Initiative.

Despite the fog enveloping the final model for the initiative, a number of organizations already have gathered a substantial amount of signatures. The formal discussion has, of course, spun into a typical quarrel between Parliament, Commission and the Council on how to verify and collect signatures, what are the time limits etc. But what we know for sure, though, is that for the initiative to be considered, it requires 1 million signatures. According to European Voice, Greenpeace already has 1.2 million signatures demanding the Commission to forbid genetically modified corps. The European Disability Forum, on the other hand, has collected 1.4 million signatures for better rights for people with disabilities. These are good examples for us in the European Youth Forum to learn from – I think we could gather the one million quite easily if we decide to do so. The key is to find a specific enough question, a clear demand. I would go for demanding the voting age to be lowered to 16 years in European elections.

Gathering the signatures would not only be good in terms of advocating for a specific issue, but would be good in raising the profile of the Youth Forum, and would serve as a demonstration of our power to mobilize young people. No more member states or Commission asking if we “really” represent young people.

So, one thousand people collecting one thousand signatures and we have it! Yesterday I think I would have collected a couple of hundred quite easily, despite the gray november weather and according to many the somewhat depressing(some call it modernist) architecture dominating my new city center.

About Me

"That punctual servant of all work, the sun, had just risen, and begun to strike a light on the morning of the thirteenth of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, when Mr. Samuel Pickwick burst like another sun from his slumbers, threw open his chamber window, and looked out upon the world beneath. Goswell Street was at his feet, Goswell Street was on his right hand—as far as the eye could reach, Goswell Street extended on his left; and the opposite side of Goswell Street was over the way. 'Such,' thought Mr. Pickwick, 'are the narrow views of those philosophers who, content with examining the things that lie before them, look not to the truths which are hidden beyond"
-Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

This quotation by Dickens has inspired me since I read the Pickwick Papers when I was around 15 years old. Reading has always been important to me, both as a recreational activity and as a way of developing politically. Authors and thinkers such as Aristoteles, Plato, John Stuart Mill, George Orwell, Nelson Mandela and Antonio Gramsci to name a few, have all played an important part when I have been trying to make sense of the world. On the other hand, being an active person, I have had a strong urge to do things practically as well. When in my teens, playing handball, painting graffiti and doing scout activities kept me quite busy-in fact so busy that my school performances were quite dreadful until my late teens.

Thankfully, I had, at the age of seventeen, the opportunity to embark for Italy for a year, to live together with a family in a small village called Conselve, in the province of Padua. This change was quite big for many reasons. First, a family with two parents and a brother of my own age was something I was not used to-at home I had lived most of my life with my mother, and a sister many years younger than I. Secondly, though the town of Turku(Åbo in my other native language, Swedish) was not the biggest metropolis on earth, the change to a very traditional village in Italy was notable. I remember the first thing I did with my new family was to collect grapes at the family vineyard at the vendemmia, the grandmother preparing lunch for us while I was supposed to learn how to drive a tractor(!) The year proved to be great, and later on I returned to Italy and worked, among other things, in a Parmesan cheese factory-so I did not have cheese for a couple of months after that, I can assure you.

Back from Italy, I took school quite seriously and started, for the first time in my life enjoying it, also taking up the responsibility to edit the school paper. I also engaged in various political activities, and became more active in my scout group, of which I soon became leader. My first political engagement was to fight for the local youth club to survive when it was under threat to be closed. I also took a keen interest in international politics, and started to work on making the youth of my party-The centrist Swedish Speaking Peoples Party- sensitive to the Israel/Palestine conflict by visiting the synagogue in Turku and Helsinki, meeting refugees from Palestine, reading books and writing articles. From there on, my interests have largely lied in international affairs, something that has also later on been reflected in my studies and, of course work and volunteering life.

The latest news from my part is that I recently got married and started exploring a new, wonderful city, Stockholm, in which I divide my time between Helsinki and quite extensive traveling.