BFTF Alumni '06

Postscript

2007-08-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

It has been one month since the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Reunion in Denmark. One month since our exchange of ideas and friendship. One month since the fellows re-ignited the fires of debate that were first started one year ago. During their stay in Denmark, their understanding of international politics grew from the lectures and meetings they attended. Most of the lectures focused on the world in the era of globalisation and that the world is becoming smaller and smaller due to advances in communication, such as the Internet. The BFTF is a true testament to communication power of the Internet. The Internet has made communication between the fellows easier and cheaper than in years past and some may say that the relations among fellows may not have been so strong without the Internet. Another aspect of globalisation that was discussed was the spreading values of freedom throughout the world. One lecture focused on the clash of values during the Muhammad Cartoon scandal unfolded. During all these studies the fellows had clashing opinions on many different subjects ranging from AIDS relief to war to global warming. While the debates raged on, several common underlining values were realized. The first is a common belief in the power of democracy and global cooperation. In the age of globalisation, the realization that some issues need to be addressed on a global level and that unilateral action is not enough is first step in addressing problems such as global warming. Another common belief is the value of free exchange and debate. This value of the diversity of ideas is an essential pillar in sustainability of democracy. A government in which there is no debate or no exchange of ideas is totalitarian government. On the global level this equates to open exchange among countries in forum such as the UN. While methods of how these global issues are to be solved may differ, as long as an open forum for the solution is available, then the eventual resolution of the issue is inevitable. Though the fellows have been separated from each other for one year the values of the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Institute were never lost. Time has not shaken the bonds of friendship among the fellows or their willingness to discuss tough and controversial issues that are in global spotlight. If the global community could discuss these issues with such openness and enthusiasm, then no problem would be too large or complex to solve. The Ben Franklin Transatlantic Institute serves as a model to humanity of what transatlantic cooperation could yield.

By Lendyll.

Brief summary of the content of our political lectures:

2007-08-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

The first lecture was meeting Jacob Bundsgaard at city hall, where the fellows made me deeply proud by participating more than anyone could have expected. Also, it is not hard to understand what the fellows thought so fascinating about Jacob Bundsgaard and the lesson he gave us on Danish democracy and relations - in a global perspective. His speech was most informative, charismatic and well structured. I believe this was the reason that his words stayed with us and was debated several times subsequently. There was in particular one point that he presented to us which reappeared in many of our later debates: “Think globally – act locally”. The phrase turned out to be versatile and also interesting if you flip it so it states the opposite.
Bits of what we learned from Jacob Bundsgaard’s lecture:
Three mayor challenges that Denmark is facing are:
- Integration
- The environmental task: both globally and locally.
- Globalisation: how Denmark and Aarhus will get competitive in global economy. Two main tools are education and innovation.

New terms: Red ocean strategy and Blue ocean strategy.

Jakob Erle spent an entire day with us chatting as well as mentoring. The general theme was Democracy and Globalisation.
Bits of what we learned from Jakob Erle:
The history of globalisation and democracy
Supranational organisations: WTO, ICC, WHO, Kyoto-protocol. “United in diversity”

Definition of Globalisation:
Global exchange of
- Goods
- Capitol
- Culture
- People
Definition of Multilayered democracy:
Local – State – Federal – Global
Local – National – Regional – Global

New terms:
LPG: Liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation.
GONGO: Governmental organised NGO

Kim Hundevadt gave us a lot of facts about the cartoon crisis that were new to most of us.
We agreed on the fact that that the cartoons had not been published without a reason. They were published within a context. The question was rather if there was enough reason for publishing them.

We learned about a struggle of values: Sharia law > < Secular law.
Questions were raised: Should there be a law against blasphemy? Is the cartoon crisis an example of a general lack of respect for the Muslim minority? Were the cartoons tools in a political game?

New terms:
OIC: organisation of Islamic conference
The Arab League

Debate
Sergei Hoxha and Darya Ermolina taught us how to debate with the subject Legalization of euthanasia as an example of British Parliamentary Debate.
In this process we learned about formal debating, asking penetrating questions and the importance of being precise (much thanks to Lendyll).

By Aila Lonka.

Article in Aarhus Stiftstidende

2007-08-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

On the 14th of July another newspaper article was written about our project. It is a full page story with several pictures and quotes from interviews with many fellows. The full article is unfortunately only visible online to those who keep the newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende. Here is the link.
by Aila Lonka

Tuesday, 17 July

2007-07-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Today was the second and final day of our Århus tourist passes, which we used for art museums. First, we went to ARoS, Denmark’s new main art museum, with nine floors and a main spiral staircase. Kudos to Aila, who spent an awfully long time showing us different exhibits, translating from Danish, and giving us histories of many pieces in the museum (such as the interesting horse…). Ines and I decided to go all the way to the top, where there is a roof terrace and a great view of all of Århus. Then, while some went to get lunch and go shopping (Alex and Harald bought some more matching T-shirts…wery cute), the rest of us saw the Århus Kunst (art) building, which had a really cool exhibit about children and war.
We had been wanting to see the Harry Potter movie, so this morning we had booked tickets for an afternoon showing. Five of us went for that while the rest went shopping some more.
We all met back at Aila’s place for dinner, which Liselotte once again prepared and which once again impressed all of us. In the evening we finally, after being occupied all day, had some time to relax by practicing karate and wrestling on the beach, emailing home, sleeping, or doing whatever else needed to get done. This night was Jenny and Harald’s last night before they left in the morning, and we all felt that the reunion was in a way winding down, so we wanted to have some fun while not all, but at least most of us were still here. We had a great time and wound down with some good ol’ episodes of South Park In the end, we went to bed early enough to get up to see Jenny off at 8 am!

Love,
Dana
Minneapolis, USA

P.S.
A million bajillion gazillion infinillion apologies for taking so long to get this blog posted. I know you all have been waiting on bated breath to know what’s been going on. So, sorry again. I hope it lives up to your expectations…

P.P.S.
When Joline and Darya left, they said that the people who leave take 25% of the grief and those who stay take 75% of it. It must be true because the house seems so eerily empty without you all in it; we keep expecting to meet up with at least five more people. Just thought I'd let y'all know, we all miss you like hell.

Monday, July 16, 2007

2007-07-18T01:19:00.000-07:00

Another day passed, two more fellows gone. It has not hit me yet though. I can see – with my own eyes – that arrivals are being replaced by departures, but my brains will not accept it…

Monday was a bit different. For one, bikes were replaced with the bus, because it would be a bit hard to bike across all those hills and never-ending kilometers, in the heat we did not experience before Monday. Our day started with nourishment, prepared by Aila’s parents. We walked towards the Medical Center with our full tummies, which would probably just get in the way if we were biking. In the Medical Center we saw an exhibition of pictures with different motives. These pictures were made by people who were living in that Psychiatric Hospital at some point - for whatever reason. Perhaps most known of them was Ovartaci. For more information click here.

Our tourist trip continued to the Moesgård Museum and its surrounding nature, which can be found south of Århus. We went for a short walk through the forest nearby, and admired the beauty of animals, and plants, and the environment they share. To satisfy our cultural curiosity we headed in the Moesgård Museum, where we learned the secrets of Grauballe man, who was killed more than 2000 years ago. Aside from that, some of us decided to use our free time and take a look at a special exhibition called “One World – A Thousand Stories”. The exhibition contains more than 40.000 items from all over the world. We were really tired after that, and it was time for nourishment once again before we headed to the bus. Of course Alex and Harald knew that all that unhealthy food would leave its mark on their muscular body, so they ran back to the museum because they had forgotten their bags – once we were already on the bus! Luckily the bus driver was understanding, and he waited for them (once he had yelled “30 seconds” after them).

The bus took us to the Danish Queen’s ‘cottage’, which looked like a villa to me. We saw her summerhouse, and its enormous surrounding area (including Queen’s Rose Garden). Overwhelmed by the beauty of everything that we saw that day, we headed to the pool just to find out that it was closed.

The evening was spent relaxing in front of the television/computer, listening to music, or playing a “w”iolent game of “Pass the Jellyfish”. Evening quickly became early morning, and it was time to say SEE YOU LATER (not goodbye) to our two fellows, Joline from Sweden and Darya from Russia.

Ines Kavgic,
Slovenia

Sunday at the BFTF 2006 Reunion

2007-07-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

The day started off pretty lazily. We were all recovering from our late night and the return of our dear friend Patricia early that morning. Shortly after a much needed breakfast the group decided to go off and take care of their personal errands such as cleaning their rooms or showering. At two in the afternoon there was a presentation by Sergi and Dasha about the intricacies of English Parliamentary debate. Joining us for the informative lecture were Danish students who were interested in the formalized exchange of ideas. After learning the process of a formal English Parliamentary style debate, we divided into two separate teams and hosted our own Parliamentary style debate on euthanasia and its practice in the medical world. The government team centered their defense of euthanasia around humans ability to control every aspect in their life and, through euthanasia, their death. The opposite party focused their attack on the slim line between suicide and assisted suicide, while at the same time trying to zero in on the moral dilemma that the doctors face when administering the euthanasia. After about an hour of intense political exchange the judges decided that the time that did best debating was the opposite party did the best debating, but in the tradition of T-Ball games across America, who won did not matter. What truly matter is that we all shared scones in the end. After debate some went off to play volleyball while others worked on updating our blog. Dinner was served with help with the girllmasters Jenny and Lendyll. After dinner everyone went off to their separate projects. Some watched South Park while others just chilled upstairs. Compared in the other nights this was a quiet night in Aarhus.

-Lendyll

Saturday, 14 July

2007-07-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

We started off oversleeping, beginning our day with a traditional Danish breakfast which Aila’s parents had been planning. In the afternoon, we did all sorts of activities, riding into town for shopping, watching movies, etcetera. Finally some free time! But for 6:00 Aila had managed to arrange a lecture with a Danish journalist who researched the Mohammad cartoon crisis and wrote a well-known book on its effects named Kim Hundevadt. He gave a great lecture and sparked meaningful discussions. Once again, Aila’s parents made a spectacular dinner—tonight, Danish hot dogs. We thought it would be fun to see the Århus night life later on and so went to a foam party. It was sudsy, wet, and a lot of fun, although bittersweet because it was Patricia’s last night with us. Because we wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, we ended up staying awake all night so we could say goodbye to her at 5 a.m. We love you Pat, you crazy Texan!

Fred

Joline (from Sweden)

Friday the 13TH

2007-07-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is Alex and Harald’s contribution to the blog. Today is Friday the 13th and bad luck struck our bike group, but before we tell you about the disaster let us fill you in on our activities today. In the morning we visited the exciting astronomy section of the Aarhus University where we learned more about electrons and their practical applications with Mr. David Fyeld, and afterwards we found out just how interesting and wonderful spider silk can be with Cedric Dicko. After the tour of the University we enjoyed some scrumptious Danish sandwiches and visited the rest of the campus. All was well when we started to bike back home, however somewhere along the way the most experienced biker of the group (Aila) was attempting a really interesting stunt, when she fell to the ground, taking down with her Dana, Joline and Jenny creating the biggest bike pile-up ever to hit Aarhus fortunately nobody got hurt (too bad).

Thursday-The formal day of learning:)

2007-07-14T02:51:00.000-07:00

Thursday 12 July

Waking up early was being more difficult day by day since everybody used to fall asleep at about 2 a.m. in the morning. Fortunately, the brunette girl in the room in end of the hall (Jenny) was good at waking everybody up. Today is a special day and this makes us believe that having breakfast as fast as possible( even that the Danish food is too delicious to speed up while tasting it) would help us more . We have an important meeting with an interesting specialist of democracy and education. Mr. Jacob Erle is the director of International Academy of Education and Democracy , headquarter of which is in Copenhagen and now he was visiting our wonderful house and he was very interested in sharing his perception on democracy and globalization with all of us. He knew that being in touch and debating with international students, the main discussion about globalization and the democracy would be more active and alive. We all knew that the following discussion about implementing democracy globally and talking about different levels of democracy worldwide would be amazing.

As BFTF-Fellows, we were all taking notes while Mr. Erle was explaining his power point presentation about the most important events that changed eventually the stream of human communities in earth, levels of democracy worldwide, the difference of perceiving democracy in different levels, globalization, multilayered democracy and the history and the kinds of democracy itself. We had lunch together and then we were divided into two groups, each of which had to play a democracy game where we given challenges, power( who addresses this challenge to), and participation, and we had to put each challenge in the right level of democracy: Global ,Regional, National or Local level. When both of the groups were done with filling the spaces with the little papers according to their group choice (although debate in groups were very rough), both of the teams had to compare their answers and argue about different choices they made.

The debate became as interesting as everybody was involved in talking about international politics and the way people have chosen to lead this world. Everyone was tense as well, because our birthday girl was on her way to come from the airport. Joline, the Swedish amazing girl was joining our reunion and while we were thinking in surprising her, she surprised us. She ca

Then the night went really good. We got dressed nice and clubbing style but made our own party in the house. After Joline took her presents and enjoyed every single hug from all of us, the night was completed with nice music played by and a few poker games with some of us involved in( we had just bought our new chips:))

Sergi Hoxha

pictures

2007-07-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

we are uploading photos. See them on facebook:

Find them on the group group called Benjamin Franklin Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows 2006.

Unfortunately they can only be visible to those who have a facebook account, but we will also upload some photos to this site.

by Aila Lonka

Wednesday, 11 July

2007-07-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

After a long evening of learning to play poker, we were up for breakfast at 8:30 this morning, so that we could be in town for a meeting at city hall by 10:00. The drizzling rain discouraged some from biking into town, but half of us still decided to have a go at it. Jakob Bundsgaard, the city councilman we met with, spoke about national and local Danish policies, putting them in context of other policies around Europe and around the world (to the relief of those U.S.A. folks). Although it took the group a few minutes, soon we were all jumping in with points of discussion and really had a well-rounded debate.
Unfortunately, one must press on, and we made our way up to the tower of City Hall, where we could see all of Århus. What a breathtaking city! Once down, we were also able to take a gander at the mayor’s office and Aila, of course, explained all the fine local artwork there.
Once Jakob had to get back to his busy day, we walked (and biked, for those brave ones among us) to the city archives, a sit Aila’s mother recommended we see for the beautiful architecture of the building. Although it was a bit hard to find (we made a brief though unintentional stopover in the financial center first), it was worth it to see.
Now of course, time for lunch in Århus! Yesterday, we passed a Chinese stand which looked enticing, so we got “China Boxes”; just as good as they had looked. After this, time for more shopping for some and couches in Aila’s favorite café for the rest. Now, it’s really raining, but it’s time to head home, so the bikers head off towards the bikes and the others to where the car was coming (in the end, the bicycles end up getting home first).
After such a long day, some time for just plain old relaxation was in order. A mix of more poker, video games, emailing, reading, walking, and much more ensued until dinner, consisting of traditional Danish summer food. By the time we had finished, it wasn’t raining so much, so the boys decided to finish the fort on the beach they had started earlier, while some girls wanted to go for a swim farther down.
For the evening, we had planned a movie night, where we could all lie in the living room on mattresses with our blankets and pillows and watch a movie on the wall from Aila’s projector. We were all excited: we pinned a sheet on the wall, made popcorn, and settled into watching Hot Fuzz. The only thing is, only two of us were awake after about twenty minutes of it…still a fun night after all. Thanks once again to Aila’s parents for allowing us free reign of the house each night!

Much love; I am enjoying every moment,
Dana
(Minneapolis, USA)

A Merry Christmas ... July 10th

2007-07-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Who would believe that some people in the world are still celebrating Christmas? Well, believe it, because we spent an entire evening enjoying the sumptuous food and kind-hearted hospitality that David, Helle and Louisa Field showed us. Seems to me that Danish food really is an almost undiscovered little piece of culinary heaven. I loved the food and I am positive that many of us would agree it was wonderful. Thanks a bundle guys for organising such a wonderfully delightful evening and a truly Danish experience!

Earlier that day however, all except one (me) participated in a Volleyball tournament organised by Aila and her Sister Matilde. The losing team of course had to pay up though or so I heard!! I’m sure they didn’t think much of the latter occurrence. Don’t worry guys; in reality we’re all winners because in the end we have each other right? Well that’s corny, but I would say wholly true… I think anyway. Liselotte, Aila’s vivacious mum, took us to the local Nazi Occupation Museum. As most of you already know, the Danish nation was occupied by the Germans during WW2 and this museum, upon entering it, gives you that eerie claustrophobic feeling in the pit of your stomach which I’m sure must have mimicked to some degree the national feeling back in the 1940’s. Old Guns, Old Nazi Uniforms, dilapidated newspaper clippings and drawings of the epoch can be found at the museum. I left the museum quite impressed. Right after we went to the Women’s museum, which also serves its purpose as an art gallery for the most innovative local artistic creations. Perhaps the most memorable part of the museum was a room that would change colours and everything in the room would also appear to be of the same colour. Of course, this was designed and a learning experiment for children… however, even we supposed adults enjoyed the innocent fun presented within this room ☺ A fun day altogether!

We are now simply finding as many ways as possible to spend as much time together as we possibly can. I’d rather not sleep than miss an hour of their giggles. True to the BFTF tradition we still argue about a plethora of diverse issues; from politics to psychology to the environmental issues to HIV/AIDS to the consequences of Destiny. Same old, same old really ☺ We’re still biking though.. I think I have peddled my way into muscular spasm haha.

Always the love,
Jen xxxxx

New article in urban 13th of July

2007-07-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

The danish newspaper Urban came and visited us while we were doing our democracy games with Jakob Erle on the 12th of July. On the 13th they published this article.
by Aila Lonka

The Danish Days

2007-07-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

Day 2. 9th July

I still can’t believe that I can wake up every morning for the next couple of days and just walk to a fellow’s room and nudge them to wake up. I can’t believe that after exactly a year, happy anniversary by the way BFTF FELLOWS 2006, I am able to be with my fellows once again. Every day I wake up early, sorry Aila , so that every single second possible is spent laughing, telling stories, debating, stating our opinions and just simply enjoying my fellows company. It’s also hard to believe that even though we haven’t known each other all our lives I personally feel that everyone here, and everyone who couldn’t make it, is as close to me as my best friends are. In one month we managed to forge the strongest of bonds, a bond which drove us here, to Arhus, to see each other, simply because not seeing each other was not an option. It will never be an option. We speak to one another almost every day still and have never stopped contacting each other in some way. We call each other up on Birthdays and if that doesn’t work we text each other and congratulate each other for our achievements and comfort one another when something in our lives is not right. Just like close friends we have formed a brotherhood and sisterhood. It truly is astounding.

That is why I feel we are in Denmark, to celebrate our friendship and strengthen our relationships. Today Aila was kind enough to lend us some bikes which we used to travel to the city which takes about 15-20 minutes to get to, obviously depending on how fast or slow you’re riding the bike. We spent the day sightseeing and going round the shops. Aila gave us a tour of the city so we walked for almost an hour looking at churches and the boats in the harbour. Denmark is one of the cleanest places in Europe, and I believe one of the healthiest places to live. The air is clean and fresh it rains regularly and everyone here has found that the best way to travel is by bike which is excellent. I haven’t gotten into a car in days and to tell you the truth it feels great to be outside on a bike. After visiting Arhus and shopping for a while we decided to have a light sandwich lunch and continue visiting shops. When we got tired of the latter we rode back home. We had to wait for another fellow to arrive Harald, and when he did arrive we were all pretty ecstatic. However, one more fellow, Joline from Sweden will be arriving in a couple of days the group would then be complete ☺ when he came we had a little party for him and once again relaxed by the fire and by the beach, relishing the picturesque scenery and glutting ourselves with a sense of innate serenity and peace which Denmark proves to have in spades.

I almost don’t want to fall asleep I can’t accept that in 8 days time I’ll have to go back to Malta and wait another year to see my friends and fellows once more. Destiny, I know, will allow our paths to cross soon enough I’m hoping. I’d like to thank Aila and her wonderful parents for hosting us and making this experience so utterly perfect. I understand that a lot of effort has been made on their part for us to enjoy this experience to the full. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts ☺

Until next time…
Jenny
Malta
xxx

8th of July

2007-07-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

So the journey begins…again. In a new country driven by the original BFTF initiative, I am ecstatic to be in Denmark for the BFTF alumni reunion. Here are the highlights from the first official day of the reunion:
After a refreshing night’s sleep and nourishing Danish meal prepared by Aila’s mother, Darya, Aila, and I headed off to explore the plethora of art contained within Aarhus’ perimeter. As Darya and I must unfortunately return home before most of the site seeing will take place, we decided that today would be a good time to explore. We first went to the Aros Museum, the newest art collection integrated into the center of the city. It features eight floors of a variety of art, including many pieces of Danish art, and a rooftop terrace with an expansive view of the city.
Several pieces piqued my interest, most especially the Danish ones. An exhibit by Bjørn Nørgaard contained ten vividly colorful montages of Denmark’s extensive history, each depicting a time period such as the Early Monarchy, the Vikings, and the Present. Every piece was so jam-packed with imagery and little vignettes that we could have undoubtedly spent hours decoding the messages and piecing together the past. We also saw The Boy, the landmark statue of Aros. The Boy is a giant-sized boy who from the front appears frightened and disheartened. However, when you circle around the statue to see another perspective, the boy’s mouth, which is hidden from a frontal view, is exposed. The Boy is actually smiling. This multifaceted statue could be likened to many of the BFTF alumni’s experiences last summer—at first appearing one way, until a little more intrigue provides another view and a new appreciation of something once unknown.
Next, we walked over to the Art House, which featured a poignant exhibit about child soldiers. This subject matter was at odds with most of the uplifting art we had seen at Aros, but was equally interesting. All three of us were most disturbed by a 15-foot lighted key made out of the same colors as the Iranian flag and several hundred actual keys beneath it. The multitude of keys signified plastic keys that child soldiers were given as a promise of salvation in exchange for testing minefields to see if they were still active.
A common theme with the remainder of artwork was toys formed in the likeness of weapons. For example, there were several guns made out of legos. The contradiction of the juvenile and imaginative world associated with legos and the all too real side of war showed how children might be fooled into believing world is a game. The exhibit reinforced the original initiative of BFTF--to have a more global perspective when analyzing current events and to try to use more diplomatic means to achieve a peaceful, civil result by understanding foreign cultures and belief systems.
Let me just say, on a more personal note, that I am blessed by the ever-continuing dialogue BFTF has fostered between youth of many countries and the experiences it has created, including the chance to be reunited with friends dispersed over the globe in such a beautiful setting. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the others and the discussions, laughs, and memories that will soon ensue.
By Patricia Restrepo

Article in Urban

2007-07-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

On the 3rd of july the danish newspaper Urban brought a story about our initiative. In the paper version it's half a page on page three in the newspaper and it contains two pictures. There is also an online version of the article. The article is in Danish. Find it here.
by Aila Lonka

The aim of the Alumni reunion in Denmark

2007-07-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

Youth Conference on transatlantic relations and dialogue

The US state department invested in an initiative in 2006 called The Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows. This initiative brought bright youth from more than 40 different countries and American states together with an aim to foster good and diplomatic relations between them. The “future leaders” learned about democratic constitutions, new political tools and debate, in English, which they all speak fluently.

This summer the initiative is being continued. The young people have taken matters into their own hands, and are having a reunion at one participant’s house in Denmark. They desperately want to be reunited, continue their work, and share experiences while learning about the Danish culture and society.
The experience they shared in 2006 did not only leave them with beautiful memories but also with an understanding of the importance of international relations and dialogue. This is a mayor aim of the Alumni reunion in the city of Aarhus in Denmark, 2007.
The BFTF Alumni '06 will discuss the following points among many other:
- The end of the cold war has marked a turning point in modern history, but has not provided an end to international problems.
- What are the future global problems after the end of polarization between East and West?
- How will the x-Soviet republics continue to develop, and what relations will they have with the global communities?
- Poverty, inequality, illiteracy, environmental degradation, globalisation and security are all problems of the world, and therefore the international community has a moral obligation to try to solve them. How can this be done?

Participants are from various countries and states such as:
Denmark Sweden
Norway Albania
Romania Malta
Slovenia Russia
USA: Texas, Illinois and Minnesota
By: Aila Lonka