There were some local events and the Coalition for Education against Discrimination prepares a letter to teachers and local activists related to this Day. You can read the letter here.

This year Human Rights Day highlights ’Freedoms,’ recalling the four freedoms that underlie the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two major human rights covenants (more about it here).

Why „freedoms”?

In his “four freedoms speech” in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a vision. His wife, Eleonore, was instrumental in helping that vision find its way into human rights treaties. Both were instrumental in the creation of the United Nations, 70 years ago.

The slogan of the 2014 was „Human Rights 365„. It encompassed the idea that every day is Human Rights Day. For this reason the Center for Development of Education, Batory Fundation and Society for Education against Discrimination have organised on December, 10 (2014) conference „School without discrimination – safe school”.

I presented there the tool of teaching about realtions between minority and majority on example of Jews and Romas within the Open Space.

The conference was addressed mostly to teachers, directors of schools, educators. I observe a great need among Polish teachers to learn more about how to solve problems with discrimination at schools.

Society for Education against Discrimination coordinates the Coalition for Education against Discrimination. Get to know more about the activities of the Coalition or join it.
Fot. John Nakamura Remy. CC BY-SA 2.0

Fot. http://www.ngofund.org.pl/konferencja-szkola-bez-dyskryminacji-bezpieczna-szkola/

There are a lot of think tanks in every democratic country. A very important think tank in Poland is Centre for Eastern Studies (Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia). It’s an independent public research institution monitoring the events and analysing the socio-political and economic processes taking place in Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, the Visegrad Group states, the Balkan states and Turkey.

You can subscribe to its newsletter and receive the newest analysis directly into your mail-box.

Current topis of analysis are:

Local elections in Ukraine / Wybory samorządowe na Ukrainie

Apprehension of Hennadij Korban – faight against corruption or political enemies? / Zatrzymanie Hennadija Korbana – walka z korupcją czy przeciwnikami politycznymi?

Germany: conflict in the great coalition / Niemcy: konflikt w wielkiej koalicji

Moldova: Fall of government of Valeriu Streleta / Mołdawia: upadek rządu Valeriu Streleța

Secretary of State of the United States of America in Central Asia / Sekretarz stanu USA w Azji Centralnej

Parliamentary elections in the Turkey – return of the party AKP to power / Wybory parlamentarne w Turcji – powrót AKP do pełni władzy

Phobia towards Russia as a tool of the strategy of the Kremlin. Weapons of mass destruction / Rusofobia w strategii Kremla. Broń masowego rażenia

What do you think, which other think tanks are very important in East Central Europe?

Fot. Russian Council, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

And read here a diary from the 13th International MitOst Festival written by Olga Konovalova:

„An old green train #115O that passes daily through Lviv and goes to Ivano-Frankivsk, or Stanislau (an old name of the city which I like more). It goes slowly without stops through the villages, endless picturesque fields and dense forests as it gives time specially for enjoying the landscape. The train has its typical knock sound which I missed in European trains. I ask the train conductor to bring me glass of tea in metal glass-holder, which is possible to find only in trains of post-soviet countries. I was drinking sourse by source the tea, enjoying the landscape and thinking what is waiting on me at MitOst festival. I was going without any expectations or knowledge what is going to happen and looking forward to discover the city, the festival and organization itself.

***

Going out from the train station I got immediately lost and started to stray through the small streets with single-story and two-stored houses. For me this kind of housing almost in the center is odd. The appearance of the houses are city-like, but the number of storeys is typical of a small town or village. The city was living its usual life, it was calm. The atmosphere was still summer-like, sun was shining lazily through the trees, cats were warming themselves on the ground near the houses.

***

People were gathering in the auditorium of the cinema Lumier in the city center, monumental blue building in neoclassical style. The hall was full. Here I met people from everywhere: Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Holland and what I was not expecting: Australia and Siberia (Russia). All were very nice, open and friendly people. The opening of the festival was going to start. But meanwhile the fantastic melody by Petro Skazkiv was filling the hall with the sound. He played on the traditional Ukrainian musical instrument cymbals. I don’t know if he played it with his hands or the sound came directly from his heart.

***

At the opening Eszter Toth, the president of the organization, and Ivanka Chupak were telling about the activities of the organization, about the goals reached during the last year, idea to organize the festival in Ivano-Frankivsk, the intensive program that was waiting for us in the next 4 days and inviting to the microphone all the people that helped to organize the festival. And I remember that this evening I had my first thought to become MitOst member too. The opening was finished by a folk-rock band from Lviv Joryj Kłoc, where the irrepressible energy of Ukrainian soul united with rock rhythm.

***

The next days of the festival were very intensive and so full that I usually needed to choose between several workshops, lectures, films or performances. The festival was very many-sided. Ukrainian music was weaving with architectural workshop, important and serious now topic of migration with thrilling poetry by Yurko Izdruk, film about Alexander Granach with the Ukrainian dance workshop. All the events were in different places. The city was the starting point for all the events from the program. So even if you didn’t want to discover the city center for some reason, you had to.

***

Migration, boarders, dialog, participation, collaboration, active neighborhood… This were the main topics discussed at the festival. There were workshops, lectures and discussions to get the feel of them. People with different backgrounds met and collaborated together, giving the possibility to each other to see the subject from different perspectives.

Usually I was selecting the topics connected to participatory urban development. One of them was the workshop „Mobilizing Citizens for regional development”. It was lead by Anna-Dorothea Werner. She shared her experience about the project in rural development held by the state of Brandenburg (Germany). She told us about the main idea of the project, the process and  main challenges they had. We discussed how this idea could be implemented in other regions. For me it was very useful because I was researching the topic of the rural development for some time.

***

Cultural events were accurately inserted to the program. One of them was „Albert, or the highest form of the execution”. The auditorium became dark. On the stage there were 3 lightened silhouettes: a man in the white shirt: famous Ukrainian writer Yurii Andrukhovych, man with the contrabass, Mark Tokar and the young woman in black, Ulyana Gorbachevska. The drawings started to appear on the screen in the back of the stage, accompanied by music. And a mystical, fascinating journey to the life of the monk Albert Virozemsky started. It was the classical opposition of good and evil, black and white, religious and mystical. The story, the voice of Yurii, masterfully build semantic structures enchanted me in German even if  I don’t speak it properly. It was that kind of performances that leaves a tasteful flavor and internal joyfulness afterwards.

***

It were four intensive days, new connections, interesting events, autumnal Stanislau that’s what I experienced at MitOst festival. Maybe I would like the festival to be longer and with more intense and specific workshops, during which we can produce something durable for the city, where the festival is held.

See you at the 14th MitOst Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia!”

Olga Konovalova

„Citizens decide” („Obywatele decydują”), „I love Poland” („Kocham Polskę”) and „We can do it” („Damy radę”) are new catchwords of political parties. It could not be antything wrong, but these slogans are slogans of ngo’s projects or other organizastions. Are there conscious actions or spin doctors’s inattention during electoral campaigns?

• New political party Modern Poland (Nowoczesna Polska) – the same name as non governmental organization The Modern Poland Foundation (Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska) – is a market liberal and social liberal party founded in 2015 by the economist Ryszard Petru. Many people thought that Modern Poland and The Modern Poland Foundation are the same organization. Current name: .Modern

• During electoral campaign Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) used a catchword „Citizens decide” („Obywatele decydują”). It is also project of Institute of Civil Affairs (Instytut Spraw Obywatelskich, Inspro). Project has conduct for three years.

• „We can do it” („Damy radę”) was other PiS’s catchwords. People know these slogan from fable „Bob the Builder” („Bob Budowniczy”). It is also a WWO’s song.

• Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) used a slogan „I love Poland” („Kocham Polskę”). It is also the name of campaign prepered by All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska). These organization has conduct their campaign for ten years.

The Polish longer version of this article you can find here: http://tajnikipolityki.pl/aaaaby-dobre-haslo-chetnie-przejme/.

Marta Gałązka, political scientist, researcher and project coordinator. Ph.D, student in political science at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, author of the site https://www.facebook.com/PartieWyboryPolityka.

In March 2015 there was organised an event in Poznań about personal development, The Way Ahead. The „main” guest was Tony Robbins. I found it interesting but the fee was to high for me.

But some people went to the event. One of them was Laura M Kozowska (on the photo above), who after that became an author of the book „There is no such trouble, which can’t be solved” (Nie ma takiego bagna, z którego nie da się wyjść”. I will not tell you the story of Laura, but she is for sure an example of transformative storytelling and her story can be also a impulse for transformation of other people.

The second example is more close to me. A friend of mine after some years of working at an office of state administration quit the job and is looking for an other idea for her life. Because the friend came from a small city this decision was a kind of scandal in the community. But I know that the friend feels happier than before and she/he is looking for a new place in her life and I’m sure she/he will find it.

Why people don’t allow other people to take the responsibility for their life and criticise such brave decisions?

I can’t understand.

On the photo Tony Robbins. Author of the photo: Steve Jurvetson CC BY 2.0

We learnt what we need to act against discrimination: knowledge, skills, reflection -> motivation to act. These reminds me of the concept of Swiss Johann Pestalozzi „head, heart and hand” [głowa, serce, ręka]. It means that our mind, feelings and actions should „act” together.

Mechanism of discrimination in short looks like this. / Mechanizm dyskryminacji w skrócie wygląda tak:

We shared some links related to discrimination and education:
1. History and human rights. Textbook – with workshoops about „state and individuum”, „minority-majority”, freedom of speech, rights of imprisoned people, social rights: in English, in Polish.
2. Antidiscrimination – educational materials in Polish: materials nr 1 or materials nr 2.
3. Textbook about hate speech „Bookmarks” – in English, in Polish.
4. School without discrimination – worksheets for teachers (in Polish): materials nr 1,
materials nr 2.
5. http://rownosc.info (in Polish) and http://rownosc.info/english/ (in English)
6. List of NGOs who deal with discrimination, migration, cultures etc: http://www.bezuprzedzen.org/linki/.
7. A method: „Parts of my identity” („Fragmenty mojej tożsamości”), worksheet.

*Magdalena Kozłowska-Deć – works with women within Fundation Center of Women Promotion (Fundacja Centrum Promocji Kobiet) and within the biggest Polish festival of development PROGRESSteron, co-author of book for retired women about organisation of events („Przygoda nie tylko dla wnuka”).

*Hoang Minh Ngo – IT worker, certified interpreter, social activist from Vietnam; board member of Social-Cultural Association of Vietnameses in Poland (Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Wietnamczyków w Polsce), editor of paper Que Viet; organiser of demonstration against politics of hegemony of China.

*Dawid Sokołowski – leader of the network of reasonable business. More about the network you can find here.

More about the event you can read here.

It took place in Polish parlament in November’14, 28-29. 120 teachers and pupils took part on it. You also can do following things:

1. conduct a workshop about Karski,

2. organise a panel discussion about connecting historical and human rights education with representatives of ngo’s, administration and scientists,

3. organise an Open Space discussion related to the meaning of historical experiences in work against discrimination. You can discuss the interdisciplinary approach of connecting different fields.

On September, 14, I, representing my NGO, KARTA Center, have talked to different NGO’s while the Forum of Polish NGO’s in Warsaw about documenting of their history. Most of them are really interested in learning this kind of activities. So they will apply to trainings of the KARTA Center, how to do it.