Finally Fishbowl is hosting an exchange here in Ireland again.

This year’s theme is personal development and non verbal communication. So if you think you need a boost in your confidence or you have difficulties communicating to your peers? Or people internationally? Then this might be the project for you!

There are 3 other participating countries; Italy, Jordan and Morocco. In total there will be 24 young international participants between the ages of 15 and 21.

During the exchange you will be staying together in the Burren activity centre, where you will do workshops, learn and interact with each other. We hope to have a final show case and have our own international evening, where everyone is invited and you can show them the work we have done. Workshops will be given through Art, Movement, Dance, and your own creativity. Everyone is invited, and your participation will be greatly valued! It is a chance to get to know people in and outside Europe, through a fun creative environment!

There will be no alcohol or drugs allowed at this event.

Participant must be aged between 15 and 21.

If you are from Ireland and interested please contact Christe on: christeslabbers@gmail.com as soon as possible!!! Christe will send you an application form and any additional information

This time we hosted the exchange in Ireland in Mountshannon. The Italians came over from Thursday 18^th – Sunday 21^st March and during these few days we went into more detail on how our schools were governed. We discussed the power and influence of the principal, a teacher, a student and the different boards i.e. the Parents’ Council.

We also had discussions and answered questions about our schools, and we gave the Italians a tour of Scariff Community College, Fishbowl Youth and Youthreach. In Scariff school there was a demonstration of hurling and in Youthreach, we continued our workshops and had tea and coffee.

During that exchange we produced a lot of work in the areas of PR, film, research, finance, logo and fundraising.

The Irish group will go back to Rome in April to compare the research that will be carried out between the two visits.

In the next few weeks we will present a questionnaire to students, teachers and people from the different boards in order to get a better understanding of how our schools work and we will also carry out interviews, which will be filmed as part of the film we will produce during the project.

Currently Fishbowl is working on a Democracy Project, and for that we partnered with two Italian organisations. Other partners in this project are Scariff Community College, Scariff Youthreach and in Rome Liceo Nomentano, a large secondary school with about 1500 student.

We have been running workshops in all the schools and now we have just returned from our first trip to Italy:

Democracy Explored : The First Exchange.

Democracy Explored is a project in which young people analyse democracy. As part of this project, nine students from Scariff Community College, one student from Youthreach and two young support leaders went on an eight day exchange to Orvieto, near Rome in Italy. They were supported by a teacher from Scariff Community College and a leader from fishbowl Youth.

During the exchange we took part in workshops and presented our work, but we had loads of fun too. We played games, took part in teambuilding activities and had an intercultural evening when we presented our culture in the form of song, dance, DVDs and food. The trip was part of Youth in Action, which is a programme funded by the EU.

It was a fantastic experience which we all enjoyed, and we made great friends who we hope to meet again soon!

This was only the first leg of the international project, as it will run until June 2010, with a final presentation in the first weekend of June.

Four students of the Italian school will come to Ireland from the 18th to the 21st of March. During this visit we will explore and make decisions on how we will edit the documentary and compare the research we have done so far.

We will now continue with the workshops in Scariff, and start our research of how our schools are governed, we will interview all the people involved in our school community and create an overview of the way our school works. Our Italian friends will do the same in Rome, and we will compare the results of our research when we meet again in the next few months.

Description: Participants from the Democracy Project will meet each other in Orvieto, close to Rome. We will get to know each other, build skills to run the project and design the research for the project
Date: 15 February 2010

Visiting "Liceo Nomentano"

Moving right along…“Rome and Away”.….an advance planning trip took place in Rome (Italy) between 7^th and 12^th January 2010. Mieke, Catherine and Alan were warmly welcomed by the leaders of the Italian group, Pietro, Marco and Damiano, who are co-ordinating this project in Rome.

With many airports opening and closing due to extreme weather conditions, we were very lucky not to have got stuck in the ice.

The temperature in Rome was 16c with some sporadic rainfall, but with so much to arrange our focus shifted to the work at hand.

Our visit to the Italian school happened on our first morning. We were introduced to the Vice Principle, Professor Gala, who subsequently introduced us to the Principle and English teachers. We then met with the students and received a whirlwind tour of the school mixed with laughter and good humour. The school hosts 1400 pupils and about 70 teachers.here is the link for the school: http://www.liceonomentano.net/nomentano/index.htm#

The students were so enthusiastic that they called us up after school to arrange to meet later the following evening, we already felt like we were making new friends.

Liceo Nomentano, the school in Rome

The visit overall was really good, we seemed to have been in a continueous conversation that was sprinkled with laughter and many ahhaa moments, you know the ones, when the penny drops and you get it, or in planning logistics or aspects of training you have a brainwave and the light goes on, problem solved, ahhaa.

Meeting up with the Italian students was great, they have enthusiasm for this project  and have a healthy sense of curiosity. They are fun to be with and enjoy laughter as much as the Irish do. It seems like we’ve already got one crucial thing in common, humour.

Sure were would we be without it, it crosses most bridges, afterall laughter is a common international language.

Fishbowl is planning to host an exchange here in Ireland. We are looking for volunteers to help out in areas such as:

• Cooking
• general organisation
• transport
• etc.

Volunteers are also welcome to leading workshops on personal development and/or non verbal communication, through art, music, dance, film, or acting, so if interested in this aspect… contact us!!!

The exchange will be held in late July beginning of August we will have a showcase of our work in the Scariff harbour festival.

So if you’re up for it or want more information let us know on: info@fishbowlyouth.org

Please tell all your friends and bring them along!

We will be starting a pool tournament this Friday, come along and sign up its open to everyone! There will even be a fancy trophy!

A Training Course for Beginners in Youth Exchanges is taking place in Greece from 4^th -8^th November 2009.

If you are interested check the Older Fishes Section and contact me on: miekemcmahon@gmail.com

Check out the Older Fishes Section for the Zambia Exchange organised by the NYCI

If you are interested, you will be working closely with Fishbowl and NYCI before and after the exchange, and also welcome the Zambian Youthworkers / Young People in Ireland and Fishbowl.

National Youth Council of Ireland

Development Education Exchange Visit 2009

Ireland – Zambia

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

NYCI is organising an exchange visit for youth workers from NYCI member organisations to Zambia in southern Africa. During the visit, they will meet with youth organisations and development agencies, share experiences of youth work and learn about issues facing young people in Zambia. The visit will be followed by a visit by Zambian youth workers to Ireland to coincide with One World Week 2009 which takes place from the 14^th – 22^nd November.

This is the prayer of Loving-Kindness which the Burmese monks have been saying in their demonstrations against the military Junta during August-September 2007:

“May all beings be happy and at their ease. May they be joyous and live in safety. All beings, omitting none, whether weak or strong; small or great; in high, middle or low realms of existence; near or far away; visible or invisible; born or yet-to-be-born. May all beings be happy and at their ease. Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state. Let none harm another. But even as a mother loves, watches over and protects her child, her only child; so may all with a boundless mind cherish all living beings, radiating friendliness over the entire world without limit. May we cultivate a boundless goodwill, free from ill-will or emnity, and maintain the sublime abiding of this recollection.”

Burma – A Country Ruled by Fear

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a country of over 50 million people in an area the size of France. There are eight major and a number of minor ethnic nationalities speaking over 100 dialects. For much of its history, Burma was a collection of independent kingdoms.

By the 19th Century, the British took advantage of political instability in Burma to colonize the country and later annex it to India as their empire pushed eastward through S.E. Asia. British rule continued into the 20th century but by the 1930′s, Burmese activists drew inspiration from the experiences of post-imperial independence movements throughout the world. By 1937, having gained a small measure of liberty under British rule, the Burmese had grown aware of Ireland’s own experience of struggle and according to historian Dr Peter Carey, looked upon Ireland as ‘an example of what could be done’. The Burmese established a nationwide book club with the intent of building a body of national and international works of assistance to the burgeoning independence movement. Of the 101 titles compiled, 21 were on Michael Collins, two on Eamon de Valera, and one each on James Connolly and Arthur Griffiths. The Burmese push for full independence gathered momentum during World War II. Under General Aung San (1915-1947), the Burmese first sided with the Japanese to remove the British, then when the imperial intentions of the Japanese became clear, switched to the British on assurances of post-war independence.

The 1947 signing of the progressive Panglong Agreement, by Burma’s majority Burman and other major ethnic groups, was followed by strife in which independence hero General Aung San and six members of his cabinet were assassinated. Nevertheless the agreement gave rise the following year to full independence and a new constitution based on principles of equality, voluntary participation and democracy.

A functioning but fragile democracy took root for 14 years (1948 -1962) until internal strife was exploited in a military coup, led by General Ne Win (1911-2002), and ushered in four decades of repression and international isolation.

Since 1962 therefore, Burma has been ruled by a military dictatorship. By July 1988, growing unrest had forced the resignation of General Ne Win, architect of the 1962 coup, but one of the most critical events in Burmese history was to come on the 8 August 1988. A date forever known to the Burmese people as 8.8.88, saw hundreds of students, workers, teachers, farmers and monks demonstrating on the streets of all major towns and cities, demanding democracy. The military leadership acted with the utmost severity to restore its control – firing into demonstrators and killing many hundreds. Thousands fled the country. The new regime leadership renamed itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). It ordered the uprising be crushed, renamed Burma as Myanmar and diffused further unrest with the promise of free elections.

In May 1990, elections were permitted and the National League for Democracy party (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, (daughter of General Aung San), won 82% of parliamentary seats. Forbidden from forming a government, the NLD leadership was subsequently harassed, imprisoned or forced into exile. Aung San Suu Kyi was detained under house arrest from 1989 to 1996 and only released in the face of considerable international pressure. Today she is once again in detention at her house in Rangoon, having been re-arrested following a regime-inspired attack on her convoy of NLD vehicles in May 2003. Daw Suu Kyi is forbidden from receiving visits from colleagues and her mail and telephone continue to be censored and monitored.

Daw Suu Kyi is recognised internationally as a woman of courage and integrity. She has spent ten of the last 16 years in detention for her non-violent opposition and has been honoured with more than 60 international awards including the Nobel Peace Prize and the Freedom of both Dublin and Galway cities.

To this day, the regime in Burma, which has been renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), continues to conduct violent repression against political opponents and Burma’s many ethnic peoples. Among its documented human rights abuses are forced labour, conscription of child soldiers, arbitrary arrest, systematic use of rape and torture and extrajudicial executions. It is infamous for its strategy of intimidatory attacks on civilians, the use of sexual violence, the destruction of village communities and the wide-scale displacement of peoples, including internal displacement and refugees who flee over the borders into Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

[Notes compiled by Michelle Hoctor and Mary Montaut, BAI]

www.burmaactionireland.org

Philip Daly

Philip Daly has been working in the new media business for over 10 years. Through photography, he has developed an eye for capturing the unusual, and telling the untold story through images. A member of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) – his work is used and has been exhibited both locally and overseas.

With his love of all things visual, he brings an honest, dedicated and thoroughly professional approach to producing images that are both striking and highly creative

www.philipdalyphotography.com/