eurogeneration - Comments

Young Irish voted NO to Lisbon Treaty - Adriano

Adriano — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:11:42 +02:00

@ anonimous

Not at all. But in the long run, this is part of the solution to the euro-apathy.

But I would like to share with you the thoughts of a Brussels-based freelance journalist of Irish origins, Angela. She well knows her country:

"Younger people were much less likely to vote in the referendum (a ratio of 2:1 when compared to older voters). This is largely due to political apathy on the part of younger people in Ireland, but the fact that the referendum took place on a Thursday also needs to be addressed. Most young people are registered to vote in their home constituency and many are working/studying in the large towns. A very large number of Irish students also travel abroad for the summer, and the date of this referendum meant that many students had already left the country.

Of the young people who did vote, the majority voted "no". (In the 18-24 years old group 65 percent voted no). Many people voted no for the simple reason that they were utterly confused and felt there was a lack of information. Many young people I spoke to felt it was hard to find unbiased information and didn't know who to trust when listening to the pros and cons. The treaty also came at a bad time for the country, a recession had just been announced, and for the first time young voters who have only lived through the Celtic Tiger had to contemplate an insecure future. Many people felt that a no vote would keep the EU the way it is. It was the "safe" way to vote. A vote against the Treaty was not a vote against Europe - 80% of those who voted "no" support Ireland's membership of the EU. "

Post-Erasmus depression - mario

mario — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:27:43 +02:00

This is exactly how I feel. I came back the 12th of june after one year as an erasmus in Canterbury, England. Not only did I find the best friends ever, but I was so lucky as to find the love of my life. We are still together, living in-between Spain (I am from Madrid) and Italy (she's from Florence), and planning a future together. As for the friends I made, I miss them so much, every single moment. But despite the sadness of being away from them, I feel happy, lucky and thankful for the year we spent together and the certainty that we will meet again.

Congratulations for this blog!!

Post-Erasmus depression - lilah

lilah — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:46:04 +02:00

I came back two weeks ago from my erasmus.
I feel completely as you describe in your text. I want to believe that it's temporary, but it's being harder and harder, I'm afraid to forget actually, and that's killing me. I miss everything so much, and I don't like what I have back in my hometown.
It's hard to deal with it.

Washington and Brussels. (Un)veiled - Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:25:22 +02:00

As an American who studied in DC and lived in Brussels, my experience is that Americans are very good with words and symbols, but beyond the posters the comparisons are much more complex.

USA: I like, I dislike - Joe Noory

Joe Noory — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:01:00 +02:00

Having lived there birefly, I find that New York is really third world. I'll keep the bucolic greenery in smalltown America that I can escape to, thank you very much. It's the restorative after my travels, and I don't think I could live without it. That, and Yuengling.

As for making "true friends," most Americans (outside the context of the big city centers) would talk to anyone. I frequently hear the critique about being "too firendly" and "too trusting" from our Euro-betters. Then again, there's always something most of them seem to show some dissatisfaction for with Americans. After a lifetime of observing this, I'm amazed that anyone even listens to it.

'Racist' German commercials and catenaccio politics: when Italy feels under siege - Joe Noory

Joe Noory — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:50:16 +02:00

It's not racism, it's bigotry. Italians and German can be readily identified as the same race. In fact, as an American Arab, you really all look the same to me.

'Racist' German commercials and catenaccio politics: when Italy feels under siege - C

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:51:40 +02:00

PS: When talking about soccer, and during the European Championship there's normal to talk about, it's pretty clear that nothing compares to tifosi, the italian suporters. and, c'mon, to be serious, how bad is it to recognaize that Casanova was an italian? Italians are well known as lovers!

Keep the smile!

'Racist' German commercials and catenaccio politics: when Italy feels under siege - C

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:48:22 +02:00

it's obvious the subject lacks on background
before this commercial, Media Markt had a lot of commercials with germans acting the same way
while the italian official - geez, I'm not 100% sure but it's the most stupid government Italy ever had!

Young Irish voted NO to Lisbon Treaty - anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:07:28 +02:00

Will Erasmus solve the problem though?

Post-Erasmus depression - jennifer

jennifer — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:33:18 +02:00

this too shall pass. whatever a syndrome, a feeling - however ill or blissful it may be - is fleeting. best to embrace each moment as it comes. carpe diem!

jennifer
http://www.dual-diagnosis.net

Young Irish voted NO to Lisbon Treaty - rudolf

rudolf — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:57:48 +02:00

"Young Irish voted NO to Lisbon Treaty"

Clever boys!

USA: I like, I dislike - Adriano

Adriano — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:32:14 +02:00

Honestly, I cannot give you a good reply as I just travelled around for three weeks and I visited 4 cities! So no time at all to make true friends. May I ask you where do you live in the States and what's your professional activity?

Interview Barroso! - Adriano

Adriano — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:30:12 +02:00

Tyson, can you tell me your city, please?

Btw, here you have the questions I received via email. Feel free to comment/add new. At the end I'll have to make a selection I'll share with you. Cheers

Question: Do you think the Irish referEndum result will affect Turkey's and Croita's EU membership negotations or not ? What are the expected results
of the referendum for enlargment policy of EU?
Ozçan, Istanbul

why haven't you resigned after the Irish referendum? It would have been a strong political message to the citizens.
Alexandre, Paris

I would ask him if it's possible to go ahead with ratifications of the Treaty and then to have a second referendum in which ask to Irish people "do you want to stay in a European Union with the Lisbon treaty or do you want to go out"? (as Mario Monti proposed) . But is it possible to lose a country like Ireland, that already adopted euro???

Silvia, Milano

1. Does he fear that some countries are getting tired of these steps back and turn their back on the common european project?
2.How is he judging the reaction of the other 26 so far? Does it show a common european interest?
3. Is it a step back after all? Are there positive aspects he can see?

Matthias, Berlin

And for Mr Barroso I think it would be appropriate to remind him how difficult is to read all those documents. I have heard from Irish people that it was extremely difficult to understand what was written, one chapter refer to another and the other to another and so on. And I think they are right. I mean, I have studied law and european law and i remember my professors in Belgium they were constantly repeating to us that in case we are going to work for the EU Institutions we should definitely write simpler texts, and we were just reading Regulations and Directives..I could imagine about a treaty!

Elina, Athens

USA: I like, I dislike - Andreea

Andreea — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:16:59 +02:00

I've lived in the US for 4 years now. Based on my experience, my question is: what do you think about interpersonal relationships in the US? In 4 years here, I have yet to make a true friend, and do trust me when I say I did try. Believe it or not, there are clearcut differences between the American and European friendship styles. What's you take on this?

Interview Barroso! - Tyson Barker

Tyson Barker — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:29:22 +02:00

Do you think that the transatlantic economic council (TEC) has a future? If so, what kinds of concrete achievements would you expect to be seen by next year that would allow it to be considered a success?

A European behind Meru, Second Life's alternative - Adriano

Adriano — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:12:46 +02:00

I apologize for not having precisely reported Vladlen's thoughts which I have correcte with the following precisions:

- "Second Life killer" is 100% my words, my interpretation
- Coming to technical analysis I am clearly not an expert of virtual worlds. Thank you Vladlen for your accurate comments
- Coming to esthetical comments, I have heard what I wrote. But, again, I thank Vladlen for what he added.

A European behind Meru, Second Life's alternative - Vladlen Koltun

Vladlen Koltun — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:59:00 +02:00

Dear Adriano,

It was a pleasure to briefly chat with you last year. I just read your account of our meeting and I am quite surprised by it. Your report of our conversation contains significant errors. Perhaps I am partly responsible. I noticed that you did not carry a tape recorder and had no way of accurately remembering what I said. You were also accompanied by a translator. I take responsibility for not requesting that you run the story by me before posting so that errors can be pointed out in advance. Let me mention a few glaring ones post facto.

- We are not working "to create the 'Second Life – killer'". We are trying to figure out how scalable and secure virtual world platforms of the future should be built. This necessitates creating an experimental prototype, to ensure that we uncover the subtle issues in such systems. The goal of our research is to advance the state of the art in the field, not "kill" an existing product.

- You quote me saying: "Second Life has a problem of scalability, for it doesn't support more than a certain number of simultaneous connections. Moreover there's a security deficit: anyone can easily listen to conversations and enter spaces he is not authorised in. With our project, these problems will just become memories." This is wholly inaccurate. The scalability and security issues with existing virtual world systems are more subtle than you write. In Second Life, for example, it is the local density of participants (how many avatars can be in each other's immediate vicinity at the same time) that is limited by the system, not the overall number of participants.

- You also quote me saying "in the States where there's no tradition of beauty production. I look around and I can't see anything that I could love." I emphatically disagree! In our conversation you asked me to compare my experiences living in Europe and the US. As I explained, one thing I miss about Europe is its architecture and urban layout. Towns that gradually evolved over centuries have very different structure than the planned cities that are common in the US. I miss European towns, with winding alleys and century-old buildings, and find some features of American suburbia visually dissatisfying in comparison. As I mentioned in our conversation, the impact of such visual features on the formation of long-term emotional bonds has been widely discussed by urban planners. However, this is only a tiny part of my experience of America. I have found wonderful people and beautiful nature in this country. I love many things here, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed.

Best,
Prof. Vladlen Koltun
Computer Science Department
Stanford University

Erasmus in Portsmouth, tips and tricks - Antoine

Antoine — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:00:24 +01:00

Thanks Adriano for publishing my article.
Portsmouth isn't exactly a "little seaside village in the UK" though. Countryside lovers might be disappointed to find out that half a million people live there ;-).

I want a EU referendum in Britain - The Law

The Law — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:17:52 +01:00

This whole nonsense that the content of the treaty is the same as the constitution misses the point. It's not a constitutional document and therefore there is no failure to deliver on promises. The human genome is 98% the same as a monkey - does that make it 'pretty much the same thing' - no because the two are qualitatively different. Labour effectively destroyed all the debates in the Commons on the issue and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats ended up losing political capital on the issue. All the energy to force a referendum could have been directed towards some actual issues not rearranging a political system so that it is fit for purpose for 27 European Member states.

USA: I like, I dislike - Adriano

Adriano — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:55:26 +01:00

Yes I liked a lot. I must say I still prefer Europe but we have so much to learn from the US. Moreover, I'll try to keep strong relations with people I met there! I've been invited for a conference in NYC next year to speak about cafebabel.com!