Youthdebate and Meeting the Federal Council Doris Leuthard

Last Day at the Seminar 

Nach der spannenden Eröffnung des Kongresses gestern, fand heute die Plenarversammlung statt, wo nicht nur Frau Doris Leuthard aufgetreten ist, sondern auch unsere Gruppe auf der Bühne über politische Themen debattiert hat. Davide hat nach der Debatte das Jugendparlament für Auslandschweizer vorgestellt. Anschliessend hat auch Eduardo das Jugendparlament für Auslandschweizer in Italien vorgestellt.

Als "Jugend Debattiert" fertig war, hat Frau Leuthard ihre Rede gehalten und wir konnten die letzten Minuten für das Vorbereiten der Fragen an sie nutzen. 

Jeder hatte die Gelegenheit eine Frage zustellen. Es gab Fragen von "Europa & Schweiz" bis "Lieblingsessen" "Lieblings Kollege" etc. Bei einigen Fragen wie, ob sie weitere Informationen über das  Vorgehen der Schweiz und EU uns mitteilen könnte, konnte sie uns leider aus sicherheitsgründen keine Informationen geben. 
Als die Frage für das E-Voting fiel, ob es möglich wäre das alle Kantone dasselbe System benutzen, war sie sehr optimistisch und sagte, dass sie das natürlich wünschen. Jedoch hat jeder Kanton die Wahl, welches System er benutzen möchte, was die Sicherheitslücke bei den anderen Kantonen erklärt.

Nach der Debatte haben wir und für den Abschlussabend vorbereitet. Wir assen im "Chateau Penthis"

Da es unser letzter Abend war, gingen wir das allerletzte mal zusammen etwas trinken.
Somit war das ganze Programm vollendet und nach unserer Erfahrung, können wir es nur weiterempfehlen.

Friday

Discussing and deciding on general values and principles for a society isn't always fun and games. During today's workshop, Angelique and her assistants from Amnesty International came and gave us insight about human rights, their fundamental importance and the difficulties within a society. Thanks to their help, we were informed of the United Nations' text, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was written in 1948, in response of the atrocities of the Second World War. Overall, Amnesty International's presentation allowed us to fully understand the importance of this organization, which is protecting human rights throughout the world. After Angelique and her assistants left, some of us went out for lunch and to the Migros, while others rested in the hostel before the festivities at the Congress.

A quarter to five, we left the hostel, dressed for the occasion and took the tram to the event. At 5,30, we took part to the opening of the congress where the OSA president Jacques-Simon Eggly was the first speaker. After listening to many interesting, inspiring Swiss leaders such as the president of Swiss Travel System, the president of the International Club of Diplomacy of Geneva , we headed to the aperitif, where we took pictures, meet other Swiss abroad, and enjoyed the music, drinks, and hors d'oeuvre. Soon after, we all headed to a room, where we practiced our debates and discussed the questions that we would ask Doris Leuthard when we meet after the debate.

After a productive session, we all went to an Asian restaurant, where we reflected and discussed about the night's events. Since one of our friends' birthday (Guido)was approaching, we went for drinks, before heading back to the hostel, in order to work on our presentation. There, we made sure that everything was ready for the big day!

Seminar to the Congress 2015 - Youth debate

Thursday 

Despite the gray skies today, we were able to accomplish quite a bit of work at the Debate workshop. During this workshop, two instructors from the Swiss Debate “Stiftung Dialog” came to the hostel and taught us strategies about debating, about controversial topics at the Congress on Saturday. After introducing ourselves to the instructors, we divided into small groups and came up with controversial questions that we could debate about.

Ranging from legalizing marijuana to requiring Swiss women to serve at the military, we were able to vote on two questions for Congress:

- Should the Swiss government impose military service for women?
- Should foreigners born in Switzerland automatically receive Swiss citizenship?

After taking a break for lunch, we broke up into two groups, in order to do some research on our topics. Soon after, we learned about the procedure of debating, which allowed us to debate our two questions after. Throughout the debates, we were able to learn more about the daily issues and regulations of our country. We put this into practice during the trial debates and received constructive criticism on how to improve our speaking and debating skills.



After the debate workshop, we had a short session with two young politicians from the SVP and the FDP. We got to ask a lot of interesting questions and generated quite some discussion. Unfortunately, most of the day everyone was expected to be able to understand French. Some of us only understand German and the language from our native country. After the discussion with the young politicians, we went out for dinner and walked around Geneva before going back to the hostel.

Day three, Wednesday 

Today we completed many activities. In the morning we took breakfast and after finished the third session of youth parliament aboard seminar. The leaders were very helpful & the tables were alive with hopes for the future of Swiss youth living outside of Switzerland. After we took lunch & went to go swimming in the lake, an excursion very much needed as it was 34° C. There we climbed rock walls on the water, and had a wonderful time! It was then 15.30 and we needed to catch a train to Mont Pélérin. Unfortunately we didn't make the train but we were able to take another one half an hour later. It was an hour train ride where we created questions for when we meet Doris Leuthard, an occasion everyone is excited for! 

After the train we folks tram and then a cable car up the mountain where we thought we would take a short walk to our destination. It turned out to be a longer walk, but only an hour so there wasn't too much complaining. Once we got there, it was gorgeous and the view was fabulous. On the way back we listened to music and were in high spirits, excited for dinner! We had dinner at a pizza restaurant & had a very nice time there as well. We then walked down by the Freddie Mercury statue, posed, looking out at the twinkling view. Afterwards we went for ice cream and continued out walk until it was time to go home and walked towards the train station. We arrived at the train station, moments too late, as we were able to kiss the train goodbye & a one hour late hello. The wait was fine as we listened to music & bonded over cultural overlaps and differences in the singing world. We took the train home and many people slept to help them move on from our very exciting day, to a very exciting tomorrow where we start youth debates and meet local political parties!

ASO Seminar Genf 2015

Tuesday

Dear readers,

another day of our busy week has gone by... and once again it was a full day!!!! We started with a big breakfast at the hostel and then we were ready to face the new challanges!!! We headed to the Palais de Nations (UN Headquarter in Geneva), where we took part to a guided tour that showed us the main conferences halls and explained the way the UN works. This interesting visit also gave us the opportunity to have a better understanding of the work that is carried out every day in this neutral territory. Before moving to the next location, we had lunch at the canteen of the UN palace, with an incredible view over the surrounding park and the cultural heritage of this place.

With our bellies full we moved to the Red Cross Museum, where we had the chance to discover the important work that is carried out every day, all over the world, by this humanitarian organization. It was interesting to learn the main issues that are continuously faced by the delegates and volunteers.

The afternoon continued with the workshop on the possibility of the creation of the Youth Parliament which will represent the young people leaving outside of Switzerland.  This meeting gave the opportunity for all young people to discuss their vision on the possible outcome of the future organization. Despite the huge amount of work to be done, The discussion was interrupted at 21.30, when everyone decided that it was time to enjoy the nightlife of Geneva.

                             

Stay tuned for more updates on the ASO seminar :-)

ASO-Seminar Genf 2015

Dear reader,

Welcome to this blog about the ASO Youth Seminar of August 2015 in Geneva. Yesterday was the first official day of the seminar. Some of the participants already arrived the day before and got to know each other a bit better over a nice and fancy dinner. Afterwards, we all returned to the hostel to get a good night's  sleep to get ready for a week full of activities having to do with the education of young citizens on the political systems in Switzerland.

Monday morning, the last participants arrived and we got together in a seminar room. There, we got to know our fellow young ASO members and got a short introduction and an analysis of the Swiss political system. After preparing lunch, we went on a bike tour with three students from Geneva (George, Natalie (who is also a Swiss abroad) and Simon). They showed us the many different University buildings in Geneva as well as other interesting landmarks within the city. They explained the Swiss school system to us and told us a lot about the history of Geneva. They gave us insider tips on how to survive in the multicultural city of Geneva; those of which, we will gladly use in the future.

These students joined us for dinner and took us to their favorite restaurant. After having walked through this city with them, we realized that it is actually a very multicultural place where many different groups of people thrive alongside each other. After a long and interesting day full of impressions and experiences, we arrived at the hostel exhausted, looking forward to a relatively long and good night of sleep. If you want to read more or are interested in what is going on at this seminar, we suggest you follow this daily blog!

The End...

Day 8:
After a more or less relaxing night in the hammocks "il Ticino" was calling! First stop Bellinzona: A hostel right bellow one of the famous castles of the city, a proper BBQ and sunny weather led to another memorable night. And on top of that, the winners of the challenge were announced: Congrats to the Atompinguine!

Day 9:
Today promised to get some of us a huge adrenaline rush. We walked up to Verzasca and the bravest among us decided to jump of the famous dam wall - 007 would have been proud ;) After a lot of excitment, cheering and screaming we deserved a refreshment in the scenic river. The day came to an end with delicous pizzas in Lugano.

Day 10:
We spent our last day of the camp in Lugano with relaxing from the challenge, shopping and on pedal-boats on Lake Lugano. And in the end we even had a look at Lugano's night life.

Day 11: 
It's time to say Goodbye! There's probably no better words than this poem (which was created during one of the challenges):

The challenge began
We were off with a bang
We raced to the Oberland
and that's where we sang
Though the words were strange and not very easy
we sure cam to love s'Vogelisi

Then on to Einsiedeln, we trekked to the steeple
that's when we truly becam "Ben and the people"

While staying with the incredible Regula Blum
Anusha becam familiar wih Flavio's room
As we all bathed in free wifi and food
we slowly floated into a really good mood

This trip's like sausage; all spicy and fun,
but unlike this poem it's not almost done
More running around, how fun it will be
because everything has its meaning - you'll see

The Swiss Challenge

The Arrival 

We all arrived in the Bern Train station all pumped and motivated!!!! Then we travelled as a group to a House in Moosseedorf from a Youth Organisation called Infoklick.ch and got aquainted with each other by playing small games. Then in the next day we all did an awesome 45km bike ride from Murten to Biel…everyone was quite tired after that. In Biel we stayed in a Scouts House and planned our Journey for the next 7 days…we had to organize three places for three nights to sleep ourselves somewhere and we also had to do our challenges during the seven days.

The Swiss Challenge:

Day 1

On the first day we only travelled to our sleeping destination in Puideux. We slept in a beautiful Kloster called Cres Berard. To waste a bit of time we visited Lausanne and enjoyed the nice weather.

Day 2

On the second day we travelled to Crans Montana and sang the swiss national anthem in french infront of  a lake. Then we travelled to Luzern to meet up with the other groups. And we all stayed together in a Youth Hostlel.

Day 3

We travelled tthe next day from Luzern to Kaiseraugst an took a few pictures there. Then we went to Basel and enjoyed the warm weather and the town. After that we travelled to Hölstein to stay at a participants relatives place for the night.

Day 4

We headed back to Luzern and travelled by boat to Weggis to and back. Then we went directly to our next acomodation in Zürich in a WG of a camp leader. We met up with her and we played a few games together and in the afternoon we did a small tour of Zürich.

Day 5

On the 1st of August we started our day with a nice snack….on of the students in the Wg fried us all one worm and we ate them together. We all thought it tasted like Popcorn. We headed to Kreuzlingen in the afternoon and met up with the other groups and stayed in a tourist camping house by the lake.

Day 6

At around 10 in the morning we travelled to Lenzerheide and got at our sleeping destination at 14.30pm and then went down to a lake and walked around it and then went back up to the destination.

Day 7 

The todays' Challenge was: we planned to go up on a mountain to at least 2000m high and then to travel to St. Gallen to our next Stay for the Night. We were surprised by the leadersgroup, because we had to sleep outside in hammocks.