Sunday
The Opening
On Sunday, August 8th 2010, the time had come to open the 2nd Global Young Greens Congress. More than 90 participants from all over the world signed up for the congress that takes place in the very center of Germany’s capital Berlin.
The congress started with some energizing games in order to get to know each other, followed by a common barbecue with vegan food and delicious salads. The first day died away with nice conversations in the late evening.
Monday
Today we were up for the first big round of discussions and controversies but most of all community. After having been introduced by the Local Preparation Team and the Steering Committee (SC) we are going to join the stage of workshops in a few minutes.
Referring to the rareness of GYG meetings, due to the difficulties of organizing such big global gatherings, Mariana from the SC declared that this year’s event in Berlin was highly significant for our common networking.
There is a huge variety of origins of the participants, green party members, as well as individuals and NGO-activists who are here to expand our global network and strengthen the GLOBAL YOUNG GREENS in order to try to find answers to questions like “Where to go from the status quo?”.
“Now the debate starts. The whole week will be a very difficult but inspiring discussion”, ended Georg (SC) the salutation in the plenary hall of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation in Berlin. “Let’s go green!”
Linda Dertinger (web committee)
Workshop Report: Gender in a postmodern World
The situation of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people seems to be and is very different around the world. Yet the mechanisms and ideologies leading to that oppression and inequality are very similar. This assumption was reinforced throughout the workshop. We mainly exchanged experiences about our strategies against and analysis of gender inequalities on different levels. From the political system to law and our everyday life.
Jana Gawlas (workshop advisor)
Creating a greener Kenya
With an image the Kenyan participants wanted to transport their notion of the nation to the other Global Young Greens. “Our vision for Kenya is a political revolution, ecological sustainability, peace and non-violence” said Rose Wachuka. “The congress is phenomenal, meeting up with different people opens one’s eyes for the whole possibilities. Its about exchanging culture and intellectual material -a chance of a lifetime” said the Kenyan and Philip Otieno amended “ the people around are just nice, too.”
Both of them were very happy representing African values here, such as culture, peace, eco-tourism, hospitality and diversity, they say.
Linda Dertinger (web committee)
