22.11.2006 Citizenship is the characteristic of a European

I was really surprised to get an invitation to take part in the international training on citizenship. There were 80 candidates. But at last only 30 participants from 220 European countries got this chance. In September I enjoyed the Swiss sun, the Alps and the beautiful architecture of Bern. I was really in raptures with Bern and fully agree to the words of the British Queen, who compared it to the paradise.
In translation Bern means Уa bearФ, which is the symbol of the city. The legend says that the city got its name from the first animal killed by the Duke Bertold V Zaringenski during the hunt in the time of the city building in 1191. The relicts of the totemic consciousness found their reflection in one of the sightseeings called the Уbear-pitФ and in the coast of arms of Bern. These facts made me remember that some foreigners still believe that bears walk along Russian streets. To my mind, in every joke there is some truth. We have some proverbs with this word which mean not to have an ear for music or to roar like a bear. CanТt we apply them to our pop singers? Or bearish behavior. This one seems to be about the absence of a skill to feel at ease. A goblet place. Russia may seems like that. A shot in eye. Do we know some services like that? And what about to grease oneТs palm? Russia is on the 7th position in corruption in the world.
Alps made a strong impression on me. High mountains, oceans and seas, the space and the sky have a huge value for me an unlimited source of power and majesty, especially high spirit. On one of the days together with my new friends from Kosovo, Armenia and Switzerland I set off to conquer Gurten the highest mountain in Bern. ItТs famous for its annually held music festivals, which attract thousands of people.
As we refused to use a mountain hoist, going up on foot took us not more than an hour. Later we found ourselves on the Plato, where a beautiful and expensive hotel and an exalter were situated. This exalter gave us a chance to observe the capital from the high. Mountains stayed behind us like cyclopean stone ogres, which protect the peace of the nice old town. Perhaps our national self-humiliation and depression are connected with the plane landscape. We are upset by the instinct of self-protection and only sometimes correlate our life to eternity, we prefer to live with the motto УThe dayТs gone and thanks God.Ф
We can judge about the quality of the Medical Care System in Switzerland according to the highest costs in Europe and constant sounds of ambulance machines. Taking into consideration the fact that each call is paid for, we can conclude that elderly Swiss do not economize money on their health. Everywhere you can find very expensive jewelry and watches that cost a fortune. The Clock Tower of the 12th century is one of the famous sights in Bern. The clocks show the time, the day of the week, the month, the signs of the zodiac. Four minutes to each hour you can hear a rooster sing and watch dancing figures of bears and heroes of fairy tales.
You can see lots of well dressed, stylish elderly people that it seems like youТre in the home for well off pensioners. They carefully look after themselves. Old ladies try to stay attractive as long as possible, so they prefer different accessories: chains and rings etc, which are the symbols of Swiss well off senior citizenship. I saw one old lady of maybe a hundred years old riding on her bike overrunning cars; her grey hair fluttered with such pride, as the Swiss flag.
By the way bikers and pedestrians are the same respected participants of the traffic as car drivers. Everything is in harmony. A car driver stops ten meters ahead the traffic lights showing by this respect to others. One of the participants of our training from the Ukraine was surprised by the lack of car exhaust. He told us that when the bus left the bus stop he felt the smell of ether a strawberry or a raspberry. Another participant from Portuguese praised crystal pure water which runs from the taps and is served in restaurants. The water in the river Ape is also pure, so when itТs warm people are fond of bathing there.
Observing all this paradise we compared it to Russian reality. It is a matter of fact when a car stops just before your nose or slushes you with mud and frightens you to death. And what about the water in the beautiful Onego Lake and the one running from our taps! We are in a constant stress.
The museum of Albert Einstein is situated in Bern. He lived here from1903 to1905. In 1905 he posed the Special Theory of Relativity (SOR) which revealed limitation of accepted views of classical physics about the absolute time and space. On the basis of impossibility to find an absolute movement, Einstein made a conclusion about equality of all inertial reference units; it means that in all such systems laws of physics are identical. Events which simultaneously happen in one system, stop being simultaneous in others. Why am I talking about it now? Switzerland learnt this autonomic EinsteinТs world picture: singularity and superlight speed come into contradiction with the ideals of classical science, which Einstein believed in.. Switzerland is multicultural and democratic. Here you can see catholic and protestant cathedrals along with synagogues. At the beginning of the century the SOR was discovered and that put an end to simultaneousness. The world turned out to have lots of times. At the space level we can see such a justification of social strata, when only democracy is possible with all its diversity of reference systems. All other forms of states such as Nazism, Stalinism any totalitarianism and autocracy are not vital. Discovered at the beginning of the century SOR as if tried to warn and save humankind from wars and other faults. But unfortunately, peoples didnТt want to accept progressive ideas, supporting national-socialism, communism and fascism. Switzerland is an exception.
There are lots of educational institutions in the capital of Switzerland. ItТs a town of universities. From the site of Bern University you can adore a beautiful view. ItТs symbolic that university stays above the biggest in Switzerland cathedral, the Parliament building and the most beautiful church of Holy Spirit.
So at last I would like to tell you about the training on citizenship in brief. This event was held by the support of the Council of Europe and the European Commission which collaborate in the sphere of development of youth initiatives and informal education for youngsters. Lots of other European organizations are involved in such work. Youth have the same tasks and aims as grownups do, for example: realization of the value of human rights observation, multicultural dialogue and cooperation.
So what is a citizenship education? This is a multilevel and diverse process, including such events as trainings, lectures and videogames. The leading role is given to non commercial organizations, which have practical experience of work in the sphere of human rights and develop different educational progrmmes for citizensТparticipation.
I would like to state a question about a European citizenship in this article: what is it? Do we have to belong to one of the European countries to be a real citizen? What does it mean to be a citizen?
And my answer is that a citizen should feel responsibility for all events happening around them and actively take part in building of reality on the basis of human rights.
So, letТs turn to GoetheТs words: Уonly the whole human being represents a real personФ. It seems that the opportunity to travel, to study foreign languages and culture of different peoples and to take the best in them is the key characteristic of such a citizen and such a person.
Maxim Efimov,
The Chairman of the Karelian Branch of ЂYouth Human Right Groupї.