the daily dictator, issue 3

The Dictator on SundaySunday 10 April 2011

The Dictator on Sunday

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All’s well that ends well.

3.The National Drink of EYP

4 Dictators of the day

5 The 6 ways of announcing GA votes

6 Animal Farm

7 Censorship

8 All that EYP does to you

CONTENTS11 Memories

12 EYP <3 Music

14 Did you know?

15 Aunt Gunilla

17 Blond Supremacy

18 Organised Chaos


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The National Drink of EYPVeronica Xanthopoulos

As we all know, EYP is a nation with a core value of providing its members with coffee. For it is only natural that as the hours get longer so does our coffee consumption.

So how does it work? In your brain there is something called ‘adenosine’ that only works on certain receptors, a reaction that causes drowsiness. When caffeine shows up it attaches to the receptors so that the adenosine cannot. Instead the pituitary glands think it’s an emergency and tells the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline. It

will also pump up your dopamine levels.

Below is a series of answers from EYP nation’s members on know -how about our national drink.

1.) On what do coffee beans grow on?From trees, plants, pills, the sky, love.

2.) How was coffee beans originally consumed?As Turkish coffee, pills, beans.

3.) Where do all coffee beans grow?In Brazil, the orga room, on plants, in the Coffee Nation, in

heaven.


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Correct answers:1.) On trees, they can grow up to 30 feet but have been cultivated so that they only grow to 10 feet./ 2.) Eaten, African tribes mixed coffee berries with fat./ 3.) The Bean Belt, the area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Dictators of the day:Jeroen Blom

Richard Tater:

1. Age: 32

2. Reign of power: 2011 - present

3. Terrible deeds: unofficial acquiring of authoritative position; oppression of free press

4. Fun fact: Once in power, the first law Tater proclaimed stated that all is

well. All non-well things and all things that could lead to things being non-well were henceforth abolished.

Alexander Lukashenko:

1. Age: 56

2. Reign of power: 1994 - present

3. Terrible deeds: election fraud; violence against opposition members.

4. Fun fact: Lukashenko admits fraud in the outcome of the 2006 elections. However, he claims that he changed the outcome so as to give his opponent more votes and thus get a more “Western outcome”.


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The 6 ways of announcing GA votesBy Jeroen Blom

Classic: The first method is the one most used in the first few resolutions. The chair (or a delegate) simply reads out the votes in order. No fancy business. Quick and professional.

Personification: In order to stay quick, but have a little more variety in the announcements, the opinions are sometimes related to the topic. For example, on a resolution on preserving the forests, 4 people would be treehuggers (in favor) and 3 people would belumberjacks (against).

Game-related: You can always just do what you love to do: EYP games. Announcing the votes with pass the orange or the pointing game always does the trick.

Song-related: Britney Spears or Big Fat Pony with altered lyrics? Heck yeah! Song-related announcements sound good and look amazing!

Misc: Lastly, there are millions of other ways to announce the votes. It’s all up to you. Be creative and you can vote unanimously against a committee while still making them smile. Make your voice hilarious!


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Benjamin Franklin once said: ”Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting what to have for lunch.” The way democracy is understood, however, has changed a lot since Franklin's days - modern interpretations are varying and often also extremely confusing. By applying the concept of the metaphor it's easy to present the diverse ticks and originalities of democracy around the world. In Sweden the pack spends two days discussing whether they should have sushi or not. By an unanimous vote they then decide to have sushi, because in Sweden even wolves eat it.

Animal farmHammu Varjonen

Arab democracy: no wolves – there are eight unemployed lambs, who have subsidised bread for every meal. In Russia the wolves eat the lamb after it has been stabbed, shot or pushed down from a balcony – no voting procedures needed. In the neighbouring European Union, on the other hand, the lamb uses its veto and nobody gets to eat. The most peculiar system can be found in the United States where instead of two wolves and a lamb there are an elephant and a donkey taking turns trying to eat each other. D e m o c r a t i c systems are hardly based on a quote by Benjamin Franklin, but you can't deny you learnt something from this scribble.

Censorship Current affairs:By Jeroen Blom A free reporter

According to wikipedia, censorship is the suppression of speech or other communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. But what is the value of the speech or communication that makes the censoring of it wrong? The thing here is that censorship by a dictator (especially on the media) will make the media completely left over to the whim and opinion of the dictator. You are told what they want you to hear, not what is actually happening in your backyard. So what will the people think? How will they evaluate the current regime? Of course they will not have heard otherwise than that the dictator has done a great job. They don’t know any better. Without independent media, a considered evaluation of politics is impossible, which gives dictators a free pass to do whatever they want without anyone ever finding out. Censorship keeps itself alive through its own implementation. This is why we must work as hard as possible to keep the country under a controlled authority. Power to the people! Let your voice be heard!

All is well.


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All that EYP does to you….

and that you never realised!Silvia Susach

Sadly, the session is coming to an end. You could have never imagined that the EYP experience would be so enriching and life-changing. Or perhaps you haven’t even realised it yet. EYP opens new paths in our lives, but above all, it connects people from all over Europe that otherwise would never have the chance to meet. People are the main reason why EYP touches our souls and changes us forever. In EYP we develop –very- strong relationships between each other, doesn’t matter where we are from or how different we are. When coming back home, our mind refuses to go back to the “real world”, and we wonder why isn’t there an EYP country to gather all the brilliant people we’ve met and share our daily life with them. For some reason, everyone surrounding us seems to be too… “ordinary”. They don’t even want to dance big fat pony, and according to them, our new habits are a bit awkward. The good news is that, after a couple of weeks, one starts coping with routine again, and P.E.D (post EYP depression) is replaced by gratitude. All these years in EYP have made me understand that no true friendship dies because of the distance. Quoting François de la Rouchefoucauld, “Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire”.


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MemoriesCeren Hazar

This was how we ended the evening activity. It’s not hard to remember, the very last moments of the evening activity; we were dancing like crazy and singing. But before that, of course as us being EYPers we played Teambuilding Games, also maybe the most crowded Truth or Dare all together. Since we are just at the end of the session would you like to take an overview to the session? It shouldn’t be hard to remember the first day of the session, the new EYPers had the excitement of curiosity, the delegates in general were so excited and the officials were so excited that they were going to meet all of you finally. Remember and renew your memories... Map of Europe, teambuilding. Country presentations; UK with masks, French without music, Czechs making fun of themselves... Eurovillage; loads of chocolate, kına, meatballs as the proper food... then the second day again starting with some games followed by tough committee work and finally food in committee dinner. Just remember and renew your memories. And then the 3rd and 4th... I know it is hard to think and pass through all those moments without having tears through your eyes, trying to overcome the emotional moments that you and us, we as whole participants of the session are facing... That’s what we call P.E.D.


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EYP ♥ MusicStephan Larsson

Being a fundamentally youth oriented organisation, the EYP must by default love music. This session is no different. Our dear head organisers Alisa and Rebecca even set up a Spotify account especially for the session, link below.

I think we all know that the Beatles hold a special place in every EYPers heart, after all, Imagine by John Lennon


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is the unofficial EYP anthem. But this does not go undisputed; some find that the song does not represent the EYP values. For example; “Imagine no countries”, “Imagine no religion”. EYP embraces diverse nations with differing cultures and opinions, take Euro Village and Country Presentations for example. But then again, Lennon manages to “save” the song with promoting “a brotherhood of man” and by “Imagining all the people, sharing all the world”.

Another classic is the European Union Anthem, Ode To Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven. Played with varying qualities at all opening and closing ceremonies this is one of the most striking classical pieces ever composed.

On Friday night we witnessed the awesome performance of two live bands and our very own DJ Didrik Helsing. The evening started off with a light dinner followed by the first band called, The Green In My Tea. They were pretty decent, but naturally had difficulties matching the EYP awesomeness when we rehearsed the Apache Dance aimed at bossing EYP Athens. After we nailed the dance, the band tried unsuccessfully to match our mind-blowing display. It was then the turn of the next band called The Drama (available on Spotify) to show some love. Did they succeed? I’m inclined to answer affirmatively, they rocked our socks off! As the night grew darker and the lights dimmed it was Didriks turn to wow us. To describe his performance I’ll borrow a quote from the much-loved How I Met Your Mother character, Barney Stinson. “Are you lactose intolerant? Coz’ that was Legen…wait for it…DAIRY!

http://open.spotify.com/user/ifesstockholm


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Did You Know?Filipo Ranalli

Here comes a short list of curiosities and random facts that will attempt to entertain you, and perhaps turn out to be useful: to begin with, before you pack your bag for Alabama, you should very well keep in mind that it is illegal to sell peanuts in Lee County after sundown, on Wednesdays. If instead you are planning on going to sunny California and you want to respect the State Law, then you ought not to wear cowboy boots unless you already own at least two cows; but, above all, remember to cut your mustache before kissing a woman. Got some slight weight problems? Well, if you bang your head against the wall you might find your shape again, as it consumes 200 calories an hour! Now, what would be more annoying than a wake- up call at 6:00? An alarm clock that could only wake you up at 5:00 a.m., just like the first alarm clock did. If you have misplaced, lost or popped your IFES condom, beware, as an average four years old child asks over 200 questions a day. If instead you are complaining about the actual temperature in Stockholm, perhaps you haven’t heard that Eskimos keep food in the refrigerator to prevent it from freezing. To conclude, did you know that Charlie Sheen banged 7 gram rocks, Rebecca does ice climbing and Caleb acted in a Swedish Mc Donald’s advertisement?


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AUNT GUNILLA TALKS ABOUT GA PSYCHOLOGYIpek Ozsoyy

My little butterflies, regardless the level of our experiences, GA is a word that gives all of us chills on the inside. There are of course some people who live on general assemblies and others who use the GA venue as a group-sleeping session but in general, GA is a word that represents tension and academic stress going hand to hand with possible public humiliation. Soon you will b e

leaving this house and flying on your own. Considering that pressure, it is not hard to assume that your psychology varies and sadly changes during this very final part of the session, affecting your love lives even. That is why, as your soft and caring Aunty, I am going to


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put a spotlight on these psychological conditions that the delegates suffer as a pattern during the General Assembly. 1) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:Delegates with this disorder give themselves away very easily by their repeated behaviour-patterns. This condition generally involves fast foot-shaking (mostly right foot), sketching random stuff to the resolution booklets or constantly playing with a pen.

2) Eating Disorder:This disorder is known as an 'anxiety disorder' sourced by a traumatic stress such as the GA pressure. After a certain amount of psychological spasms and withdrawals of love, the body reacts to the unsatisfied soul with a physical hunger. People suffering from this disorder reveal themselves a lot more during the coffee breaks while they are trying to fit cookies and biscuits in their mouth all at the same time.

-------- see blog for the full article-------- Apart from these, my honeypies, I would like to state that the better of all evils is PED (Post EYP Depression). Before I end this article I also want to mention that many psychological disorders (but only the cool ones) are actually found very attractive by the opposite sex. So these could be your golden ticket in the way to romance. Therefore, try to enjoy this extraordinary GA psychology before you move on to a next chapter in your life with PED, it is never too late to dress up your handicaps and make something Hollywood out of it!


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Blonde SupremacySometimes it happens to be that a “hard-working” journo skips a lunch to finish one of his projects. Consequently, the next minute I found myself walking in the Swedish streets looking for some proper food in one of the many McDonalds you will encounter here. However, instead of finding the specific fast-food place my eyes caught something completely different, blondes. The streets of Stockholm are literally flooded with goldilocks causing every square to light up in a sea of bright reflection. Scandinavia is actually one of the few places where you can still find this, nowadays, endangered species. A majority of the blondes you encounter are either skillfully dyed or just took their chances by doing it themselves, just a small percentages is in fact born this way and they can be found here. To make matters worse, the actual percentage of real golden-haired is drastically declining. If this tendency continues we will, according to extensive research of the the World Health Organization, have a world where the natural blonde will be extinct in approximately 200 years. In the same report they state that the last genuine goldilocks will be born in Finland. My advice: get as much of it as you can while you are here, it might just be the last you will ever get.

With love,Charif van Zetten


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Organised ChaosAn Insight Felix Makarowski

You have all seen us run around, often being thoroughly stressed out, trying to stay on top of things. You might have hated us for rushing you to the busses or enjoyed the coffee breaks we have served, perhaps thinking of those tasty cookies you just ate. However organisers are rarely noticed and therefore I did not find it terribly surprising to hear someone asking: “What is it that you actually do for the session?” Being an organiser means being on your toes, being ready for the unexpected to occur and being there for you at all times. We prepare your coffee breaks, provide your food, make sure the busses are on time, find lost items, and absorb the rage from guests complaining about not having “paid to stay in a brothel” like our hostel while maintaining a positive attitude. In short, we sweat, we bleed, we hurt, and what for?

I have on occasion wondered what I have gotten myself into. The months leading up to the session, trying to maintain a balance between school and EYP, are perhaps not my fondest of memories, and sleeping less than three hours a night is not anything I would normally indulge in.

However, by the end of the day, I’m sure we all feel extremely satisfied with our hard work and knowing that the high expectations for the session have for many participants been more than exceeded.


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the daily dictator, issue 3

Documents

coffee beans

coffee nation

turkish coffee

coffee consumption

eyp nations members

eyp games

reign of power

youcontents11 memories12