Interview: Katharina Moser

Profession Globetrotter

When we put together the words "youth" and "international", immediately young people start wondering about big international events. In EU, we know for sure that travel and free of movement are on the top of their wishes. So we did some questions to Katharina Moser, an Austrian girl that, after being involved in the youthweek event in Brussels and the 18th International Youth Forum in Korea, ready to go to Portugal for the Youth event


By MARCO RICIPUTI
from Ravenna, ITALY


The 12th of August was the 8th International Youth Day introduced by the United Nations with the World Programme of Action for Youth. If you visit the UN website you can find some smart banners with advices like "Most of young people will eventually desist from delinquency behavior". A part of the ironic comments that the motto can inspire, the UN declaration states a list of rights that every countries should guarantee to the young people, such as education, no discrimination, health care, full employment and so on.

In this field, when we put together the words "youth" and "international", immediately young people start wondering about big international events. In EU, we know for sure - merci Eurobarometer - that travel and free of movement are on the top of their wishes. So we did some questions to Katharina Moser, an Austrian girl that, after being involved in the youthweek event in Brussels and the 18th International Youth Forum in Korea, is ready to go to Portugal for the Youth event organized by the presidency of the European Council.

Katharina, where did you find the information for such international youth events?

I found the information on the homepage of the Austrian National Youth Council. You just have to apply for the events you are interested in and most times they don't even have enough people who have time to participate, so it was pretty easy to be accepted.

You were in Korea for the 18th International Youth Forum, how did it work?

We were 100 people from more than 20 countries, who gathered together for a week in this forum, according to the topic "Multicultural society and youth". We had a lot of funny activities as well as cultural performances where each country could present a bit of his culture. Regarding to the outcome of the conference itself I was a bit disappointed, because we had only four hours in which we were asked to make a action plan how youths can participate in the building of a more tolerant and comprehensive multicultural society. So what came out was a nice "bla bla" on tolerance.

In a way this forum was like a big soap bubble, a neutral place where people from so many different religious, cultural and life backgrounds met in order to learn more about others and in the end that interest is what counts.

Did you find differences between the youth generation you met in Europe and the young people you knew in Korea?

I really had the feeling that there are differences, but it's hard to describe them without drifting into clichés. In a way they seemed very young to me. First of course, because they were pretty young, but also because of their behavior. Taking pictures of all together all the time, making victory signs and waving at each other. In Europe not every young person would consider himself as "European" - although I would definitely call myself "European" - and being out of Europe even strengthened this feeling. I think in a way Europeans are more critical, more ironical, their humor is more offensive and maybe even more dirty.

Are you able to keep the contacts alive? Do you have some follow up event locally when you come back?

I'm still in contact with many of the people I met during these events - especially via Internet pages like "facebook" or "MySpace" or we even opened up our own blog where we can communicate.

Did you have some follow up event locally when you come back?

After the "youthweek" we had a follow up meeting with the Austrian participants, one representative from the National Youth Council and one representative from the ministry where we could discuss what happened in Brussels. And afterwards we were even invited to the Ministry of Health, Family and Youth to present our outcome.

Can people with low possibilities participate in such events or is it a matter of money?

Of course they can. In the Brussels event we had a lot of handicapped people or even people with lower possibilities and I found it really interesting, because being with them really helps to reduce prejudices and fear of contact.

Katharina is 23 years old and lives in Vienna, where she is studying Theatre and Cultural studies mixed with other personal interests such as journalism, literature, French and Spanish. She experienced also the European Voluntary Service in Madrid. After that she wrote a "future capital project" about what young Austrians think about the former 15 EU countries and what clichés about these countries exist in Austria. Right now she is writing her second book - this time it is the other way round: about what young people from the 27 EU countries think about Austria.