How was the Forum for you?

We are keen for you to contribute your ideas and reflections on the very first Forum.

Please leave your comments below.

Video of the Omar Faruk & Aisikides concert

With this video of the closing music performance i am wrapping up my participation in this blog. Thank you, ALF, for demonstrating how music bridges cultural gaps.

Carmel Vaisman

people ans dialogue

Hallo every one … over here you can find a photo album for pictures i shotted in the conference .. hope you like it and Enjoy

People and Dialogue

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The Closing Ceremony

This morning we will hear from Andre Azoulay, President of the Anna Lindh Foundation, who will chair the session.

We will hear from the rapporteurs of the various sessions
Ljubov Lisssina (Trajectorya, Estonia) Education, Intercultural Learning and Youth
Serene Huleileh (The Arab Education Forum, Jordon) Cultural and Artistic Collaborations
Garba Diallo (Crossing Borders, Denmark) Creating Spaces of Peace and Coexistence
Mario Alves (ACE ETNIA, Protugal) Cities, Migrants and Diversity
Norbert Hintersteiner (Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin) Religion, Spirituality and Values
Katarina Stigwall (Head of Network Sweden) Medina
Yousri Darwish (Head of Network Palestine) Medina
Carmen Sammut (Euromed Taskforce, Malta)

There will then be an overview by Michele Capasso (Head of Network, Italy) and Andre Claret (Executive Director, Anna Lindh Foundation)

We will then hear from the Euro-Med Award 2010 winners, Combatants for Peace and History in Action.

Following that there will be intstitutional interventions from Antonio Fogué Moya (President of the Diputcaió e Barcelona, Spain), Abdulhadi Majali (President of the EMPA, Jordan) and Abdelmaksoud Rachdi  (Chair of the Euromed Non-Governmental Platform, Morrocco)

Then Andre Azoulay, President will close the forum.

The live blog is here

Free project marketing!

Does your project deserve more visibilty? Do you want more people to know about your project? Are you still looking for partners? If so then why not contact me. We can talk either today or after the forum by email (foxdenuk@gmail.com ) and then your project is featured in the Absolutely Intercultural podcast. It’s that simple. That’s me in the picture so just tap me on the shoulder.

We podcast in English but I could summarise a French interview too.

Anne Fox

http://www.absolutely-intercultural.com

Participation? Run!!

Hi Everyone,

I will try to be as short as my laptop’s battery will allows me, as my charger broke down this morning, and I don’t know what a Blogger like me will do without using his own laptop, my assignment for tonight is to find a computer shop or whatever to buy a new one!

I wanted to comment on what happened on that workshop of the ALF Blogger Network; we were sitting Me, Stephane, Majd, Carmel and Bahz. Then Xavi tried to explain to the people that he will divide them into small groups, and every group will share with us their ideas and thoughts about social media; trying to express their own opinion in both its opportunities and challenges.

9 Persons, that’s was the number or more that ran outside of the room, in a funny shocking way that kept us laughing, okay Xavi stop them! But he was brave enough to prove that this idea of participation is not a movie that you can watch, or a nice show you can laugh or comment on it, but no, it’s a game, that you have to be part of it, and to play it goes.

After the workshop and the live demo on how to become a blogger, I told them that I’m happy with the people who stayed, and for the guys that ran out of the room when they heard the word participation! Come on! Nothing is impossible until proven wrong!

Participate,

Be Active,

Get Involved.

Keep Safe and Brave!

Mohamed Ezz Aldin (Egypt)

Using the internet

Can I just say how strange it is to be participating in a conference of over 800 people, and only have two or three people blogging and twittering?

I know that only a small number of those 800 people work in the media, but we’re all here talking about intercultural dialogue. And one of the main way intercultural dialogue takes place, in the world we live in today, is through the internet. It’s used positively and negatively, to promote dialogue and dissent. And in America, it’s now the third most popular news platform, falling behind local and national television outlets, according to the latest Pew Research Center report released last week.

So where is everyone?

Ethar El-Katatney

Here I start

Here I start. I welcome myself to this new space. Social Media. I have heard about this and read several posts though never thought about being here, sharing and writing. These days I am participating in Anna Lindh Forum 2010 where I got the chance to have a live real blogging experience. I still have difficulty to process all what I learnt these days but I can start with saying that i got to meet amazing people. Young people active in their societies, working non stop for a better life and a better future for our generation and the coming generations. It is amazing to have all this positive energy running all over the space.

This event has been great on several levels, got to meet with friends coming from Palestine, got to meet with Palestinian who broke the siege on Gaza and managed to join us, got to meet with amazing young people and made new friends, got to listen to different speakers who are actually decision makers in youth policy.

We still have a long day.. but as I said before, I just wanted to welcome myself with all of you :))

Saif PYN

A Dialogue-breaker

Everyone talks about dialogue here, but what is the meaning of dialogue? Is dialogue even happening when the parties come with their fixed agenda and just wanna be heard?

I must confess I’m not much of an activist or a political person so I only had 3 genuine conversations with Palestinians in my life (2 of them in ALF) but all 3 left me with little hope of peaceful coexistence in the horizon. Last night at dinner it finally caught up with me: A dialogue cannot happen when there is no real listening. Obviously we grew up on very different narratives we both perceive as the complete truth, and probably both of them aren’t the whole truth. But as long as every Palestinian I meet thinks his narrative is the only truth, how can there be dialogue?

Forum mechanics

Those with an interest in large group dynamics may suggest that more interaction is needed but I witnessed yesterday that simply the suggestion that the audience should discuss a topic in small groups caused a large percentage of the audience to get up and walk out! This was the session on social media and its role in promoting intercultural dialogue so getting the audience to talk to each other was entirely justified and contributed immediately to a blog post on the blog specially created for the forum.

So while many would advocate a more participative approach, it would seem that the participants are not ready for this.