Project 'Meet a muslim person'

We had a field trip with our class that included a visit to mosque. I have been to mosque already, but just for a short time and we didn't talk to anyone. This time, we had a chance to talk to a imam, a Muslim religious leader. 

I have to admit, that I didn't know a lot about Islam before and I am not proud of that. I also had some prejudices in my mind before I came in Amsterdam, because I was also under mpact of massive media image that is shown to us. I never had Muslim friends, the only contact I had was a friend from my parents, from Egypt. 

Imam we were talking to in Amsterdam, really helped me to get a clearer picture about Islam and Muslim people. It was so nice listening to him, when he was talking about what their religion is about. Things a remembered the most were: ' There is only one language spoken all over the world, and that is a smile, kindness and love.' 'We are all brothers and sisters, we have the same father and mother. Doesn't matter who they are; Muslims, Christians, Jews, we share our love and goodness to everyone.' 

That really made me think how wrong a non-muslim thinking about muslims is. The only goal they have is to share love and happiness to everyone. Their religion is nothing about hurting others. But of course, like everywhere, there are some individuals who interpretate the message wrong and start theri own groups, which are not what Islam is about. And only these people come in the news. That's why a lot of people have completely wrong image about Islam and until they won't open their minds a little, nothing will change. No one ever puts in the news how Muslim man helped someone. That's why I decided to share a video clip I found on YouTube, about three young Muslim guys, who decide to share kindness in New York, to show people the true purpose of their religion. 

In NewYork, 3 muslim guys started a project with a name 'Meet a muslim person'. The reason for this was to stop Islamophobia and show people that not all Muslims are terrorists like a lot of people think because of image massive media created. Their goal was to share love, kindness and joy to others. 

These 3 boys insipired other muslim people over the world to start the same project in different cities. For now mostly in USA, but there was also the same project in Germany. Reactions of people were very nice, treated with respect towards muslim people, exepct of some rare islamophobic reactions that are hard to avoid. I think their project and message was very clear, brave and insipiring and they are already changing the mind of the society. Slowly, but at least it started. 

Community Oudezijds 100

I would like to dedicate this blog to a Christian community Oudezijds 100, which offers to help people on the fringe of society in the city of Amsterdam. Their doors are open for everyone who needs help in one point of life, when they feel lonely, helpless or when all this leads to homelessness, addictions, weak social network and financial difficulties.

They work together as a big family, so everyone gets something and gives something back to the community. They cook together, clean, go on holidays, babysit, learn how to pray, handle money, establish social contacts etc.  Even if people think they just hit rock bottom and they have nothing to give, there is always something in what they can participate so they can start feeling alive and useful. They give help and they receive help.

There are people living in this community who made a vow that they will carry the daily responsibility for the life of the broader community in all aspects. They made a commitment to each other on the basis of their calling to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ, in the city of Amsterdam.  Big parts of Oudezijds 100 are also volunteers, who are not paid for their job in this community. They work as social workers, doctors, coordinators of technical services and supervisors of residents and they don’t want to do it for the money but because their work is something they believe in and something they want to share.

Besides 10 people who made a vow together to take care of community, ‘members’ come and go all the time. Ones who need help usually stay for 6 months or one year and then they can start living on their own again. If this is not the case, they of course don’t throw them out, but they keep helping them to put their life back on track so they can start living independently again.

During the visit, I was very interested if they accept also people who are not Christian and the answer was yes. Their religion plays a very big role in their lives, and they showed us it is not focused only on people with the same belief, but on everyone who is in need of help. They only said that, if you didn’t make a vow as they did, they don’t think you can be as committed as they are, because they feel they have been called from Jesus to do this work on Earth.  As much as I heard that day, I have to say these are people with a very big heart, where religion plays a very big role and is a guide in their everyday life. I personally think also people who don’t have such a strong faith can be prepared to help others and dedicate a life or part of their life to others who need help.

I respect people who decide not to judge and are willing to listen and accept anyone, no matter what race, religion, ethnics or gender a person is. We need more of that, because our world is becoming more full of prejudices and I think it can happen to anyone that in one point of life you have nowhere to go, on noone to rely on and people like Oudezijds 100 Community are worth more than we can ever imagine in that moment. 

Prostitution in Slovenia: Decriminalised but still stigmatized

In the year 2003, prostitution in Slovenia was decriminalized, which means it is not seen as a criminal act anymore, but people still can’t register it as working industry. They have civil rights and it is a free act of individual, but only for persons who actually do the work. Pimp is still seen as a criminal and so are other people who encourage women and men to work as prostitutes.  So whoever works as a sex worker doesn’t have to pay taxes, they can keep all their money for themselves because their field of work is not registered as a work line.  By the latest non-official findings we can say that this industry makes 40 – 50 million euros per year.

The most common type of prostitution is ‘housing’ prostitution and prostitution in night bars and clubs. Women who would reveal themselves on the streets are very rare. The amount you have to pay for half an hour is between 50 and 150 euros. It depends on age, looks and experiences of sex worker. The easiest way to get in contact with them is by using big phone books and web sites made especially for that. By the research made in 2003, there was around 3000 prostitutes in Slovenia, 600 of them were students. The most common reason why they decide to start with this is because they need more money. There are mostly women who do this kind of work, average age from 18 – 55. It is also known, that prostitution in Slovenia is on a higher level, which means women often work as escorts for home or foreign business men, with extra payment for sex. There is also a lot of prostitution in hotels and ‘closed' bars and parties.  So overall, it is happening behind closed doors, not out on the open, where everyone can see them. There is still very big stigma about sex workers, despite removing this area out of criminal acts. Some professionals think, and I agree with it, that stigma against them is still existing because it was known as illegal and criminal for such a long time, that it’s going to take a while until people realize, this is also work and it shouldn’t be seen as ‘wrong’ forever.

I thought that most girls who are working as prostitutes in Slovenia are immigrants, but as the research from EU states, this is not the case. Around 30% of them are from different countries, mostly Ukraine, Czech and Poland, others are Slovenian. Average amount of immigrants working as prostitutes in other countries from European Union is 60% out of all registered sex workers. In Slovenia, there are three big cities which are more known for people working this kind of job. Two of them are in north-east, where in the past, there was a lot of bordellos, which are now by law forbidden.

On the internet I found an interesting interview with a girl, who is a student and working as sex worker for 6 years now. She was the first girl in Slovenia who was brave enough to step in front of camera, reveal her identity and answer a lot of questions about prostitution and her own experience with it. To summarize all important information she gave to the reporter: She started at the age of 14, because she needed money for books, paying school, food. When the interview was made, she had 20 years old, a child and a partner, but still working as a sex worker. She also had a husband before, but it didn’t work out. She says neither husband nor partner disagree with her job. Her record was 24 clients in 8 hours, which means 1200 euros if she charged 50 euros per client. In the interview she says, she has a plan to stop doing this at the end of the year, now for real.

Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzWBK5aWW50

There is also a movie called Slovenka (Slovenian girl), which talks about a Slovenian girl, who studies in Ljubljana (the capital), while in secret working as a prostitute. It is actually very similar to the real life story of a girl who gave public interview about it. And the movie is definitely worth watching it. It shows the real picture of life of some students, who start doing this so they can afford paying for their studies and basic needs a human being has to satisfy. 

Movie trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/withoutabox/vi2807169561?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

Paris - the city of superdiversity

I spent a weekend in Paris with my flat mates, so I had a chance to experience and observe superdiversity. I can absolutely confirm that there is A LOT of people from so many different ethnics, religions, race, nationalities,… In these three days, I took a moment from time to time and just watch people crossing the street, walking by, talking to each other, hurrying somewhere, so just observing different people passing by, without them even noticing me. It is amazing how many different cultures there are in one big city. It is actually a world in one city, as it is said in an article about Superdiversity, written by Steven Vertovec. Everyone is mixed together and it looks like they are doing great. We of course didn’t have time to dig deeper into social construction and relations between people, but as I saw, everyone is accepted there. At least on the outside. I don’t know how are the close relations between people, and if they hang out more with their own ethnics, race, religion, but as we were walking true the city and saw some ‘very different’ people, only we were turning around and looking at them. Everyone else just passed, like they are used to literally everything. This could also mean, that people are living one past another, so they are being very impersonal to strangers, not looking at them, not saying hello or give a small smile as a greeting. Maybe that’s a thing that happens in such big cities as Paris is. Since I am living in Amsterdam, I didn’t get this feeling at all. The city is smaller, which I like, people are friendlier, speaking better English, not so impersonal and more willing to help. I also noticed that Paris is very unfriendly to disabled people. There is no way for people who are on a wheelchair to go to metro. There is a lot of stairs everywhere you go  on a metro, long hallways to come from one track to another and no elevator or ramp for people who can’t walk. So they have to take a bus or some other transportation, otherwise they just can’t go from one destination to another.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed our weekend trip and I enjoyed Paris. It is a beautiful city, with a lot of people, a lot of tourists, and a lot of nice places to visit. It is a little too big for me personally, because I am used to very small cities and countryside, but I will never be sorry that I visited it. Maybe I even come back so I can experience the love and romantic atmosphere Paris is known about, because I couldn’t actually do that in a package with 4 other girls now. J

Paris - the city of love and romance, they say

Dialogical self

In this entry, I am gonna talk about an article that is about a young boy, whose name is Zach, age 17, who 'came out' as being gay when he was 14 years old. It is describing his struggle thru primary school, when he didn't want to admit to himself that he is gay. His parents were and still are supporting him one hundred percent and when he came out, his life turned upside down. He had problems with his schoolmates and neighbors his age, because they were teasing him all the time and calling him by insulting nicknames. But when he started high school, his life became better, he got a lot new friends, he is now participating in singing and drama groups, and he also won the middle school's top vocal award. He said his social life sky-rocked in sophomore year.

In the beginning of an article, there is an obvious struggle between identities in a young boys mind. He didn’t want to admit to himself that he’s gay, because that was not what society was searching for. All boys from his class were talking about girls, and which one do they like, but he didn’t feel that way. He couldn’t say which one he likes. From desperation, he invited one girl to a school dance event, just so others would think that he likes girls too. He didn’t allow himself to be what he wants to be. He just wanted to fit in a society. He was coping with two different voices in himself, and he wanted to shut one down. Because of that, he was angry, unhappy and had really low self-esteem.  Like Herman and Dimaggio are saying in their article about Self, Identity and Globalization, personal voices of individuals or the collective voices of groups enter the self –space and form positions that agree or disagree with or unite or oppose each other. In this case, voices formed positions that opposed each other. That’s what this young boy was fighting with. He had two different identities in himself, and he wanted one of them to disappear, but that was not possible, because this identity was too strong. Because of that, he was bad at school, depressed, fighting with parents, etc. ‘Within us are contradictory identities, pulling in different directions, so that our identifications are continually being shifted about. ‘(Hall 1992: p. 277)

He had two different voices in conflict. He wanted to be a ‘normal’ boy, but he knew something doesn’t allow him to be like others. He tried to push the voice, which was telling him, he is gay, down. His parents asked him, if he is gay, before he even knew by himself that he is. And he didn’t want to hear anything about it. But, when he decided to let the other voice come on the surface, the process of forming and developing an identity started.  Reffering to Hermans and Dimaggio, dialogical voices can be reasoned and emotional. They can argue, negotiate, convince, and shout, accuse, beg, laugh and cry, express anger, joy, sympathy love, fear… These are just a few ways in which people relate to their environment and to themselves. At first,  Zach was coping with strong emotions of fear, anger and sadness. His parents helped him in best possible way, in my opinion. They found him a gay therapist, who found Zach a gay youth group, so he had people like him around himself. They helped him to start building his own ‘bonding’ social capital. This concept is formed by Putnam and it means that Zach started to ‘bond’ with people who have similar interest as him, belong to a same group as him, they share same values, mainly, they are very similar to each other. Bonding social capital results from in-group trust and is very important in difficult emotional situations. When an individual knows, that there is someone else, who is going thru a very similar challenge in life as he/she is,  person starts feeling better about himself and about solving the problem, because she/he knows he is not left alone with it. It is important just to talk to somebody, it doesn’t have to be a solution right away. Bonding social capital makes people stronger and more optimistic about themselves and their future. And that is why Zach felt much better about himself after he joined gay youth group. He also let his other voice to be free and speak for itself. He started to feel good in his body, his self-esteem raised and most important, he found a way to communicate with his dialogical self. He let the voice about him being gay, become stronger and help him to evolve his personality. That reduced his previous experience of uncertainty about himself and the world around him.

I think this article is a very good example of how to help young people, who are struggling with evolving their own identities. It is very important, that parents are supporting their children with being what they want to be. Adolescents need a support of their parents more then they realize. Second most important thing is, helping a child to create his own social capital, and a net of friends, with which he is comfortable with. Otherwise he won’t be able to develop his personality in a way he would want to. All of this is very crucial in my profession, because I think we’re going to deal with lots of cases like this, and we should know how to approach them, so we can help them the best way we can. Without prejudice and discrimination, we have to find a way to help youngsters develop themselves in a way that is suitable for them and not only for society. 

Tetterode Amsterdam - Metelkova city Ljubljana

We visited an occupied house few weeks ago, where one of our schoolmates lives. At first I didn’t really know what to expect, because I wasn’t familiar with the concept of squatters and occupied buildings, but now after this great trip true the whole building with our own tour guide, I am much more educated about it. 

When I was on my way back home for a weekend, I was reading a flight magazine during the flight, and there was an article about a very known area in the capital of Slovenia, where a lot of art, music, culture and theater shows are shown. It is called Metelkova mesto(city). I actually didn’t know this is an occupied place, until I read the article. I’ve been there already and it is very artistic, maybe already a bit weird for no-artist people. It is designed in the other way then Tetterode in Amsterdam. There are no people living, like in Tetterode. And it is much smaller, it doesn’t have any real shops, factories or offices. It is more dedicated to artists, who have their studios there. Metelkova is also very popular with young people who belong to different alternative subcultures like punk, rave, metal, hip hop, hippie… It is also known as a place where a lot of people are using drugs, such as young people who are going on a party and having predrinks there and regular drug users. I was there only a few times when I was in my first year of high school, and since then I only walked pass it. I was never a really big fan of it, but if you see it in daytime first, I think it is much more interesting. It has a different concept then Tetterode in Amsterdam, but it is still very useful for different kinds of artists and other culture activities.

Metelkova city

I was very fascinated by Tetterode, because I really didn’t imagine this house to be so multifunctional. It has many apartments, art studios, metal factory, small shoe factory, night club, social work office  and everything in one building. One of my schoolmates lives there, so we also had a chance to see one of the apartments from the inside and it was great. Rent is very low for Amsterdam, but they also have some down sides because of it, such as bad isolation – as the person who also lives there told us. People in the building feel like they are one big family, because they all know each other and most of them live there for many years already. Some of them are there since the beginning. There are more places like Tetterode in Amsterdam, and I am glad we had a chance to visit this one, because now I know better what the concept of squatted house is and how life is taking place there. 

6 girls, 5 countries

I live with German, English, Belgian and two Danish girls. So there are 5 different nationalities in our flat.  On one side, we have very similar cultures, but on the other side, we are all different from each other. I will give just everyday examples. A difference between English people and all of us who live in that flat is that they don’t wash the soap off the dishes when they wash them. At first I thought my flat mate forgot to do that, but now I know that’s how they wash dishes. I also noticed we have different types of meals over the day. I usually cook something for lunch, and for breakfast and dinner I eat something similar to a snack (sandwich, fruit, vegetables etc.). Danish and English people always cook a big meal in the evening, for dinner. And their lunch is more like my dinner. I found it interesting how me and my flat mate from Germany are making coffee for ourselves. We often drink coffee together, and not long ago I noticed that we make coffee the opposite way of each other. I put coffee in the cup first, then boiled water, and then milk. She first puts milk in the cup, then boiled water, and at the end coffee. And one thing, that was quite weird for me is, that people I got to know here, always put a salad on the same plate as main meal. When I had lunch with my Estonian and German friends, we cooked pasta and salad for the side meal. They all put a salad from the big bowl, and put it on their plates with pasta on it. So I asked If I can eat a salad from a big bowl, because we all do that in my country. And they thought I am joking or something, because they don’t do that at all. It is weird for them to eat a salad from one bowl. I always do that with my family or if me and my friends have a lunch together at someone’s home. So I felt like a cave men, because one girl said, that they did that in their country maybe 100 years ago. I mean, come on! We are not that behind! I just don’t like mixing food on my plate. Main meal is main, and salad is a side meal. So at least extra small bowl for a salad would be nice.   

We had a ‘family dinner’ with my flat mates, and as I already said, we are from Slovenia, Germany, Belgium, England and Denmark, so it would be interesting if we would have some kind of euro dinner, local food from our countries. But no, we chose to cook Mexican food. So if you want to try non-european food, and meet european girls, our flat is the right place to come. 

Bike Adventures

I got a bike! Well, actually I already have it for 14 days now, but it is still exciting. I bought it at Waterlooplein market, that’s an outside market place in the city centre where you can find anything you want - clothes, shoes, jewelry, souvenirs, food, bikes, bike chains, lockers,… Bike is one of the most important things you have to buy, if you live in Amsterdam. I knew that before I even came here. So now I have my own bike and I already feel more Dutch. Of course I am still a bit clumsy on my bike, because it is an old one with pedal breaks, and I’m used to drive my ‘mountain’ type bike with hand brakes. Well, actually I am not used to drive bike at all anymore, because since I have my motorbike and a car at home, I stopped driving my bike. And it would be really hard for me to go to school or to the city center with bike in my country, because we have a lot of hills everywhere. I am already sweating here, when I come from my place to the city, because I’m living in Diemen (7km from the city center), but in Slovenia, I think I would need a shower and fresh clothes if I would go to school with a bike. It's also quite a distance from my home to school here in Amsterdam, but hey, at the end of semester, i will have awesome sporty legs because i bike at least 15km a day. And that's why it's worth it. :D It has also good and bad side when we're leaving a party in the city, and some of us have to drive 20 minutes to come home. Usually, we are all very tired of course, so just a thought on biking so far is exhausting, but on the other hand, everytime me and my flatmates cycle back from the party together, we have an awesome funny story to tell the other day :) 

I love colourful stuff, so I had to paint my bike. Now it's even cooler! 

I saw that Dutch people don’t actually consider traffic lights important. So, I thought I don’t have to do that either. It turned out, that was a bad idea, because I don’t really know the system here, and I almost got killed two times, when I wanted to be brave like Dutch people on bikes. So from now on, I think I’m going to stop when a light is red, and start when a light is green. Oh and what about the chaos on the bike road! Almost everyone is in a hurry, and god help the pedestrians on the bike road. These are probably tourists, and everyone hates them. I think I am starting to feel annoyed by them too. Because it is true, if you are in a hurry, and there is a group of tourists on the bike road, they are all occupied with their cameras, and all the sightseeing, so they don’t even see you coming. That’s why, we have to stop our perfectly good journey to work/school/meeting, whatever, and avoid the group of tourists. But still, everything is so exciting for me now, that I am not really angry at them, because I kind of feel like one myself. I still stop and take pictures of nice places, or just from some typical Amsterdam houses, canals and stuff. My friends here are making fun of me, that I am still such a tourist. But why not? I think I can be local and tourist at once. Local on the bike, and tourist in the free time J  

First impression

I arrived in Amsterdam in the middle of August, to get to know the city a little better, before my exchange programme starts and to  participate in the Introduction week of ISN. In this week I met so many students from all over the world I couldn’t even follow anymore. They were from all over Europe, USA, Australia, Asia,… I’ve never met so many different people from so many different countries before. It’s actually quite impossible to do that in Slovenia, because it’s not very known country, so not a lot of foreign students go to visit it or go study there.

I noticed quite quickly that Amsterdam is much more diverse in all aspects, than Slovenia, or if I compare it to Ljubljana, the capital. We don’t have as much cultures on one place as here in Amsterdam. But I think this would be great for Slovenian people, because most of them are really controversial and getting to know more cultures and people from different ethnic background would help them see, that there is a lot of nice people outside of Slovenia too. More and more young people decide to study or work abroad, so at least we can share our experiences and maybe try to change opinion of controversial Slovenians.

A big difference between Dutch and Slovenian people is also in communication. Dutch guys are so straight forward that I was really surprised for the first few times, when they just said whatever they wanted to. We are usually not like that. A joke made up from Slovenian people is that Slovenian national sport is gossip. But that’s actually true. I mean, we also have a lot of very good sportsman on a lot of different fields of sport, so don’t think that’s all we can do. But it is true, that Slovenians just don’t say everything they want to. They just keep it to yourself and then talk about that with a friend. And that’s very bad. I like honesty of Dutch people, and I’m getting used to it. Oh, and another thing that shocked me was, that Dutch men don’t buy drinks to girls.. I found out about that on introduction week, when we were talking with our Dutch coach and people from my group and he said: ‘Why would you do that? Why would you buy a drink for a girl?’ And of course the reaction of ALL of us was: ‘woow, what!?’ We are from all over Europe, USA, Asia, and Australia and for all of us it’s normal, that a guy comes to you in the club or if you’re on a date he offers you a drink and of course also pays for it. But not Dutch guys. If you go on a date with a Dutch guy, you pay for your own drink and he pays for his own drink. That’s how it goes here. And don’t expect that a Dutch guy will come to you in the club and offer you a drink. You’re now in Netherland, so you pay for your own drink, or find a guy who is not Dutch if you want a free drink. ;) 

from the back: Turkish, Slovenian, American, Australian and Dutch guy's head . :)