Photos

Please assist me because I cannot place my comments on the web page. There is something wrong and I cannot see my response on the comments block.

Georgian opposition has reasons to worry about.
The first is artificially increased voter lists in order to rig the election. In 2004, the number of registered voters for the Presidential and the Parliamentary elections was 2,3 million people. Latest data shows that the voter list was increased up to a million since 2004 and currently it constitutes 3,3 registered votes. This data makes us doubt that voters’ list was deliberately swelled up to a million in last four years when Georgia has negative demographic balance and a lot of people have left Georgia for job search reason as well.

Ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili in spite of his resignation continues using the presidential advantages in his pre-election campaign, such as the Presidential helicopter, the Presidential escort, the Presidential residences, the state budget, civil servants and so on. In spite of his resignation he still continues imposing orders for ministers and local authorities.

First of all, I would like to personally thank Bronwyn for having assisted me with login! Many thanks! And many, many thanks to all of you, to those who organized, financed the Belgrade seminar and to those who have contributed to it! I believe that this important and unique experience will stay for long in our minds and influence the way we will have our say in the democratic development of our counrties.

Best regards,

Nodar Tangaishvili from Georgia 

Goodbye, Belgrade; Hello, Washington.

Lets share our favourite quotes and thoughts that we heard during the seminar.

I'd like to ask: do you have the "image of Enemy" in your states?

Yesterday Imedi TV station resumed broadcasting which was closed on 7th November after a police raid. Imedi is back and we hope that freedom of speech never will be under threat again in the country which was called by the President Bush as “the Beacon of Democracy”.

Hope you all get home safe and happy!

After a long fly we safety arrived to Georgia.

Greetings from rainy Bucharest!

We indeed had a great time and here are a few images to further support this: http://picasaweb.google.com/laura.radulescu9/EEYPLS

I'll upload more photos shortly.

I, too, join the group of all those who thank the organizers for the great experience - both professional as well as social - we accumulated during the seminar.

Best,

Laura 

It has been only a day and I want to go back! :)

WOW, we did it!! After weeks of preparation to get everybody to Belgrade and a great four days together, it was a bit sad yesterday to see people take off after lunch to start travelling back to  their home countries. Most people didn't know each other before, but by the time we left, lots of new contacts and friendships had been made.  Everyone worked very hard, but there was also a lot of fun involved. 

Over the coming weeks, the EEYPL team  will work on the website to follow up on the many great ideas and suggestions that you have made to improve the site even further and to make it as easy as possible for people to stay in touch and communicate. We will also carefully study the evaluations to see how we can improve the next time we get together. 

 
If you have ideas that came up only after the seminar, maybe on your way home or when talking with others, we'd love to hear about it! Just send us an email through the site.

It was great meeting you all!

Please stay in touch,

 Uli 

The debate certainly heated up the atmosphere in the room, but it raised no hard feelings on neither sides. Instead, the participants understood that this was a great opportunity to practice their public speaking, debate skills and overall public performance. 

This afternoon, during the flextime, Serbian NGO's organized fair. People could see what the activities of some Serbian political non-government organizations are.

This afternoon some of young leaders had opportunity to prove that they can be good politicians also in front of camera.

The technology will make it increasingly difficult for the states to control the information they own. "The Goliath of totalitarism will be brought down by the David of the microchip!"

This morning program was late, because last night participants of EEYLS Seminar had exciting time in Belgrade clubs. It was really difficult spend night in Plastic Club and be ready for plenary in 9 a.m.

Unfortunately, this is a little dark, but I hope this video will remind everyone of what a great time we had at dinner Thursday night! Did anyone else get any video of all the fantastic dancing?

After dinner, instead of returning back to Sumadia Hotel, several people visited Belgrade clubs. One guy said that he had found himself in bed in 5.17 a.m, but he was ready for workshops in 9 o'clock.

This was different day in the EEYPL Seminar. Instead of afternoon sessions, participants had an occasion to visit Serbian Parliament.

This afternoon one group in the Seminar had a workshop with Bronwyn Bedient (ACYPL). Participants had an opportunity to learn basic elements about http://www.democraticyouth.net.

For some people at Seminar this morning was reserved for Public Opinion Research. Jamie Fisfis (IRI) based his speech on focus groups.

This morning we realized why we should use focus groups. If we want to understand our target electorate better, to learn "code language" we can use to bond with voters, we have to use this way of researching public opinion.  Politicians should listen voters. Good political slogans come from the opinion of focus groups.

Jamie Fisfis described that focus group looks like this: a moderator and 8-12 "smiling faces". The participants are smiling because they got money for taking part, but the moderator shouldn't smile. That person has to be neutral, to stop people in group who are talking too much, to give everyone the opportunity to say what he has. 

Doing focus groups can be expensive, but politicians should do that. If they don't have money for focus groups, they can ask the voters for their opinion by phone. It's better than nothing. Using focus groups can be useful. Good information from public opinion can change position of candidates in political race. 

We can analyze different things in public opinion. Let's ask voters:

"If Republic elections were held on Sunday, which party you would vote for?" 

Participants had to introduce themselves to someone they had not had met before and kiss them 3 times…

The participants started the afternoon of the first day of the EEYPL Seminar, by splitting into smaller groups. The four topics that they discussed were…

Hi!

I'm Jasmina Lazovic and I'll inform you about Seminar in Belgrade. I'll be with you when Dragana Markovic isn't there. I'm happy because I'm going to meet you.

Have good time in Belgrade!

 ...politicians are dealing with them only during their pre-electoral campaigns, and afterwards, forget about them....

 Mr. Michael Harvey, USAID Mission Director for Serbia and Montenegro pointed out five things we should always keep in mind!

 ''People are leaving, because they do not want to ruin their lives by staying here, but I decided to stay and fight!''

 We had a chance to hear suprisingly pleasant news - Serbian government is working on the Strategy for Youth, together with the NGOs and civil society sector…

Hello everybody!

My name is Dragana, and I will be informing you on everything that is going on in the Seminar. I am very much looking forward to meeting you all! Wish you a pleasant stay in Belgrade.

Finally! Welcome to Belgrade! 

My name iz Zeljka Kasagic. I've been working with NDI for eight years now and I am the Youth Program Manager.  Together with my colleague Voja, I will be the person you can talk to regarding anything related to this conference (the travel, the logistics, the program... etc.) I wish you great time in Belgrade, adn I am sure you will learn a lot, make great friends and feel very proud of yourselves  - for you are your countries' representatives! Enjoy, and please feel free to ask for  any information you need!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted you all to know that we've just posted information about seminar logistics on the seminar homepage.  The logistics page tells you more about getting to Belgrade and what to do when you arrive there; there's also contact information for the seminar organizers in case you need further assistance.

If you're going to the seminar and haven't yet taken the short survey on internet use, please fill it out right away.  The survey is for all participants to complete - your responses are collected anonymously and will not be shared with anyone outside of the EEYPL organizing team.

I'm leaving for Belgrade tomorrow night, and I can't wait to meet all of you! 

Hello to everyone!

My name is Zoran Vojnovic Voja, office manager of the NDI office in Belgrade and the key logistic man for this upcoming event. I would like to welcome you all and to remind you once again that during these five days of your stay in Belgrade I will be fully on your disposal to all the matters concerning organization of this event.

Have a nice stay in Belgrade, a lot of great time and, I hope, lots of sunshine.

Cheers!