St. Donats!

Location: St. Donats Castle, UWC Atlantic College
Artist: Maisie Brett

Ode to Bristol Channel

 

Fat, engorged

the beer foam flies

with a calm fury and

floats, drifting.

The froth, thick

on the lips,

the cusp, gathers a cloud

of child’s play,

of salt sea spray.

A cappuccino top, a storm

in a teacup

spilling over the edge.

- Karen Hui (UWC AC 11-13)

IMAGE: Location: Seafront, UWC Atlantic College    Photographer: Karen Hui

UWS Cambodia Summer Project 2013 (promo)

Contributed by: UWS Cambodia Summer Project Team 2013

UWS Summer Project in Cambodia is a great volunteering opportunity in the United World Schools located in Cambodia.

Role description for a UWS Volunteer Teacher:
UWS volunteering is a challenging and exceptionally rewarding experience for young people who want to test themselves, take part in an adventure and develop life-long skills, while making a real difference to and creating opportunities for children from some of the poorest parts of the world.

Desired skills and attributes of volunteers:
- Passion for helping others and taking action to improve the quality of life of people in post conflict and poverty stricken areas
- Self-motivated and resilient
- Proactive and prepared to take initiative in challenging situations, have a can-do, problem solving attitude
- Self-confidence and high level verbal and nonverbal communication skills
- Considerate, tolerant and compassionate for others

Responsibilities:
- Participate in the village school as a teacher
- Work alongside the village school teachers to promote learning
- Interact with the students, particularly to promote engagement and creativity
- Encourage creativity to develop thinking, and to teach literacy and numeracy
- Prepare for time spent in schools by creating resources and planning lessons
- To fully research and develop cultural awareness of the individual villages
- To liaise and follow the direction of the country educational manager

Relayed by Neha Sharma (UWC AC ’12-’14, India) (United Words Team)

India Summer Project 2013 (promo)

Contributed by: India Summer Project Team 2013.

The warm sun falls through the curtains upon your face, urging you to rise. You sigh deeply, inhaling the air: Indian air. For as long as you can remember, you have been waking up to the view of blue, grey and green, the crisp water, the imposing castle and the glimmering jade grass: a-topped with morning dew. The memory floods back of the long flight and the impossible visa application, yet it was all worth it. The daily morning assembly with the children initiates the day, they will sing their national anthem, reaffirm their promise of striving to better themselves, as well as their usual morning exercises. It is the final day of the weeklong summer camp for the children of Sneha Care Home and Shining Star School, before their term starts of which you shall be teaching a class for two weeks. These children amaze you, they are some of the most lively people that the world has known- sometimes as a leader you find them a bit too lively! They have come from some of the worst walks of life, utter poverty that has prevented them from having their condition being attended to: HIV or HIV/AIDS. Coming to volunteer at Sneha, you have been given an insight into the best possible help for children with this condition and you’re proud to be a part of it. You are a student of the United World College of the Atlantic, and you really are making a difference. You smile; today is going to be a good day.

Relayed by Neha Sharma (UWC AC ’12-’14) (United Words Team)

CRISIS

 Ioannis Alexiou (Greece) (UWC-AC ’12-’14)

CRISIS: comes from the Greek word κρίνω (verb)(judge) -> κρίσις (noun)(crisis) –> crisis (Latin) –> crisis (English) –> crises (French) –> Krise (German)

Any crisis in the world economical, social, political and any other form of crisis is creating problems in everyone’s life. In the past few years we can easily see all around the world political, economical and social crises, sometimes even together.

In 2008 we saw the crisis in the U.S.A. with the bank system collapsing on its own dept and many people becoming homeless.

By the end of 2009 we saw a similar type of crisis appearing, in Greece, which forced Greece to enter the IMF in 2010.

In the beginning, with the entrance of Greece in the IMF, the whole EU had serious reasons to believe that Greece was a huge drawback in the whole EU’s economy. After Greece there were many countries entering the IMF, like Ireland and Portugal, and simultaneously there were many countries which were about to enter the IMF and go into the deep waters of an economic crisis.

La Casita

Heidi Egeland (Norway, UWC AC 2011-2013)

Testimonial for my time as a volunteer at “La Casita” Summer of 2012.

 

June 2012 was a very special month of my life. I flew from Europe to Argentina, with a good friend from Atlantic College, Chloé, to volunteer at a day centre for poor children in the province of Buenos Aires called Escobar.

 

When Chloé and I arrived by bus to Escobar, we did not speak very much Spanish and looked quite conspicuous as two blond Europeans among all the Argentineans. But we needed not to worry; soon afterwards we were picked up by Brenda Lynn Hibdon, the volunteer coordinator, and Rodrigo Cuevas, the founder’s son of La Casita. Instantly we felt safe and welcome as if we had known Brenda and Rodrigo for a very long time. They both speak perfect English, which made the whole introduction very smooth.

Ryan in Israel

Ryan Michael Chin (Singapore) (UWC AC ’11-’13)

‘Is that Walter?’ I thought to myself as I waited awkwardly at the departure gate. Luckily for me it was. And that was how I began my journey on the Arava Valley of Peace UWC Short Course. Basically the course was one situated in Israel and was aimed at bringing 6 Palestinians, 6 Israelis and 8 International Students together to learn about Peace Resolution and Sustainable Green Technologies in the desert.  We travelled from the desert Kibbutz to the modern and upcoming Tel Aviv, from the Historical Old city of Jerusalem to the touristy destination of Eilat.

BRICS and NATO – Political and moral motivation for intervention, with special focus on Syria and Iran.

Karabo Victor Mokgatle & Tariq Abid (ACUWC ’11-’13)

The argument for intervention in both Syria and Iran is one presented in such a manner as to appear a question of moral convention, for the longer-term goal of establishing peace. The goal of the past Think Tank session was to discern whether or not the obligation to intervene created by a moral responsibility to end the conflict can be met by the powers to be, either BRICS or NATO; the following is what the Think Tank has explored and resolved:

It was understood that in the status quo, considering the fact that BRICS does not have a coherent military organization and none of its members have shown the intent to intervene unilaterally, the Think Tank could only earnestly consider NATO to intervene within the conflict, either collectively or by some of its members.

At this point in time, any tangible intervention by the powers to be within Syria, mainly U.S. and it’s Western allies cannot achieve the ultimate long term objective of peace, as due to historical baggage and like wise, they cannot maintain the moral credibility and impartiality obligated by a humanitarian mission. Some members also observed that this is further aggravated by the fact that a major consideration in the policy formation of these nations is preoccupied with maintaining Israeli security and possibly furthering its objectives, which will inevitably lead to a digression from the honest pursuit of peacekeeping. Therefore, there remains a plausible chance that in case of such an intervention, the intervening party might fail to remain a purely impartial adjudicator, and instead allied to its own agenda or partially or completely allied to one of the conflicting parties. This would probably defeat the purpose of the peacekeeping intervention, as such a pursuit would lead to the opposite result. For instance, it might simply result in the empowering of one party over another, leading to a suppressed minority and an eventual

The discussion in the case of Iran focused mainly on Iran’s nuclear capability and whether or not the possession of nuclear arms by this country would necessarily result in its use against its adversaries, mainly Israel. Owing to the fact that the Think Tank believed that Israel needs to create periodic military conflict within the region in order to maintain a security by the way of maintaining conventional military superiority; there was an argument presented that Iran’s acquirement of nuclear weapons might act as a deterrent to conflict of this kind. However, the Think Tank did observe that this might lead to the development of nuclear weapons by other regional states such as Saudi Arabia, etc. which might lead to its own ramifications. However for the time being the Think Tank did not foresee a way to prevent the inevitable conflict between Israel, Iran and possibly other regional powers. Chiefly because of the fact that most of the Middle Eastern population remains inherently opposed to Israel and to prevent any consequences of such Israel will be forced to remain on the verge of conflict inside the region.

-United Words Team in collaboration with AC Think Tank-

Syrian Turkey Conflict – Is War Most Likely to Happen?

Aineen Ilmi Husna Nazrei (Malaysia)(UWCAC ’12-’14)

October 3^rd marks the beginning of the horrendous conflict between Turkey and Syria that lasts until this moment. It is inaugurated by the death of five members of a family when a shell landed in their yard.  Following the bloodshed in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, Turkish fighter jets have carried out multiple strikes on Syrian targets, including a military camp belonging to President Bashar Assad. Numerous Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed.

Dive deeply into the pool called Cambodia (Part II)

Back from the dark history, in a quite black mood, I am amazed by Cambodia people. I only mentioned the material lives of Cambodian people at the beginning, because I am saving the description of their spirit lives to here. They are very different from people who just experienced unbearable disasters which can be called genocides. Kids were laughing all the time. They always blinked their big bright eyes which are like black pearls. I was teaching music there. Even young toddlers came to my lessons. They were sharing the same carefree joys with kids from different backgrounds all over the world. There was no exact difference between these kids and the ones from families in peaceful developed countries. I felt and was moved by this special linkage between them and the world although they are almost separated from the outside. And the adults there were the most trustworthy and believable people I have met. They had no ideas of how to lie and being bad to people. It was funny that these adults were even more shy than kid when talking to us.

Dive deeply into the pool called Cambodia (Part I)

Ruyi Shen, UWC Atlantic College(11-13)

If anyone asked me what I would do for summer holiday in 2012 a few years ago, I would never imagine that I could be in the poorest part in Cambodia, deep in the jungle.

On the way to a village in a jungle, a massive obvious cleared empty field jumped out in front of me. The head of the project, Chris (a retired British teacher who is an AC alumnus) pointed at it, joking that it is Chinese company’s main contributions along with Japanese’ and American’s. Yes, these are logging fields. Woods here are cut everywhere. People who buy the lands to cut trees can get a proportional small extra land for free. The worst part of the whole thing is that these land owners are robbed the lands without the chance to complain. I feel like these cleared fields are like dishonorable scars of the land. I wonder how long it is going to take for the land to recover from it. To develop, or to sacrifice the lands and woods, it is always like a dilemma

India Summer Project 2012 – Bangalore

Emily Cunniffe (Ireland/UAE, UWC AC UWC AC 2011-2013)

I walked out of Bengaluru Airport, pushing through the crowds only to hit a wall of sweltering heat. All I had in my hands was a taxi company name, my passport, a suitcase and an address. An adventure is what they tend to call this kind of thing. I guess, it sort of was. After a slight moment of disorientation, I found the recommended taxi company and wearily watched two men fight over my suitcase.  I clambered into a taxi and only hoped my suitcase was in the same vehicle ( the driver assured me it was!). Half way through the drive, we had apparently stopped for a bathroom break. My taxi driver leaped out of the car and ran around the corner. He left his car running on the side of a highway and didn’t say a word. Too tired to panic, I just hoped he’d come back. And he did. We then continued the 60 km to Sneha Care Home.

Lines

Laura-Bethia E. Campbell (UWC AC 2011-2013)
14.06.12, Bali

Think of the parallels, the angles, the impressionistic directions our minds eye creates – lines are everywhere. If the world were muted and all other senses but sight could be halted or become void of distraction, it would take but a simplified glance for some,  or maybe a more scrutinizing one for others, to realize that lines create form; undoubtedly shaping everything and all.  A streak of morning sun catching the corner of a sign instantly illuminates the words “The Porch Café”; words of which are framed by bordering lines. In even closer sight: the curve of the plate in front of me, the serrated edge of a knife or maybe the rim of the balustrade offer simplistic lines; so easily apparent. It takes a different view to see the invisible – take for example, the unnoticed trail of hands in gesture during breakfast conversation. What significance does the ‘non-existent’ have?  Likely it is merely the artist’s perception, a desire to see everything and more. Critique might suggest uselessness in seeing non-apparent lines, but then where does reality end and imagination come in?

Turkey Summer Project

Tariq Abid UWCAC 2011-2013

A couple of months ago a plan was initiated in which eventually a group from three different UWCs came together for a trip to Turkey. Right after the end of term, we got to Turkey.

First stop, Istanbul at first sight appeared to be a conventional big city yet with a strong feeling of cultural underpinnings. It sure was a welcome relief to experience the sun and accompanying mild heat after a long spell of grey in Wales, and the food didn’t disappoint either. A really great sight was that of the Asian continent from the European side of Istanbul across the Bosphorus strait. The scenery had a special aesthetic feel that was hard to ignore. Moreover in Teksim, a prominent district, late Wednesday night had a festive mood. People were animated and there was a general hustle and bustle about the place. This, I was told, was the norm for the place, one of the dozen other places of the kind. This energy on a typical week night really appealed to me.

Going back to Poland

Almog Zoosman (Israel, UWC AC, 2010-2012)

Going back to Poland was a strong and powerful experience for me; it was like coming back to my cultural roots. My grandma, Lila, was born in Warsaw, Poland. During the war she and her sister, Hana, fled through Europe and Asia, eventually arriving in Israel. Regardless of the personal connection this land holds with my family, I must admit that I simply could not believe some of the landmarks of history that we saw. Walking on the roads which were the sites of the last walks of people 70 years ago was a highly emotional feeling of shame, pride, fear and curiosity, which made me speechless.