Surprising Europe - Running Out of Luck

Surprising Europe

Running out of luck

This episode titled  “Running out of luck” shows the people’s destinies while struggling for luck. When African migrants come to Europe they face a variety of obstacles and problems. Not only do they find themselves in completely new and unfamiliar atmosphere but they are treated as criminals and kept in detention centres. Some even need to marry Europeans to be able to stay in the EU. They have to go to medical centres run by volunteers, because they do not have enough money. Although they live under great physical and emotional pressure and, often, do not see any hope for the future, people still help each other and fight to stay in Europe hoping for a better future.

In the first part of this chapter three different immigrants from Senegal tell us that living in the EU is not as easy as they thought it would be. In order to legalize their stay in the EU they have to either be married to a European citizen or have a child. In both cases a lot of bureaucracy is involved in the process. Almost at the end of the chapter, Samuel – one of the interviewees – comments that this Europe was not the one he expected and the one he knew from television, filled with possibilities to succeed.

The second part of this episode is focused on displaying immigrant’s difficulties obtaining medical coverage. It is said that medical care is a human right, but if they do not have the necessary documents they cannot get help. In Amsterdam, for instance, there is a clinic run by doctors and nurses who volunteer and anyone can get consultations for a low price. Most  immigrants are in difficult situations because they cannot pay for the treatments they need. Therefore doctors suggest them to go to specialists they know. Even though this is not the best solution, it is at least a place to receive basic medical care.

The last part of the documentary deals with African immigrants that came to the Netherlands and are held prison in the  Zeist Detention Center until their legal status is regulated or they are sent back to their home countries. They are not criminals, but are treated as such. When they need to go to the hospital, they are brought handcuffed. Back at the prison, doctors do not come when they are needed and hygienic conditions are rather poor. The immigrants describe that they are treated like animals and it gets worse when they are put in isolation. They are forced to get naked and beaten up with sticks, held to ground and tied up. Some of the men are married to Dutch women, who are pregnant or have children with the inmates. Still, this would not help them change the difficult situation they are in. One of the inmates said that human rights should apply everywhere and that this is a Europe he never believed would exist.

EU individual paragraph

Intro

One topic in last week‘s class was the difference between the different institutions of the EU or the European institutions. There were some examples given, like the European Commission or the European Parliament. I did some research on the different institutions and it took out three of them to write in my paragraph:

Paragraph brainstorming

• three European Institutions
• The Council of Europe
• not an EU institution --> international
• 47 member states
• human rights, democratic development, ...
• The Council of the European Union
• short name: "Council"
• passes on laws
• "decision-maker" --> for EU citizens
• works with the European Parliament
• The European Council
• heads of state/government of EU member states
• sensitive issues --> influence on politics within the EU
• cannot pass on laws
• easy to get confused with the names
• What to do?
• do research
• look up differences and make notes
• What are the main differences/functions of each body?
• clearly structure the paragraph to understand the differences

Original paragraph

The EU consists of institutions and bodies which are all responsible for certain aims. Some of these institutions are difficult to distinguish from each. A good example for this would be The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The last one named, is made up of the heads of state or government of the EU member states and deals with complex or sensitive issues. This means it has an influence on the general political agenda of the EU. However, the European Council has no powers to pass on laws. That is what the Council of the EU, which is often only called by its short name „Council“, does (together with the European Parliament). Therefor it is an indispensable decision-maker, acting for the lives of the EU citizens. Not only for the 500 million EU citizens, but for some 800 million citizens acts the Council of Europe, which is an entirely separate body from the European Union. It is an international organization with 47 member states and it deals with important subjects, such as human rights and democratic development.

[186 words]

Feedback summary 1

My colleagues told me that I should take some attention to the spelling of the word "therefore" as I tend to forget the "e" at the end. This is one of my very common mistakes... My concluding sentence does not conclude the paragraph, it can rather be seen as the last sentence of one sub-point. They also told me that the paragraph was too complicated to read and they thought that mentioning the "500 million EU citizens" was an irrelevant information.

Revised paragraph

The EU consists of institutions and bodies which are all responsible for certain aims. Some of these institutions are difficult to distinguish from each. A good example for this would be The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The last one named, is made up of the heads of state or government of the EU member states and deals with complex or sensitive issues. This means it has an influence on the general political agenda of the EU. However, the European Council has no powers to pass on laws. That is what the Council of the EU, which is often only called by its short name in short „Council“, does (together with the European Parliament). Therefore it is an indispensable decision-maker, acting for the lives of the EU citizens. Not only for the 500 million EU citizens, but f For some 800 million citizens acts the Council of Europe, which is an entirely separate body from the European Union. It is an international organization with 47 member states and it deals with important subjects, such as human rights and democratic development. Keeping in mind all those main differences makes it easier to differentiate these three important bodies. 

[181 words]

Feedback summary 2

"The word aims is not correct in this context."
"Topic sentence und concluding sentence are good."
"Why didn’t  you describe the Council of the European Union?" --> I actually did, but I wrote The Council of the EU meaning the same thing.
"Linking words are right in place."
"It’s a difficult paragraph cause you’ve chosen the three bodies that sound similar and that fuckin confuses people."

Final paragraph

The EU consists of institutions and bodies which all have several areas of responsibility. Some of these institutions are difficult to distinguish from each. A good example for this would be The Council of Europe, The Council of the European Union and The European Council. The last one named, is made up of the heads of state or government of the EU member states and deals with complex or sensitive issues. This means it has an influence on the general political agenda of the EU. However, the European Council has no powers to pass on laws. That is what the Council of the EU, in short „Council“, does. Therefore it is an indispensable decision-maker, acting for the lives of the EU citizens. For some 800 million citizens acts the Council of Europe, which is an entirely separate body from the European Union. It is an international organization with 47 member states and it deals with important subjects, such as human rights and democratic development. Keeping in mind all those main differences makes it easier to differentiate these three important bodies. 

[181 words]

EU topics for essay

Dear Readers,

This semester's topic in class will be the European Union and anything connected to that, such as EU & languages or finance and economy. After the Christmas holidays we are supposed to hand in an academic paper dealing with the EU. As our English teacher said, it can be literally anything that interests us and that can be somehow connected with this institution or it's member states. Our homework for this week was to make up our minds, do some research and make notes for some five topics that we would like to write about. So here's what would be my favorites:

• The Life of Gypsies within the EU and there status in – for example – Romania would be a topic that I would really like to find out more about. I was always fascinated by the life of these people. One reason could be that I have this stereotypical idea about gypsies in my head. See, as a child I always loved Esmeralda from one of my favorite Disney movies "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". But I also know that these people live tough lives as I've seen it in Albania, for example, and that's why I'd like to find out more about that.
• LGBT rights in the European Union are a very interesting topic. Especially, if you take a look at certain countries. Following the example set by Belgium, Denmark and Sweden, which can probably considered the most "gay friendly" countries, most of the other member states still need to do their homework.
• Asylum in the European Union is a topic I am very interested in. Mainly because I have a friend who is an aslylum seeker and his story has been on my mind for over half a year now.
• LGBT rights on the Balkans and how it affects EU member candidates is something I'm already taking a closer look at for some time now. I travel the Balkans a lot and know I'd like to know what has changed in Croatia – the youngest EU member – towards acceptance of LGBT people. Further I'd like to take a closer look at the FYR Macedonia where there is least protection for LGBT people. Discrimination and stigmatization of the LGBT community in this country is very high and violence against LBGT human rights defenders and inflammatory articles by journalists don't make the situation any better. Hateful expressions and attacks are also existent in Montenegro. Serbia bans the pride march again and disturbing news come from Turkey where "honor killings" of gays are reported.
• The Accession of Turkey to the European Union and the negotiation progress is particularly interesting for me as I study also Turkish language and culture. I love Turkey very much, but there are a lot of criteria that need to be met

What do you think about it? The setting of this homework also was to comment on two of our colleague student's blog posts in order to give them some advice on which topic to choose, tips or helpful resources. So I'm gonna do that now – and I would be very pleased and happy to receive some comments from you!

Thank you!

İyi geceler,

Alexander Bey