November Newsletter 2019

PRAXIS GREECE

November 2019 http://evs-mediart.weebly.com/

Praxis Greece was founded in 1995 and is
a youth association, which supports

refugees through social media and cultural
activities and events.

WOMEN AND SCIENCE—THE PERFECT DUO 10 November

For decades we have seen that women do not have the same opportunities as men, and with respect to
the scientific part even less. It is very difficult to open a gap in the profession and especially progress
in it. The data is clear, finally the proportion of women is growing.

The biochemist Margarita Salas (Canero, Asturias, 1938), one of the greatest scientists in Spain died
on the 7th November in Madrid at the age of 80. Margarita Salas has been one of the most important
researchers in Spain, where she worked for years on Molecular Biology.

Among her career achievements, Salas has the discovery of the DNA polymerase of the bacterio-
phage phi29 virus, which has a crucial application in biotechnology: it allows amplifying DNA in a
simple, fast and reliable way. This technique allows oncologists to expand small populations of cells
that could lead to tumors.

He earned a doctorate in biochemistry in 1963 from the Complutense University of Madrid and sub-
sequently worked for three years with the Nobel Prize in Biochemistry Severo Ochoa at the Universi-
ty of New York. Later he returned to Spain and founded the first molecular genetics research group in
1967 in the CSIC.

Happy to be a woman and have references like her.

By Irene Suárez

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INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE

AGAINST WOMEN 25 November

Women are slaved and forced to leave
their countries to serve some one else’s
needs and wishes. And these phenomena
do not only appear in developing or
threshold countries. In developed coun-
tries the gender pay gap is still an urgent
topic. In 2019, women earn 79 cents for
every dollar earned by men in the US. For
the same work, a male person earns more
than a female person only because of his
gender. This structure can be claimed to
be structurally violent against women as
it forces women into lower positions and
salaries.

Half of the global population are women; how After taking these facts and figures into consider-
come that we are still a minority? The expression ation, it becomes obvious that misogyny and sex-
minority does not regard the actual percentage of ism is a challenge our society still has to over-
the group in the whole of the population, but its come. To eliminate physical, mental and structur-
representation and rights. Considering the politi- al violence against women, it requires not only
cal and judicial situation, women can still be con- the victims themselves to stand up for justice.
sidered to be a minority. The challenge of gender equality requires every
gender to speak up about injustice and violence.
We live in the year 2019. This year we have cele- Feminism is not only made for women but for
brated the 100 years anniversary of the right for every body who desires to live in a peaceful soci-
women to vote in Germany. Within history pio- ety in which everyone has equal rights.
neers like Rosa Parks or Alice Schwarzer have
climbed milestones towards the equality between Not all of us are the same, obviously. Neverthe-
men and women. Now it is time to question— less, all of us deserve to have the same rights—
have we really already reached the end of the tun- human rights. So lets fight for each others rights!
nel? Can women and men be considered equal?
By Elisa Henke
In fact, globally 960,000 to 3,000,000 women die
each year because of the consequences of domes-
tic violence. Every fourth woman in Germany
claims to have been sexually harassed in her life.
According to the United Nations 7,000,000 wom-
en are forced to perform sexual work each year.

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CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED TOLERANCE 16 November

In philosophy, the heart of tolerance is self- ness to question things. Not only question

control. When we tolerate something, we resist things that others say or do, but also question

the urge to react emotionally or hatefully, and ourselves and the beliefs we hold as true. When

exercise control over our immediate impulses. we don’t question the information we receive

We realize that forcefully stating our opinions and blindly follow it, we are like unconscious

or hateful comments is not more important than machines with no autonomy. Why would we

acceptance and maintaining peace. At least, this want that as humans – as creatures that have

is what a nice and peaceful world would look this amazing thing called consciousness.

like. In a perfect world, we realize that having What is more, people are complex be-
autonomy as an individual is important and not ings (no surprise here), and we are surely more
one person in the world has the right to take than our religious beliefs, or our sexuality, or
away this autonomy. Problems arise when peo- our strongly held ideologies. We are all little
ple do not respect the autonomy of another per- worlds full of different memories, experiences
son and abuse their right to freedom of speech and history. So, why do we sometimes let a
with hurting another person. small but loud part of ourselves define us? Why

Back in the past, the idea of the Internet do we feel the need to grasp to these beliefs so

started with optimism – massive networking all strongly and build all our identity around it?

over the globe that brings people together and There is no need to limit our identity to a mere

offers more opportunities for understanding as conflict – an opposition giving us meaning

ever before (imagine all the information and through the existence of “the other.” If our be-

knowledge available in seconds). Yet, these liefs are so feeble that the simple fact of some-

same technologies are now used as a platform one else having a different belief or opinion

for ethnic, cultural and religious intolerance. could threaten ours, then it is not a problem of

We can say whatever we want, whenever, anon- them, but us. Everything starts with us. We can-

ymously, without any repercussions – making it not control anything else but our own belief and

easier to promote extremist worldviews or to value systems. What we can do is have a posi-

hurt others. With the development of technolo- tive influence on others, share the affection,

gy, new modes of intolerance have emerged, love and acceptance, and we might just impact

such as cyberbullying. another soul as much as to start doing it too.

Therefore, we cannot forget that toler- That is the kind of chain reaction I would like to
ance is a virtue, it is our moral duty as human see happen in the world.

beings to respect and accept other human be- Let’s make this idea of tolerance more

ings, and since this has not always been the personal. I speak as someone who could be con-

case, now countries have legal obligations to sidered alternative for having piercings, tattoos,

ensure that tolerance is maintained. Just as we wearing dark make-up or dying my hair non-

want to feel respected, heard and understood, conventional colors. I am also a woman and

every other person has the same needs. We all part of LGBT+ community. I know how it feels

have our worries, desires and needs because we like to be an outsider or someone who seems to

are human beings. The most important thing we be repugnant to other people for looking the

can do as humans is to employ our conscious- way they do. I have received a lot of strange

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stares, family members telling me insulting things and experienced enough discrimination for the
sole reason of how I choose to be. The thing is, I am this way because I could not be any other
way, and as soon as people realize that no one asked for their (negative) opinion on how an autono-
mous person should look like, and instead tried to see positive aspects of another human, the world
would be a better place. There is this assumption that since an individual chose to wear certain
clothes, get tattoos or piercings, they are obliged to deal with the unwanted attention because they
draw it like moths to a flame. I beg to differ; I believe everyone can and should be however they
wish and no one else is entitled to make them feel bad about it. Don’t even get me started on the
things that people cannot change about themselves. Live and let live. Accept others and accept
yourself too.
What helps with compassion, acceptance and tolerance? Global education, living or studying
abroad, taking part of Erasmus projects, volunteering, opening contact with minorities and with
people who might be in a worse situation than us. If that’s not possible as of this moment, reading
about different people’s stories helps a lot. Immersing oneself in literature and putting oneself in
someone else’s shoes has proven to be a good way to understand what others are going through,
and that they are the exact same souls with fears, desires and needs not unlike our own. And if that
is too time-consuming, start with YouTube, with movies, take these 20 minutes or two hours, and
see what you can learn about someone else’s story. Because without others there would not be us,
simple as that. Say thank you to someone, or write that generous message you wanted to send, or
give a hug to your loved ones; show gratitude and a little more compassion every day.
A little more compassion.
That is all we ask.
By Jaanika Malla

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WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY

20 November

As Malala Yousafzai says:
“One child, one teacher, one
book and one pen can change
the world. Education is the
only solution.”

I am the kind of person who
believes we can build a better
world, but we can´t do it
alone… we also need chil-
dren! We should all fight to-
gether to try to fix it! Because
no one is too small to make a
difference.

I love a quote from Eduardo

Galeano that I want to share

with all of you: “Many small

On 20th of November was the International Chil- people, in small places, doing small things can
dren´s Day, a day when we commemorate their change the world”.

rights. So let´s change the world!

We know already some rights they should have: Let´s give children the important task they have.

the right to life, survival and development, the Let´s let them to express themselves, let´s hear
right to food and to water, the right to equality, them.
the right to health and medical care, the right to
protection, the right to live in family, the right to Let´s provide them love and care, not only when
freedom of expression and to be heard, the right they really need it, but everyday.

to education, the right to play and enjoy, the right Let´s spend time with them, playing, laughing
to identify… and we know that, sadly, many chil- and enjoying.
dren don´t have all of those covered.
Let´s make the world a better place where chil-
All these rights are essential, but there is one that dren are also a big part!
is especially important to me: THE RIGHT TO

EDUCATION. Because education is where eve-

rything starts. Because all the adults, especially By Diana Martinez Rincón

parents and teachers, have to educate children

with values of solidarity, empathy, justice and

respect, so we could cover the rest of the rights.

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WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SO IMPORTANT TODAY 21 November

perature of 1,5 de-

grees since the prein-

dustrial time, as the

Minister for Environ-

ment recently said.

These 1,5 degrees are

the limit for global

warming agreed by

the nations of the

world at the climate

summit in Paris, in

2015. Even though

climate change is

mainly a physical

topic, it is a philo-

sophical topic too. To

stop global warming,

When you hear the word „philosophy“ you might we need a radical change in our economic system,

think of something ancient, the stone figures of but also in our western way of life – away from

Plato and Aristoteles, or you are reminded of the wasteful resources and unnecessary consumption

intellectuals from the past centuries that built to a sustainable lifestyle. As we are facing all

their theories on the existence of god. But this these big topics, we should ask ourselves what we

image will change if I replace it by its actual really want. Do we continue to allow big technol-

meaning: „The love of wisdom.” Suddenly, it is ogy companies to collect and sell our data just to

something emotional, something that is not only use Google tools for free? Or do we continue

for a small circle of intellectuals, but for every- wasting resources and polluting our planet so as

body. not to give up our comfort, until we have no

Our planet is changing faster than ever. In only 30 choice anymore?

years the internet changed nearly everyone’s life This brings me to the conclusion that philosophy

fundamentally. I mean, who doesn’t use the inter- is fundamental to our society, simply because it’s

net daily: no single Google search, no Whatsapp the only science that asks what really matters in

message, not even a song on Spotify, nothing? life and how we want to live – individually, as a

This invention brought incredible possibilities, society, and in our more and more globalized

but it also brought us a stack of problems to world as a humanity. To deal with the big ques-

solve, and as Edward Snowden says: the internet, tions of our time, pragmatic short-term politics

and especially social media, are seriously ques- are not appropriate. What we need is a philosophy

tioning our freedom nowadays. that gives today’s politics a clear direction.

Furthermore, we are facing the climate crisis. In By Paul Paessler
Germany we have already had an increase in tem-

7 Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

From 26 to 28 of November, Jaanika and I (Natalie) went to a Workshop in Thessaloniki.
Two Italian video-makers (Umberto and Claudia) taught us how to make and edit videos. We
learnt how to pre-set the camera (aperture number, ISO and shutter speed), how to create
good compositions and how to edit in Adobe Premiere.
We had a really good time with the volunteers of Balkan Hotspot. The last day of the work-
shop we watched all the movies different groups had made. One video was stop motion and
the other was a recreation of a movie scene. It was a nice opportunity to meet them and
work together.

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Clean Serres CONTACT US

Clean Serres is a mobile application by which local people Office Address:
have the ability to report any problem, regarding various
cleaning issues. In this way we can actively help the mu- PRAXIS cultural Organisation

nicipality to keep our town clean. Ioustinianou 19
Download the App in the site: 62124 Serres
Greece
https://cleanserres.gr/en/
Contact Person:
Find us in our Social Media:
Anna Alevra
Facebook: Praxis Greece Phone: 0030 23210 58800
Instagram: @praxis.greece Fax: 0030 23210 58802
Twitter: @PraxisGreece Mobile: 0030-6944263636

E-mail:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Visit our Website:

http://praxisgreece.com/

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