alisailos-blog - Tumblr blog

[alisailos-blog]

H.G. Expedition #6

Nowadays we have achieved many accomplishments in technology, transportation, and communication. However, not all the countries have an access to all of these developments, most of which are the less developed countries. More developed countries have a tendency to “help” those countries, forming legal cooperative bonds. This form of cooperation made it possible to small cities to form sister cities, which means an official long – term agreement between two communities in two countries. These connections are highly beneficial for both communities, and it addresses issues that are most relevant for partners. A sister city can contribute to the development of the other city by any kind of organization: municipal government, private organizations, and nonprofit businesses, which can make profit by expending their trade connections to their sister city. Sister cities hope to accomplish economic stability through increased tourism and interconnected trade.

           As a member of non-governmental organization based in Salzburg, that has a sister city in Teniente Morales, Paraguay. This town is also known as Aleman Cue, which means “previously German”. This town has 1000 inhabitants, in total 200 families, and is located 25 kilometers away from a major town in the center of the country called Coronel Oviedo. Both of the towns are situated in the Department of Caaguazú. The main income comes from their farming-style of life, where each family has a small-scale production on a five-hectare land. Farmers mostly grow cotton, mandioca, beans, sugar cane, bananas and yerba mate, but with a fall of global prices for cotton, families are left with a lack of profit. Like any other small village, Aleman Cue has dirty roads, few health clinics, electricity, and no running water. Instead of running water, they have a river that goes straight across the village, but this river has a broken bridge. It does not stop inhabitants passing through, and in fact, some villagers are earning income by taking ones that want to pass with canoes. The climate of this part of a country is soft and rainy, therefore often turning the roads into mud, which stops the whole transportation system. Families do not own cars or tractors.  The levels of corruption and interest rates are both high in the region and the country.

           To raise the income of Aleman Cue’s inhabitants, I came up with a plan of how to make their lives better. With an investment of 100,000 euros, I need first to know how much each person earns in a family. Priority goes to families with many children, because with the increase of wages, the new generation can start to process with a better education, which will help them in their future. Even though cotton prices fell down and the main source of income is gone, there are still many crops, which are needed in other cities that can properly be grown in Aleman Cue. Regarding the fact that modern way of growing and collecting crops intoxicates the products, farmers and laborers in Aleman Cue can start investing in stock keeping or ranching. Why specifically stock? Well, Salzburg is mainly dairy-farming city, with of coarse a sufficient amount of meet, but with a question of how the meet is treated in ranches. There will be no questions to Aleman Cue’s meet, if laborers will start a cottage industry in each family with its name of a product and showing of all elements of a process of meet tracing.

           In addition, each laborer who wishes to start his own business can absolutely do so, by taking microloans. First, I will invest in a sufficiency of internet in Aleman Cue, because sister cities need to connect. I will invest in an opening of shops, which can provide phones with internet for people, which approximately will take 20,000 euros for two shops in the village. By connecting to the outside world, laborers can take a microloan from another person outside his location. To take a microloan means to find a person who will land you money to start your own business, and when you will reach your progress you will land him his money back. This system worked already in about 82 countries, which helped thousands of people with their businesses.

However, to increase a place’s level of development does not only include its connection to the outside world and economic growth, but to its literacy rates and living conditions. School-age children attend primary school but need to go to Coronel Oviedo 25 kilometers away to complete secondary studies (Grades 6-12). I will invest in a school creation in Aleman Cue, with exporting there teachers as volunteers from other countries, for example its sister city, Salzburg. It will take me approximately 50,000 euros to build a school and supply the volunteers with a proper life in the village with the help of its citizens. The school will work with a system to contain students from grade 1 to 12 in one place as it works in some MDCs countries like Russia. This system is mostly beneficial to inhabitants; because there are not many children who live in that region, meaning that the school will work without pressure of being over numbered.

           The desired outcomes for each family is to provide themselves and their children with enough money to live in comfort. Regarding the living conditions, each family will raise its own wages by making their businesses and raising the amount of products, which can be exported outside Paraguay. The transportation of these products will be under the control of our organization, as though the government of the country is corrupt. I will give 4,000 euros to transport the products to major cities from Aleman Cue, where government can cooperate with our organization, making more of sister cities in Paraguay. By increasing their wages, they can surely improve their household conditions and invest in their children and in their supplies. However, all of these investments are worthless unless the transportation system will be improved. As Aleman Cue is a village without roads and with a broken bridge, I will invest 10,000 euros in making roads in Aleman Cue, which will last until another normal pavement road of another city. The building of a road itself will provide the laborers in Aleman Cue with higher wages, giving 10 euros per person in 1 working day. Expecting only men to work in a building of roads in Aleman Cue, it will take approximately 50 men, which means that in a day there will be given 500 euros to workers. To rebuild a small bridge I will invest 3,000 euros, which will also provide a plentiful of workers in Aleman Cue and even outside of it.

           The last 5,000 euros will go to healthcare centers and water transportation, both to improve them and to supply with enough medicine and technology which is needed in that particular region. Volunteers who will come and help the villagers will be also expected to work in Health centers and be able to react in emergencies. With the climate like the one in Caaguazú, rain falls frequently keeping the earth soft and fertilized. By building a small water system that will connect the water from the river and the water from rain, it will be enough to keep the whole community clean and sufficient with water.

           Our foreign assistance is non-governmental. Our organization is funded by donations and primarily formed by volunteers. We try to help people with all that we can, including money, health care, or any form of need, which we are capable of providing. Many NGOs like ours promotes economic self-sufficiency, because laborers will depend on independent organizations and get outcome only for themselves, without finding government officials. However, we cannot fully help people to get independent, because they live on a territory that is owned by the government of Paraguay. This is the main problem out of many barriers to successful development of places like Aleman Cue, but we as volunteers try to help people themselves to stand up on a social level, and not fight with the government.

           As a Sulzberger, I can really help those people in Tiniente Morales, because Austria is a part of the European Union that is a community of more developed countries. Austrian government officials can provide our organizations with enough volunteers, (and we can surely find them ourselves) because more than 80% of a country lives in prosperity. When people that live with a sufficient supply of things they need to exist in a comfort, they start to think about other people that need help.

[alisailos-blog]

Personal Connections to the Immigration.

     As an international student, I had faced many difficulties in terms of moving from one country to another. I started my journey as an international citizen in an age of 13, when I moved from Russia to Italy. There are many push factors in Russia, like environmental problems (air pollution), cultural (the Russian community is still progressing), and political (economy and government in Russia are breaking down). Therefore, we found it very pleasant that Italy had all these push factors transformed into pull factors. My mother and I had some intervening obstacles first, because it was difficult to get a visa to Europe from Russia and all documents sort out. However, after one year of “fighting” with the government, we finally moved to Italy. Afterwards, I moved to Austria and got Austrian permit, which allowed me to live in Austria while studying. This example is very similar to what Yugoslavian immigrants had: working visas that allowed them to stay in Austria only in times of working. I hope that afterwards I will stay in Europe and study in the University of Berlin, as my German became good because of this school. All of my hardships and sacrifices I made for moving to a better place from my home country is worth it. The conditions for living are better in Europe than in Russia, and despite the challenges I went through, I am very happy in staying and living here. Even though my sacrifices were not as big as of Yugoslavian immigrants, who have leaved their families and homes for a better jobs and money gaining opportunity, I can still refer both of these examples to the global migration.

[alisailos-blog]

Despite many obstacles, immigrants managed to develop many private businesses. Many immigrants started restaurant business or café business. They opened shops, snack bars or became active in the fields of culture or the arts. Many new items enriched the range of products available in the city, which could not be available without immigrants. In Salzburg, there are some examples of Yugoslavians who continue to develop their business still today. Near the train station, there is Balkan Bakery, which is a perfect example of Yugoslavian influence in Salzburg and on its landscape.

[alisailos-blog]

Bridge of knowledge in Salzburg.

  The University of Salzburg made, in celebration of the 50 years since the labor recruitment agreement between Austria and the former Yugoslavia, a number of panels, which explained the causes and effects for Yugoslavian immigration and their lifestyle in Salzburg. This agreement was signed in 1965, and went into effect in the following year. Because of the Post-War crisis and economic boom, which led many countries into depression, Austria made an agreement in terms of giving people from Yugoslavia jobs. Even though Austria was giving such opportunities from good intentions, government also planned to gain guest workers to rebuild the country. The working visas were given to people only for a short time period – to live in Austria only in a time of working and then to return home. In a result, immigrant had very bad experience of keeping family together while they were working so, many immigrants started to have children in Austria, therefore intending to stay. Effect that was brought to Salzburg was enormous. Immigrants were coming in small numbers each year, resulting the total number of 17,000 in a year of 1973. People from Salzburg did not complain, even though Yugoslavians had a bad time making relationships with former citizens, which eventually resulted in a division of immigrants and Salzburgians. The discrimination existed, even though the panels hided this fact but they still wrote that it was hard for Yugoslavians to make friends or any sort of relationships in Salzburg.  In a time when Yugoslavian children could make contacts with other children in school, their parents worked hard on construction sites and on other jobs on which they could not contact with anybody except other Yugoslavians. Therefore, to entertain themselves they built a football club “Mladost”, in which they participated and played against other football teams. That is how they eventually made contacts. In addition, there is no gender component of working women, who totaled a number of one-thirds of all immigrants. Women were as highly requested as man, because they did all the ironing, laundry, and cleaning in Salzburg. As panels said, in the city of Salzburg the traditional clothing manufacturer Trachten Moser employed numerous women from Yugoslavia for decades as ironers and tailors.

               To conclude, immigrants had a big influence and importance in the construction of Salzburg, as all they did was working on making former citizens’ lives easier. This exhibition of panels on the Bridge of Knowledge was set there, because people of Salzburg wanted to show (considering recent refugee crisis) that immigration is something ordinary and natural, as Slaven Dujaković stated. He was just a boy when his parents immigrated to Austria, and in an age of 22, he became a well-known sport champion in Salzburg. In recent moment, many countries complain about refugee “flooding”, but immigration is a very natural thing, as people throughout the world migrate from one place to another in search of good conditions. Therefore, the University of Salzburg wanted to emphasize and compare recent immigration with Yugoslavian immigration, as it is the same thing but in different numbers.

[alisailos-blog]

                 All Europe was suffering Post-Cold-War times, because economy was damaged and all countries in it were as much damaged as Germany. Yugoslavian countries were regulating its economy by massive working engagement in the country. Government was trying to give people as much jobs as possible, therefore other countries were trying to help. In 1965, Austria and Yugoslavia signed a labor recruitment agreement, which made many visa programs for immigrants, and led into a massive immigration of Yugoslavians into Austria the following year. However, these visa programs were limited in time, so guest workers could return home. The Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade helped to arrange these programs. Austria needed many guest workers in terms of helping to rebuild the country. Secondly, government saw this as a form of development aid. They thought it would be helpful for guest workers to show them how to build, so that when they return home they could do the same thing. The number of immigrant in the State of Salzburg remained 5,000, until 1974. This migration created close relationship between two countries, and many immigrants stayed in Austria.

               The unemployment rate in Yugoslavian countries was high in Post War times, and the government forced education because it was also low. The Communist Party was organized in all companies and most influential employees were likely to be members of the party, so the managers were often appointed only with the consent of the party. Therefore, these push factors of Yugoslavia intended many guest workers (who were not members of the party) to search places where they can work to contribute in gaining money for their families. They saw countries that needed workers like Austria, Germany, etc. as an opportunity, so this was a pull factor of Austria when guest workers were needed. In addition, Austria was more culturally developed and more sociably acceptable to quest workers, which were also pull factors.

               There is a big difference in population change of three countries, Serbia, Montenegro, and Austria, on population pyramids. From 1965 to 1975, Serbian population had an equal amount of men and women. However, people 30 to 40 years old were leaving Serbia in search of jobs. In Montenegro, from year 1965 people started to leave as they saw no opportunity for them to get jobs. The fertility rate was high, however people from 30 years old started to leave, and in 10 years this particular age group was decreasing. The population of Austria, during that time, grew as immigrant were coming. Most of the population of Austria consisted of immigrants in a year of 1990 as the population pyramid shows. However, in a year of 1990, both Serbia and Montenegro had an increased impact of population. Therefore, the population finally restored from its economic and working depression.

[alisailos-blog]

Globalization vs. Local Diversity.

   Salzburg is a cultural capital of Europe, therefore people often think about Salzburg as a “local” city. Local diversity allows people to express unique cultural traditions. Each year thousands of tourists are coming to Salzburg in search of local museums, houses, music, or even beer. While tourists visit Salzburg because of its culture and traditions, they spread globalization by collecting different people throughout the world in one place. Globalization made the world shrink in sizes – not literally shrink, bit increase the possibility of communication between people throughout the world. Also, globalization pulls people together through technology and communication, therefore spreading information about “local” culture in Salzburg throughout the world.

    I want to connect two sides of Salzburg on one picture: local and global. On this picture I emphasized how local diversity can help globalization to happen. This is a usual traditional festival in Salzburg before Octoberfest, where people for centuries were selling “local” Austrian stuff like Austrian hats, wooden toys, or Austrian clothes. There are dozens of tourists who came to buy these products to feel Austrian culture and traditions. However, they know that Salzburg is very cultural city from technology, media, or even books. Austrian people are searching for more ways to express their unique cultural traditions to other people, because they know that people from other countries will be interested in it. This local diversity brought people together to show the cultural interactions and difference.

    Although Salzburg wouldn’t be a local place without tourists. Austrian economy depends a lot on people that are coming to see old buildings with a number of year in which they were built, or to buy themselves a pair of Lederhosen, because that is how they get money. People are interested in traditions and culture from other countries, and they want to save a little bit of every to themselves. Because Salzburg is a cultural capital, therefore it is always clean and beautiful, it is hard to get an apartment inside the city. There are a lot of rich people (not only Austrian) that come to Salzburg and live in there just because they like its traditions and architecture. On the other side, there are a lot of immigrants that came to Salzburg and mixed their culture with Austrian. I can also say that in Salzburg, because of the immigrants and tourists, there is a cultural diffusion, which means a mixture of cultures. There are parts in Salzburg where you are most likely to see an Arabian men more likely than in the center. Or there is one street on which only farmers live, with horses on their backyards.

    Salzburg is very globalized place, but Austrian people are trying to keep it local despite of all the technology and modernized architecture that is popular these days.