J *HELLO PEOPLE!*J 



Welcome to MM's FEBRUARY 2000 Newsletter!



Well, this newsletter found a new editor: Timm is overtaking the MM

propaganda ministry and the well-ordered MM administration. I just hope you

won't miss the comfort of reading a native speaker's witty thoughts and

comments.



February remained quite a cool month (in any way), though not as cold as in

January. Sunshine permitted a visit of the MM stuff at the sea side, which

was lovely!



SITUATION IN MOSTAR AND BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA



The change within Croatian politics - both personell and in policy - is

continuing. Some 20 employees of the former president's office - many of them

high ranking politicians of Tudjman's HDZ - were sacked and new appointed.

Middle of February, the new Croatian President Stipe Mesic was sworn in.

Judged by his statements, fundamental changes are to come in the relations of

Croatia to Bsonia-Herzegovina. He announced that 'the Croatian leadership

will start with a new policy towards BiH, a politics full of understanding

and sincerity.' The president of the Croatian parliament, Tomcic, put it more

specific: Croatian authorities will stop financing Croats in BiH as it was in

the past. (OHR OBN News Review, Feb., 18th). These flowery words were surely

intendended for and have been heard by the ears of the international

community. Quite contrary to the previous isolation of Croatia, governments

in the far and near abroad are very fond of the new Croatian representatives.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hailed the new government as 'truly

representing the Croatian people' and saw the 'beginning of a beautiful

friendship'. And the acting president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Izetbegovic,

spoke out for making improvement of the two countries' relations the top

priority of the Bosnian government. He subsequently invited Mesic to

Sarajevo. 



Political organisations of Croats in Bosnia now have to react to the changing

situation. In the case of the main nationalist party HDZ, however, struggles

on the future course may lead to a split. Moderate leaders have left the

party, and a potential rival is to be founded soon, called the Croatian

People's Union (HNU). 



Furthermore, a round table conference for the Balkans stability pact took

place in Budapest, agreeing on 'guidelines for the implementation of human

right/ democratisation programmes in the region'. Western governmental donors

are currently adjusting their policies according to the stability pact

decisions. However, it is yet unclear how deeply this will influence the work

of NGOs in BiH - such as Mladi Most. 



, f FOTO PROJECTf , 



In February, the team of the Foto Projekt concentrated most of all on

searching new funders for their one-year programme "Young Photographers Media

Network (YPMN)". The search for additional donors has been partially

successful as several funds expressed interest, whereas SHL (Schueler Helfen

Leben) already confirmed partial funding of the total programme line. 



As the first of a number of exhibitions the results of the workshop "A

Portrait of Mostar" will be displayed in Washington DC. Preparations have

been finalised - the heavy wooden boxes containing the fotographs are on

their way. Due to lack of money the foto group, unfortunately, could not send

participants of the workshop to present the exhibition. 



During February, the foto workshops in cooperation with the Young Womens

Experimential Learning Network (YWELN) came to an end. Sixteen young women

from both East and West Mostar as well as the surrounding areas learned were

introduced into fotographic techniques. The results of their explorations

have been instantly turned into an exhibition, which will take place on

International Women's Day within the UN Headquarters, Geneva. 



Middle of February, the participants of the Foto Project were invited to

discover the world of experimental fotography. Through experiments with

Cameras Obscura - self-made from film-boxes - the original princip of

photography was explored and turned into visual results. This event was only

the beginning of a series of group-related foto workshops within Mladi Most,

which will take part fortnightly on Saturdays and which is open to all foto

project participants. 



On February 26th, the "Democracy Day" took place in Jablanica, which has been

organised by the OSCE. Mladi Most foto and Ninpo projects were jointly

offering the workshop "A portrait of Jablanica: express your view of

Jablanica through the lens of a camera". Participants were young people from

the secondary schools of the town. Out of twelve different workshops offered,

the join foto/ ninpo project finally has ben chosen as the most successful

event during that day. 



, f YOUNG WOMEN'S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING NETWORKf , 



Young Women's Project held three Creative workshops in MM Mostar in February.

These workshops focused not only on writing, but also clay modeling, as a new

form of creative expression. Participants from Blagaj and Capljina were

involved in these workshopes too.



One theatre workshop was held in MM, which was facilitated by a professional

from the Center for Drama Education, BiH. Our Rea Silvia theatre group had

workshops and rehearsals for the performance of "Six Parts of Me" which will

be held on March 8th , the International Women's Day, in UNHCR in Geneva. An

open dress rehearsal was held in the Puppet Theatre in Mostar on Thursday,

February 24th. Besides the performance, photos from Young Women's Photo

Workshops will be exhibited in Geneva as well.



Four Outreach Workshops were held this month. In Blagaj there were two

creative writing workshops led by a YWELN staff member. There were 2

workshops in Gornji Vakuf/Uskoplje - first being a creative writing workshop

and the second one a theatre workshop. These were peer - led workshops, led

by the YWELN members from Mostar.



The first seminar this year was held on February 26th and 27th in Mladi Most,

facilitated by the Center for Drama Education, BiH. The topic of the seminar

was "Educational Drama and Theatre", and it involved participants from

Mostar, Blagaj and Capljina. This is already the second seminar of this kind,

both times facilitated by CDO, expanding our cooperation.



"Self Defense and Rape Prevention Awareness" training for women led by Holger

Sitch was finished this month. Holger is leaving in April, but offered one

more training on the same topic to be held before he leaves.



In February YWELN also met with the group of young people who recently

returned from Germany, and who are meeting in the Integration Center "Sunce"

for the past weeks. They were very interested in cooperating with other youth

organizations and doing some workshops together. We had a couple of meetings

with them already and will work more on making a joint workshop/seminar in

the Center "Sunce".



, f NINPO and FAR EASTERN PHILOSOPHIESf , 



The Ninpo Group continued with the weekly workshops and Hala, Cule and Haris

successfully completed the requirements for Myu Kyu and are now certified to

teach this level of physical and philosophical movements and topics. The

Group had 2 visitors attend the classes but they have not permanently joined

the class. 



Through the combined effort of Frank, Hala, Cule and Haris a proposal to CRS

for an outreach program bringing approximately 15 participants from Nevesinje

and Konjic to Mladi Most for 4 separate day long workshops was created,

translated and submitted (on time!) to CRS. The Hala, Cule and Haris worked

extremely well together and put a lot of effort into finishing the proposal

on time. 



The focus for this months workshops has been controlling one's aggressive

tendencies, to do this we engage in what is called Kumate which might look

like fighting but it is far from it. The students engage in grappling which

is similar to Greco-Roman wrestling, when this is done the level of

adrenaline rises to a point where one might not be able to control

themselves. We engage in this activity to feel this surge of adrenaline and

overcome it, to maintain control of our minds without losing control and

letting our animal instincts take over. The process takes months to build up

to in order to do it safely. After the sessions the students were extremely

calm and collected and discussed the emotions they had during the Kumate.

Another point Kumate focuses on is controlling the ego or pride, Kumate is

not about fighting or winning it is an exercise designed to help one gain

more control of not only their body and mind but their spirit as well. We

focus on the ego and the desire to win and try to be honest with ourselves.

Frank pointed out to Hala the first day that he saw Hala's ego rising. Hala

did not acknowledge it at first but then came back to the next class saying

"You were right I just wanted to win, but winning is not the point, it

is a learning exercise where one learns to control their emotions and their

ego, even if I lose I learn something in the process." Yet another point to

Kumate is to get yourself to a point where you are totally exsausted and find

an inner strength to continue, it teaches one to never give up in their

endeavors even if what ever you are trying to accomplish seems hopeless. 



On Saturday the 26th we found ourselves facilitating a workshop in Jablanica

with the photography group through the OSCE. The photo group was invited for

Democracy Day and we saw an opportunity to expand our outreach program and

make more connections. We decided to facilitate the Language Concepts

exercise through he medium of photography, and also try to help the

participants to open up and express themselves more during the workshop. We

will return to Jablanica to actually facilitate Language Concepts on Sunday

the 12th of March. 



Well that's it for now. Take care and have a great month. 



, f MM IN GENERALf , 



Fundraising continues as ever but with more frustration funders in BiH are

more and more reluctant to commit themselves to funds for this year. This

waiting game seemed to begin in November when donors were awaiting the new

financial year in January, now it's the new financial year in April they are

waiting for - there is also a possibility that they are waiting for the

results and plans of the Stability Pact before commiting their own funds.

This is not only frustrating but also difficult to deal with in terms of our

future planning - we have so many ideas but so often it depends on money.



We have some problems within the administration in that Bartol has been

notified that he should go to the army in Croatia (he has a Croatian

passport). Although he has already been in the army in BiH it is possible

that he may have to serve through the Croatian system also - we are waiting

to see what alternatives there are for him..



Ricky returned to the nest briefly along with Bojana to visit MM and deliver

photo paper and a donation from Berlin - thank you for that Ricky and

MMBerlin. His visit also coincided with the stay of the french people

Guernica and Drugi Most who are developing a local structure for partners in

the future 'Mostar International (cultural) Festivals', which includes MM. So

of course there were celebrations for the return of the wanderers.



Jude went to meet a very enthusiastic Timm (new administrator) and his

luggage at the lovely Sarajevo airport on 28th. The next day he met the staff

team for a MM lunch in the sunshine - everyone is looking forward to getting

to know him better and hearing his ideas and news from Berlin. His

introduction to the administration work will begin (gently) in March before

Jude leaves, although she will continue to support him and the rest of the

team while she is still in Mostar - probably until May if she leaves at

all...

We hope this letter finds you all well - thank you for your support and 



DON'T FORGET OUR NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES: mladi-mo@bih.net.ba



mmzena@bih.net.ba



Timm, Uli, Dzemal, Frank, Adisa, Amna, Arijana, Jude, Bartol and puppy.

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From: "Mladi Most Mostar" <Mladi-mo@bih.net.ba>

To: "Lukasz Szopy" <l.szopa@gmx.net>, "luke jerram"

	<luke@jerram.swinternet.co.uk>, "Mark Shepard, OSCE"

	<Marks@Oscebih.Org>, "Mauz" <mauz74@hotmail.com>, "MC and Tamiko"

	<mctiko@msn.com>, "Mirovni Project" <mmp-mo@tel.net.ba>,

	"MM(Berlin)" <mladi-mo@ipn.de>, "Natasha Brown"

	<Tattyb@Excite.Com>, "Oci u Oci, Sarajevo" <Ociuoci@bih.net.ba>,

	"Omladinski Centar GV/Uskoplje" <ocgv@gmx.net>, "Paula Webster"

	<Fico11@aol.com>, "Proni Travnik" <proni.tr@bih.net.ba>

Subject: Mladi Most February News Letter

Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 13:51:43 +0100

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