As a result of the Training Course in Egypt (Phase I), several local projects arrised to be implemented as direct follow up of the activity.
Here some of the best practices:
Project “Olympiads (for democracy)”
This project is due to the formation followed by Egypt and Gloria the theme Citizenship and Democratic Participation in contexts of political transition. The training supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation and Euromed and implementation Trajectoria (Estonia) aims to develop strategies for youth work in promoting democratic participation in the public sphere.
The animation above will be presented with a batch of proposed activities to secondary schools in Liège and Brussels. It is also expected to meet some local aldermen and youth centers to present the project. This phase begins in January 2013 for the animations can ideally start in February or March 2013.
Drama Project (Citizenship)
To conduct the project we must first understand the term “citizenship” that is the focal point of the project:
Citizenship if one of the many factors that help in identifying an individual, other include: Gender, Race, Ethnic Group, Religion, and Color.
“Citizenship is a famously slippery concept- different people use it in a range of different ways. But a very basic definition is that a citizen is a “legally recognized national of a state, either native of nationalized”.
What is citizenship?
Citizenship denotes the link between a person and a state or an association of states. It is normally synonymous with the term nationality although the latter term may also refer to ethnic connotations. Possession of citizenship is normally associated with the right to work and live in a country and to participate in political life. A person who does not have citizenship in any state is said to be stateless.
The modern idea of citizenship still respects the idea of political participation, but it is usually done through “elaborate systems of political representation at a distance” such as representative democracy. Modern citizenship is much more passive; action is delegated to others; citizenship is often a constraint on acting, not an impetus to act. Nevertheless, citizens are usually aware of their obligations to authorities, and are aware that these bonds often limit what they can do.
To conduct our research we came up with different ideas to base our research on adding the relation between drama and citizenship!
How can we relate citizenship to drama?
Since citizenship has been a slippery topic since the beginning of time, and since we can’t tackle any sensitive issues in our movie. I suggest doing a movie about the continuing struggle that women have faced about giving their children the citizenship of the country they are living in, even if the father isn’t a citizen. We can include demonstrations and protests in the movie as well, to prove our point, that women should be able to grant their children citizenship. Another idea would be, to show a student who chose to leave his country and study somewhere else, and later returns to work in his home country. Furthermore, we can do a movie about a soldier who leaves his family and friends to defend his country on enemy lines (however, this idea would be taking citizenship to an entirely different level: patriotism).
Comparative Understandings on Citizenship
To conduct this idea we will work on establishing a link between the struggle for citizen ship and the desire to get recognized in a country. The next step in the research for this idea we made a comparison between citizenship in United Kingdom and Jordan (the two probable settings of this idea):
Understanding in United Kingdom
Citizenship is offered as a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) course in many schools in the United Kingdom. As well as teaching knowledge about democracy, parliament, government, the justice system, human rights and the UK’s relations with the wider world, students participate in active citizenship, often involving a social action or social enterprise in their local community.
•Citizenship is a compulsory subject of the National Curriculum in state schools in England for all pupils aged 11–16. Some schools offer a qualification in this subject at GCSE and A level. All state schools have a statutory requirement to teach the subject, assess pupil attainment and report student’s progress in citizenship to parents.
•In Wales the model used is Personal and Social Education.
•Citizenship is not taught as a discrete subject in Scottish schools, but is a cross-curricular strand of the Curriculum for Excellence. However they do teach a subject called “Modern Studies” which covers the social, political and economic study of local, national and international issues.
Since the United Kingdom is concerned about citizenship, giving it big importancethis idea will illustrates some of the basic rules of citizenship that causes our characters find an alternative country, perhaps Jordan.
Understanding in Jordan:
In Jordan citizenship is clear and followed by simple rules:
x- Has the intension to stay in the kingdom
x- Non conviction case
x- To speak and read Arabic
x- A person with a good conduct
*Why our character find another country?
When a person gets rejected from the society and family, what can he do??
What are some factors that determine the citizenship of an individual?
•Parents are citizens. If a person has one or both parents who are citizens of a given state, then the person is normally a citizen of that state as well. Citizenship granted in this fashion is referred to by the Latin phrase jus sanguine meaning “right of blood” and means that citizenship is granted based on ancestry or ethnicity, and is related to the concept of a nation state common in Europe. A person could be born outside of the physical territory of a country, but if his or her parents are citizens, then the child is a citizen as well. States normally limit the right to citizenship by descent to a certain number of generations born outside the state. This form of citizenship is common in civil law countries.
•Born within a country. Many people are presumed to be citizens of a state if they were born within its territory. Citizenship granted in this fashion is referred to by the Latin phrase jus solimeaning “right of soil”. This form of citizenship is common in common law countries and originated in England where those who were born within the realm were subjects of the king.
•Marriage to a citizen. Citizenship can also be obtained by marrying a citizen, which is termed jure matrimonii.
•Naturalization. States normally grant citizenship to people who have immigrated to that state and have resided there for the given number of years. Sometimes aspiring citizens may have to pass a test, swear allegiance to their new state and renounce their prior citizenship.
Why the confusion!!
What is the difference between nationalism/ citizenship, fascism, and patriotism?
Patriotism is devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty. Nationalism is when you want your culture or nation to be independent or being devoted to your nation or culture. However, fascism is mostly a government lead by a dictator who suppresses people who oppose him and usually shows nationalism and sometimes racism.
Islamic regimes and how it could achieve democracy?
Needs for project and motivation. Main Points. Why??
We propose to make a seminar and a simulation model of Islamic regimes
and how it govern?
We need comfortable and suitable prices hotels for accommodation
in both Egypt and Tunisia.
We need white sheets, white board, markers highlighters, pens,
sticky notes, camera.
We need organize coordinators in Egypt and Tunisia.
Academic information about Arab spring, theoretical information
about democracy, justice, revolutions in history all over the world.
Projector, Presentations, pictures, videos of the revolutions.
Aims and Objectives
1. According to current political context in Arab countries, it could
raise awareness of people about their human rights, rights in
democracy and social justice under the Islamic regimes.
2. Share ideas
3. Raise awareness of people about the concepts of democracy, types
of regimes, how they could be active in their society, Suggestion
new ideas for Islamic leaders trying to achieve democracy.
Target Group
-age
-from which countries
-specificity of the group (what makes this group a target for the
project)
20 participant
Age between 20 -35
MENA countries
Youth, human rights activist
Summary of the Activity
The current political context in Arab world after Arab spring revolutions,
comes with Islamic regimes to power by elections, but after they came into
power people called for their down and think they couldn’t achieve
democracy, with this training course, we will try to propose suggestion to
Islamic leaders applicable steps to achieve democracy, and to tell
participant what is democracy and it’s types and which one could be more
suitable for their situation?, what is regimes, types of regimes, how they
could choose suitable regime for their situation?
Methodology and Methods
It will be a formal training course provide academic information about
Arab spring revolutions, the instructors are Egyptian and Tunisian
ambassadors and professors of political science.
It will be as well a simulation model of Islamic leader and the current
situation in their country and how they came into power, how they are after
rich the power how they could treat with oppositions and how they could
achieve democracy.
Venue Country, concrete place
First phase Egypt, Cairo university 25January 2014
Second phase Tunisia, Tunisia university. June 2014
Possible donors (fundraising, from where you are planning to ask for
money and support “in kind”)
Institution of higher education, Cairo university, international law forum,
council of Europe, youth in action.
Division of tasks among members of preparatory group
-who will do what
-what support team members expect from each other in realization of
the project
– timing
Egyptian staff will prepare the part of Egyptian and Syrian revolution,
academic materials, pictures and videos, official letters of presidents and
opposition.
Tunisian staff will prepare the part of Egyptian and Syrian revolution,
academic materials, pictures and videos, official letters of presidents and
opposition.
