YouthCan 1999 in New York City, written by Matus Kurian

YouthCan 1999 in New York took place the on 23rd May in the American Museum of Natural History. There were people from a few European countries: Macedonia, Belarus and Slovakia. From Slovakia there were Joko, Katka, Juliana, Tom and I. The YouthCan in NY was a part of chain of YouthCans, there were two more in Florida and Colorado that were running at the same time. The video-conferencing system should maintain the connection between them.

The YouthCan itself began at ten in the morning but the preparations had been running for a fortnight in advance and their results (lack of sleep) could be clearly seen on the two organizators: Jason Gerber and Jay Holmes. However, it all proved okay. If only the video-conferencing had worked.

The conference started by some talk of course. There was Ed, the coordinator of I*EARN of the US, some people from America, and the group from Macedonia and finally Slovak participants. When we had been making our preparations for our workshops there hadn’t been a word about any kind of speech we would have to have. However, Slovaks are quite good at ad-libing. So our speech (it was mine in the end) was one of the best ones: it wasn’t too long, it was fun (I taught the Americans how to say Ahoj” and where Slovakia is). The latter may not seem useful at all, but as there are so many people that have no idea where Slovakia is, I felt I had to explain the matter a bit. (Not to mention that even decent people often confuse Slovakia and Slovenia). Thanks to all that helped me with the speech.

Then there were workshops. I saw one: American History of Natural History Ecology Club performed a play that was about an environmental issue. A discussion followed immediately after it. We were separated into a few groups and each group had to come up with an idea how to solve the problem that had been presented in the play. I was surprised that even some small kids had their own solutions that were interesting. I think that is a very good thing that activities like YouthCan can do: to inform young people about environment and make them think about it, as it will be they who will have to change their and our habits so that the environment may improve.

Our workshop was about I*EARN environmental camps in general and about one that had taken place in the High Tatras last autumn in particular. We also mentioned an environmental camp I had been to last year in Hungary and then we talked about ours. We did a slide power-point presentation (thanks to Paul from Florida and Edd who helped us with computers) and gave some information about what it had been good for to our audience. Then there was a discussion. The subject was Economy versus Ecology at first and then we got to more specific problems like Winter Olympics in the High Tatras in 2006. The audience was great; the people participated a lot in the discussion. I say we” too often so I have to state that it was Juliana who did a great job in presenting the camp (she had not been to) and in the discussion. Thanks, Juliana.

After the workshop the official part of the YouthCan 1999 soon ended by a closing ceremony. There was a short party in the Museum after that. I have never been to a conference like that before so I can’t compare it with anything. However, I dare say it was a good way to get people involved in environmental problems. Sure there were things some might not like, but I think there were many more positives.

Some people like criticising America (that means the U.S. most of the time) for its bad manners, other ideals, interest in money and neglect towards environment. Look carefully at the last word of the sentence! How many of you (I mean mainly people from Europe) recycle Coke cans, plastic! bottles and stuff like that? Yet, it was in the NYC, where I saw people do this.

PS I’d like to thanks to Jason and his wonderful kids