BUP Newsletter 3 - Baltic University Programme

NEWSLETTER
The Baltic University Programme
N:o 3
December 15th, 2004
Contents of
this Newsletter:
• Teachers Conference in
Ciazen, Poland
• Letter of support to the
Ukrainian members of the
network
• The Web Forum
• The BUP Prizes awarded
to Pawel Migula and Linas
Kliucininkas
• Mazury Lakes: A report from
a Russian student
• On the edge – an article by
Christian Andersson
• Water Management course
on the web.
• Meetings and Conferences
The Next Newsletter
The next issue of the BUP
Newsletter will be published
in February 2005.
If you have any information,
or a short article, that could
be included in the next issue,
please contact us by e-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.balticuniv.uu.se
Teachers Conference in Ciazen, Poland
In the last days of November, right in the midst of massive protests in Ukraine,
some 50 teachers from all around the Baltic Sea region gathered to discuss and
develop the BUP courses in Baltic Sea Region Area studies. The conference,
which took place in the castle of Ciazen, in Central Poland not far from the cities of
Konin and Poznan, was organised by the BUP team at Adam Mickiewicz University
in Poznan, Prof. Witold Maciejewski, Drs Sylwia Schab and Dominika Skrzypek,
and their colleagues.
Three new books – in Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian
It was the first conference to take place after the publication of the book Baltic Sea
Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies. The book was also the platform for the conference in several ways. Translations of the book into new languages, Belarusian,
Ukrainian and Russian, will soon be printed. The new books contain a selection of
chapters from the English edition and several newly written contributions from the
three countries. A pre-edition of the Belarusian book was shown at the meeting,
and the impressive work of Prof. Viktor Shadurski and colleagues in Minsk was
much applauded.
Regional development
The new Belarussian version of the book has sections on economics, social development, politics etc, all suited for an education in regional development, added to
the already existing Peoples of the Baltic course. This aspect was pursued at the
meeting. There are several groups working on regional development in the BUP
network. Those working at St Petersburg University, Gotland University, Kaliningrad State University and Greifswald University were present at the conference.
Details of the course “Regional development” were worked out and will appear on
the home page of the course, now constructed by Christian Andersson, the BUP
webmaster in cooperation with the Poznan team.
Democracy developments in the region
Many of the contributions at the conference were connected to the ongoing discussion on democracy. Thus Prof. Radoslaw Markowski, School of Social Psychology,
Warsaw, reported from his research on referendum, why people vote they way they
do. Prof. Uffe Jacobsen, Copenhagen University, analysed the changing role of the
national state, especially in view of the enlargement of the European Union.
The Baltic University Programme, Uppsala University, Box 256, SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden Tel. +46-18-4711840 Fax +46-18-4711789 [email protected]
Page 2
NEWSLETTER
The Baltic University Programme
N:o 3
December 15th, 2004
TRY THE NE
W
web forum
We have opened a forum on
the BUP webpage where you
can discuss topics relevant to
the BUP activities. But a forum
needs participants. So, why not
try it out during the holidays?
The forum is currently open
for all without any restrictions.
However, irrelevant postings
will be removed by the Forum
Manager.
- How do I start?
At the moment there is a forum
for each course. Choose one
and send your first message
by clicking on the button ”new
topic”. Name your topic so that
others understand the subject
you wish to start discussing.
- How do I participate in a
discussion?
Easy - Click on the name of
the message to read it. At the
end you will find a button called
”post reply”. Your message will
be added immediately to the
page, so that others can continue the discussion.
- Am I anonymous?
You register to become a member and choose the contact
information you wish to make
public, such as your name,
location, and e-mailaddress.
Or, you may post messages as
a guest, anonymously, but we
prefer of course that you sign
your messages.
Click here to go to the forum!
An exciting contribution was the audio conference with Ms Tone Tingsgård,
MP of the Swedish Parliament (and member of the BUP board). Ms Tingsgård
discussed the development of parliamentarian democracy in the region, and
recent elections. This was especially interesting since she was chairing the
OSCE election observation mission to Belarus earlier this fall, and of course had
connections with the latest mission to Ukraine.
Ukraine
Obviously the events in Ukraine, with massive protests against the falsification of the presidential elections, were present during the entire conference.
The Baltic University Programme has as a main mission to support democracy
development. Here we had a concrete opportunity to show that. All of us had
small pieces of orange colour. Daily reports from the manifestations in Kiev and
elsewhere were carefully provided to us by our Dr Iryna Kryba, Centre Director
in Lviv.
The conference wrote a letter of support to the Ukrainian members in the
Baltic University network, and the possibility to increase the support to Ukraine
in the Programme will be investigated. The importance of development of
Ukrainian democracy can not be exaggerated.
Lars Rydén
Director of BUP
To the students and teachers at the
Ukrainian members of the Baltic University Programme
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
National University Lviv Polytechnica
State University of Forestry
Prycarpattia National University of Ivano Frankivsk
Lviv College of Law
Military Institute, Lviv
We, the undersigned participants in the Baltic University Programme
teachers’ Conference at Ciazen, Poland, have gathered to discuss the cooperation in university education for democracy development in the Baltic
Sea region. We write this letter to support you in the protests against the
lack of democratic standards in the Ukrainian election. Universities have
the task not only to teach and research, but also to take an active role in
the development in the societies they are part of. Universities have a long
tradition of defending basic values of open speech, respect for others
and human rights, all basic for a democratic society. We encourage you
to discuss, study and act upon the events in Ukraine today. Your protests
against the violation of democratic election standards are supported by
colleagues in all countries in the Baltic University network and will be
respected in the years to come of hopefully continuing and deepening
cooperation.
Participants in the Baltic University Teachers conference in Ciazen,
Poland, November 25, 2004.
Good Luck!
The Baltic University Programme, Uppsala University, Box 256, SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden Tel. +46-18-4711840 Fax +46-18-4711789 [email protected]
Page 3
NEWSLETTER
The Baltic University Programme
N:o 3
December 15th, 2004
Baltic University Prizes
The Baltic University Programme Board has on the
19th of Nov. 2004 decided
that the
Baltic University Prize as
educator of the year 2004
is awarded to Professor
Pawel Migula, University of
Silesia, Katowice, Poland,
for his contributions through
many years to environmental
education in the Programme,
especially the development
of the Environmental Science
textbook, always building on
sound science, love for students, and a concern for the
environment of the societies
in the region, not the least his
own badly hit Silesian homeland.
Baltic University Prize for
special contributions to the
network of the year 2004
is awarded to Associate
Professor Linas Kliucininkas, Kaunas University of
Technology, Lithuania, for
his many years concern for
development of the Programme, especially environmental
engineering in the network,
hosting network meetings,
building bridges to other parts
of societies, and creating the
Lithuanian network reaching
all universities in the country.
The prizes consist of SEK
5 000 and a diploma. They
are made public on this day
and will be given to the two
laureates of the year at the
first suitable occasion.
www.balticuniv.uu.se
A Letter from a Russian Student...
This summer the Baltic University together with the Technical University of Lodz
organized a student’s conference on the Mazury Lakes, which are located in the
north-east of Poland. I think, that these 12 days, I and the other 25 participants from
Poland, Lithunia, Estonia, Ukraine and Belarus will never forget.
It was an unusual conference, as during all the time we lived and travelled on the
yachts. Experienced steersmen started on a journey every morning and managed
our small squadron of 5 yachts. Every evening we stopped in a new port, never
having spent the night twice in one place. We passed about half of the lakes, which
are connected to each other by narrow channels.
One of the basic components of the trip was a scientific part. Every morning
we listened the reports of students, devoted to the lakes in their countries. During
the way we took water tests from the lakes to define electricity, the contents of
phosphorus, oxygen and pH level. The problem put before us was to define the
present ecological situation in the lakes and compare our results with the results
of previous researchers. But the most interesting thing was, certainly, an informal
part. We visited the aqua park in the town of Mikolajki, the museum of a well-known
Polish poet (Gauczynski), natural reserves and other places. A dialogue took place
with students from other countries, and new impressions were given every day from
viewing and, certainly, sailing! Anyone, who goes under a sail will never forget it!
We stopped for the night in cities, small ports and absolutely wild places. And in
the evening after supper the informal part began. I will not describe it, I will simply
tell, that the Polish beer is very tasty and promotes international dialogue.
But all good things always come to an end and the time to go home came. It was
very sad to leave all the new friends. I want to say – Thank you very much, to our
teachers and steersman for your love and patience to us. And of course, thanks to
Baltic University and the Technical University of Lodz!
Anna Nesterenko
St.-Petersburg State University
The Baltic University Programme, Uppsala University, Box 256, SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden Tel. +46-18-4711840 Fax +46-18-4711789 [email protected]
Page 4
NEWSLETTER
The Baltic University Programme
N:o 3
December 15th, 2004
Meetings &
Conferences
BUP Centers Meeting
19-22 January 2005
Nitra, Slovakia
BUP Conference
Sustainable Chemistry
& Biotechnology
15-19 February 2005
Ostritz/St. Marienthal,
Germany & TU Wroclaw,
Poland
Merry
Christmas
& Happy
New Year
from the BUP
Secretariat
in Uppsala.
On the edge
On the other side of the street
from where I live, new building
blocks are being erected. The first
apartments are just ready to welcome their first owners. The apartments have been marketed using
phrases like “a children friendly
area”, “easy access to all sorts of
public service” and “make this nice
view yours”. It has obviously been
successful for the plans call for another 300-400 apartments in the
same neighbourhood. However,
the local politicians suddenly realized that all this building activity
takes place on former arable land
and further development of this
area is now likely to be stopped.
Locally the decision to stop this development means that some open areas in
the outskirts of town will remain open. But the decision also has a global connection as the amount of arable land is decreasing on a global scale. At the same time
the world population is increasing and during the last four years the world’s grain
consumption has exceeded the production. And, of course, that way it cannot continue for long. This is only one of several indications showing that rough times may
be ahead. A recent report by the IUCN shows that a large proportion of the global
species pool face the risk of extinction. Clean water is already in short supply in
many places and the ground water is sinking. Hazardous chemicals have penetrated the bodies of all of us, world oil production is near its peak and higher gas and
energy prices are expected. We have all heard about climate change for years.
Are things getting better?
On the other hand, Bjørn Lomborg and others claim that the environmental situation is not so bad and, in fact, in some areas actually is getting better. Maybe it
is possible to get a considerably higher yield from the arable land already in use.
Maybe alternative, cheaper and more environmentally friendly sources of energy
are just round the corner.
It is not easy to know if you should be optimistic or pessimistic. Let BUP help
you with our information and knowledge. You can make a difference!
Christian Andersson
The Water management course (15 ECTS)
www.balticuniv.uu.se
The Baltic University master level course on Sustainable Water Management is since last year open to students all over the world as a distance
course. The virtual classroom of the course is of course the web-page.
Here you can now also find all three books on Water Management available
for downloading. Please check it out! (www.balticuniv.uu.se/swm/index.htm)
Magnus Lehman
The Baltic University Programme, Uppsala University, Box 256, SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden Tel. +46-18-4711840 Fax +46-18-4711789 [email protected]