Democracy

Democracy. This is probably one of the most often heard words, but what do we really know about its meaning? And how deeply can it influence our lives ? Now, if you are expecting to read one of those pathetic articles concerning abstracted concepts that nobody except for diplomacy and politics experts will ever understand, you can crumple up this piece of paper and throw it away, but if you keep it you will get the chance to choose either to be part of the world you live in or not.

The hardest part, talking about democracy is probably turning it into a concrete idea, that is the only possible way to explain it clearly to inexperienced teenagers.

As until this summer I was part of this category ,you can easily imagine my astonishment when I was asked to take part to a seminar about democracy called future in 3D. I have to thank my curiosity ,the only reason why I accepted the offer.

In Castellania, where the seminar took place, we (youngsters from different European  countries)have been involved since the very first days in a variety of different workshops in order to help us to get in touch with our mates.

Then we have been divided into five groups and each of them, with the help of skilled experts had to realize a project to show to the local community at the end of the week in some cities of our area.

If you were walking through the streets of the city centre in Novi Ligure on Tuesday the 28^th of June you may have fancied why some people were fighting in slow motion in Via Girardengo , or why they were doing tai chi in the middle of Piazza delle Piane half an hour later. If you were in Tortona you may have noticed a row of people singing and playing instruments while someone was building a cardboard structure in via Emilia.

Every initiative was thought to amaze citizens in order to catch their attention and to make them understand the power that the union of motivated people can generate. Young people do not have to wait for the presence of governments to start cooperating to build a  democratic society, where everyone is considered as much as the others, and the key to do it is collaboration through communication. I am not going to say,that we can change the whole world, but certainly we can change OUR world.

Camilla Giannoni