International Seminar Berlin, 18-23 March

Letting civilizations clash Bringing together 40 participants from over 30 European countries in Berlin, this spring's JEF Europe seminar co-organised with JEF Germany and JEB Berlin-Brandenburg was a full success on all accounts. The seminar programme dealt with a variety of questions regarding living in a multicultural society shaped by the effects of globalisation.

Not to stay in an ordinary conference room but to go out to the places, which are relevant to the issues we talk about, that was the aim of the spring 2007 JEF Europe seminar under the title of "Clash of Civilizations – the Search for a Common Ground". And that's exactly how the seminar started out after the arrival of the international participants to the seminar hostel in Berlin-Friedrichshain: the pan-European public action against the dictatorship in Belarus was point number one on the programme on Sunday night and participants split up into nine groups to complete their missions of muzzling statues dispersed in the city of Berlin.

The following morning, participants were greeted by the presidents of the co-organising associations as well as the seminar crew and were given an introduction into the topic of intercultural communications. After Sudanese lunch, a session on human rights in a multicultural environment and some spare time, the Clash of Civilizations seminar developed the concept of the international evening a bit further than it's usually the case. Taking over the kitchen of a Berlin youth club, a wonderful buffet uniting culinary delights from all the participants' countries of origin was prepared in what can be calle a truly multicultural cooking frenzy. Many anecdotes can be told about the mechanisms of international hotplate bargaining or pot-against-pan-trading as well as a constant strive for efficiency-increase through multiple-recipes-one-pot<WBR>-synergies.

Tuesday was entirely devoted to the question of religion starting out with a discussion visit to Berlin-Neukölln's newly built mosque followed by a choice of three guided tours through the Jewish Museum Berlin. Having enjoyed the wide variety of a Turkish buffet, the afternoon consisted of a session on interreligious dialogue as means to global peace and the day closed with the movie night at the youth club – the movie experience being an intercultural challenge not because it dealt with the life of an Indian family but because it was spoken with a strong Scottish accent as the family lived in Glasglow.

Integration and the role of politics and the media were the topics of Wednesday, a day characterised by the worst of dreadful weather Berlin has to offer. Nonetheless, the seminar participants withstood these unfavorable conditions and followed the guides on a walk through the multicultural Kreuzberg district ending with a short stop by a cultural centre. The day's programme was continued with a visit to the Berlin City Parliament, where we were welcomed by a representative of Turkish origin, and Berlin's multicultural radio station.

The seminar's last full day was devoted to an intercultural role-play in the morning and working group on conflict resolution in the afternoon. The final evening included a dinner with a German buffet accompanied by a live jazz-band. On Friday morning, the seminar participants brainstormed in groups how to integrate the newly aquired knowledge into concrete youth NGO activities and closed the seminar with an evaluation session. During the five days in Berlin, seminar participants have discussed a multitude of different aspects relevant to intercultural dialogue in today's society shaped by an increasing degree of diversity and number of exchanges. On top of that, they themselves were part of a multicultural experience getting in touch with many actors and scenes in question. We let the civilizations meet, but they didn't clash.