hooked up on SEE

by chance I stumbled upon a conference held here in Berlin by the Heinz Schwarzkopf Stiftung. The title "After the wars - the Western Balkans facing the European Union" promised an interesting day of various panels with interesting speakers - and it was even more so! The audence was high class aswell: Ambassadors, Scientists, Politicians plus me and three other students. It was awesome though and perfect to get back on track with my studies.



After a day of presentations and discussions, they drove us in a bus to the Kino Babylon to see Storm, a film about a prosecutor at the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia). A great and moving film, that gives insights not only into the crimes committed (although fictional), but foremost into the practices of a criminal court and the moral problems arising from the quest for justice and for peace. After the film there was a Q&A with the director, a judge from the ICTY and the director of the Berlinale, Mr. Kosslik. The latter was mostly annoying, being ill prepared, talking about other films unknown to the audience and not using his microphone properly. Plus, his English was horrible!
Speaking of which, another thing I was really ashamed of: all of the Southeast European speakers were perfectly fluent in English, able to articulate themselves in an understandable way - enter the Germans: apart from a few exemptions, most of teh Germans English was a pain in the ear and almost incomprehensible. And we are in Europe!