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Greetings,
I am proud to present to you the new snow-clad EZINE!
This
issue is a special one. It presents a retrospective of this winter's
celebrations from around the world. Even though a fair bit of this
issue is dedicated
to the holiday of Christmas, with its origins, magic, and snow (or the
lack of it),
that doesn’t mean that other winter celebrations will be left aside!
Chanukah is a very
important Jewish celebration. It is the Festival of Lights, a celebration of the victory of the
Maccabees against the Syrians, nation which dominated the Jews and forced them
to reject their God and worship Greek gods. It also celebrates the rededication
of the Jerusalem Temple, as it had been filled with Greek
statues and symbols during the Syrian domination. Also, it commemorates the
miracle of a small amount of oil that burned in the N'er Tamid (eternal light found in all Jewish houses of
worship) for eight days, although it normally would have been enough for one
day only. That is why Chanukah lasts for eight days, and it is celebrated
between December 4th (evening) and December 12th.
Our Muslim friends celebrate Eid
al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), a
commemoration of Ibrahim's
(Abraham's)
willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for Allah. Ibrahim dreamed that Allah wanted him to kill his
beloved son, Ismail. To show his willingness to obey Allah, Ibrahim got ready
to kill his son. Ibrahim heard Allah’s voice telling him to stop. Allah told
him that he had proved his love by willing to give up his son. He gave Ibrahim
a lamb from the heavens to sacrifice instead. Eid al-Adha is four days long and
starts on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijja
(ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar. This is the day after the
pilgrims in Hajj,
the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from
Mount Arafat.
This issue brings a change to our EZINE. Alumna
Alina Popescu now has her own column to fill with great ideas. “The Powerful
Voice of Youth” is definitely a column worth reading!
We have to mention the outstanding success of alumna
Melis Anathar, who at 21 has been awarded the prestigious Rhodes scholarship.
Well done, Melis!Don't forget about the program dates and locations for the upcoming year (see left column)!
Of course, the Phrase of the Month is also present, with 32 great translations.
Also, some email providers have encountered problems
with viewing the EZINE. In order to avoid possible glitches, please view the
EZINE as a webpage.
I am sure you will enjoy this new
issue of the Leader’s EZINE!
Happy holidays, whatever you may be celebrating!
Cheers,
Ana M. Olteanu
Editor-in-Chief
Leaders' EZINE
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A time
of gifts
Maria Dragan (Chisinau 06)
Everyone has that
special remedy that cures the dilemmas life puts us through, some sort of
“comfort food” that makes it all better. For some, the answers lie in a
favorite book or a favorite cocktail, for others, it’s all about the chocolate
or about shopping insanely till they drop. No doubt, for most, the only way out
of their crisis is professional help… but as I’m not there yet, my spiritual
and psychological serenity is found in the magic of Christmas.
A time when the world
is more alive than ever, a holiday that not only brings the joy of gift giving,
but that manages to disregard all reason and fix whatever broken pieces I have.
Covered in white and soft wrapping paper, Christmas is the greatest gift of
all.
It always finds me
relatively unprepared, and constantly at war with something, but in spite of my
lack of spirit, I somehow end up singing Santa Claus is Back in Town with 10
other deranged characters and pouring fake snow on innocent passersby in the
event of a grim, snowless winter.
You wake up on
Christmas morning, not exactly dying to open your presents (because you
shamelessly sneaked a look at them before), but excited, nevertheless, since
you want to make sure that Harry Potter costume will fit your 26 year old
sister! Every year I look back at the days of crazy-crowd-caroling,
happy-cookie-baking and deadly-snow-fighting, and see that my “comfort food”
made me unconsciously create memories that will stay printed in my heart
forever.
As it happens, yesterday
night, I fell asleep thinking that I’ve already wasted a fifth of my lifetime.
Christmas makes me dream about the daring 4 more fifths I have to live…
Have a beautiful
Christmas everyone out there who celebrates it! May you have lots of snow for
your fights and frozen lakes for your skating, may you have great mornings that
make you look in the mirror and say “Oh, my, who’s that good looking fellow?!”,
may you never catch cold when standing in line, may you eat all the veggies on
your plate, so that you get the biggest slice of cake, may you see the world
from your own eyes and live the most daring adventures life has to offer…
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 Patricia Taflan (Bucharest 08)
Christmas is the most widespread winter holiday in the world. But did you know these facts about it?
Where does the word Christmas come from?
The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," later shortened to "Christ-Mass." The even shorter form "Xmas" - first used in Europe
in the 1500s - is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the
first letter of Christ's name: Xristos, therefore "X-Mass."
Today we know that Christ was not born on the 25th of December.
The date was chosen to coincide with the pagan Roman celebrations
honoring Saturnus (the harvest god) and Mithras (the ancient god of
light), a form of sun worship. These celebrations came on or just after
the winter solstice,
the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, to announce
that winter is not forever, that life continues, and an invitation to
stay in good spirit. But there's much more to the fascinating history of Christmas! For example, where did the Christmas tree originate?
The tradition of decorating fir trees indoors is believed to have originated in Germany in the 16th century. Credit for this idea is usually given to Martin
Luther, however some Lutheran scholars have disputed this. Whoever invented the idea, it quickly became popular in Germany. The idea was less quick to catch on in Britain, possibly because of rivalry between the two
countries.
The market for Christmas trees really took off in the 19th century when
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were illustrated with their family and
a Christmas tree. What was good enough for the queen was good enough for everyone,
and the custom of buying and decorating trees quickly spread in both
Britain and the US.
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 Towards
New Dialogues Alina Popescu (Turnu 07)
A
few days ago, a literature lesson organized in my class was extraordinary. I
have never seen before more passionate debates. The topic:
”Romania, country of paradoxes”. All of my classmates were willing to participate,
but not after long time, the teacher decided to put an end to the dialogue.
None of us would have wanted that. One of my colleagues even said: ”We would
like so much to express our opinions, but we are not given the possibility to
do it.” The teacher’s reply was very surprising: "Stop talking this much! You
youths don’t have the power to change anything in the world anyway.” Suddenly,
the end of the lesson became exrtemely significant to me. It evidentiated two
realities: youths’ strong wish to speak and share their opinions, and some of
the adults’ impression that young people’s ideas don’t matter.
I
then convinced myself once again that we should have a debate club in our
school, that would help us make our opinions better heard. Thinking that our
debates would also interest our community, I decided to accept an offer coming
from a local television to have my own live TV show: to present our discussions
to the public. I considered that the leaders of our
community need to know how things are going from youths’ perspective. This can
help the leaders look at community issues differently and get new and fresh
ideas on how to address them.
I
believe in the success of this project because debate can give us the power to
change things. Our voices can be powerful instruments for change - in our
schools, in our community, nation and world.
For
me, this project represents a new adventure. I start dreaming like every youth
that I can change something in this world. I know though that I will succeed
only if I change myself first. The dialogues I will have with my interlocutors,
the inspiration provoked by them will encourage me to assume the responsibility
of my own vision transmitted to others; this is what I will also do in this
column, where my thoughts will flourish to give birth to new dialogues between
YLI members. |
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Phrase of the Month
Thank you for your contributions to this month's Phrase! The phrase "How are you?" has been translated into 32 languages! Enjoy!
Arabic
Kif halak
Bulgarian
Как сте ти?
(phonetic translation: Koé si ti?)
Chinese (Mandarin)
Ni hao ma?
Croatian
Kako ste?
Czech
Jak
se máte?
Danish
Hvordan har De det?
Dutch
Op welke manier zitten
u?
English
How are you?
Filipino
Kamusta ka? / Kamusta ka na?
French
Comment allez-vous? / Comment vas tu?
German
Wie geht es Ihnen? (formal) / Wie
geht es dir? (informal)
Greek
πωs είσαι? (Tee-caneese? - singluar; Ti ka-ne-te? - plural)
Hebrew
Ma neshma? / Ma
shlomha?
Hungarian
Hogy
van?
Icelandic
Hvernig
ert þú?
Italian
Come
siete? / Come stai?
Japanese
Ogenkidesuka? / Ogenki
desu ka? (are you well/okay?) / Do desu ka?
(literal translation: how is it?)
Kapampangan
Kamusta naka?
Kikuyu
Uri mwega?
Latin
Quam
es vos?
Luhya
Mulembe?
Maltese
Kif int?
Norwegian
Hvordan
har De det?
Portuguese
Como é você?
Polish
Jak
się masz?
Romanian
Ce
faci? / Ce mai faci?
Russian
Как
вы?
Serbian
Kako
ste?
Slovenian
Kako
se počutiš?
Spanish
¿Cómo
estás? / ¿Qué tal?
Swahili
Habari Yako?
Swedish
Hur stå det till ?
Tagalog
Kamusta? Kamusta ka na?
Turkish
Nasılsın? / Nasılsınız?
Slang (Australian)
How ya goin? / How’s it hangin? / How you traveling?
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The Genius of Melis
Ana Olteanu (Bucharest 07)
MIT
mechanical and biomedical engineering major with a perfect GPA, intern in the
National Human Genome Research Institute's Medical Genetics Branch, one of the
10 named as Glamour's Top College Women of 2007, Editor-in-Chief for the
MIT Undergraduate Research Journal – sounds surreal? That’s Melis Anathar, YLI
alumna, at the age of 21!
At
a young age, she started building toy cars and robots, signs of her talent and
love for science. Melis has fused her passions for engineering and biology by
pursuing bioengineering at MIT. At 15 she worked as an intern at the burn unit
of Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston,
activity which inspired her to begin potentially life-saving research. At 17
she created a microfluidic device that isolates white blood cells from whole
blood without altering their characteristics. The entire process takes less
than 10 seconds, compared to standard procedures which take more than 30
minutes. Melis’ research could help better understand the human body’s reaction
to injury. Also, her research includes her identifying the genetic basis for a
rare form of albinism, and designing a needle-free injector which would make
immunizations safer for people all over the world.
Throughout her activity, Melis has received numerous
scholarships and awards, such as the Pat Swanson Scholarship and the L'Oreal
Beauty of Giving Award (2,500$ to donate to a charity of her choice), but none
of them as amazing as the world-renowned Rhodes Scholarship. She will do the
M.Sc. in integrated immunology at Oxford University.
As Glamour
magazine wrote, her research will save
lives. Her amazing work is an inspiration to us all. Melis is a true leader
for the society of today, and her work will flourish for the good of the
society of tomorrow.
Congratulations
Melis, and keep up the good work!
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We're sure you have enjoyed this issue of the Leaders' EZINE.
It
is important that you understand that the EZINE is the voice of YLI
members, and therefore, without contributions, it cannot exist.
Therefore, please feel free to send in your articles and artwork. The
topics can range from your experiences with YLI, the conferences, and
your projects, to social issues, international issues, opinion, and
humorous. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions
about articles. To submit your articles, please send them to ezine at leaders.org.
Thank
you to all who have contributed to the EZINE over the past couple of
years. We hope that you will all be inspired to write your own
articles, for the entire YLI community to learn from and enjoy.
Sincerely,
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Charles J. Hall
Communications
Youth Leaders International
charles.hall at leaders.org |
Ana M. Olteanu
Editor-in-Chief
Leaders' EZINE
ezine at leaders.org
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