Mediart Blog

INTERNATIONAL WORLD TOURISM DAY

27/9/2023

World tourism has become a rapidly growing and developing industry in recent years. Tourism is of great importance not only as an economic sector but also as a cultural and social phenomenon. In this article, the importance, impacts and future of world tourism will be discussed.
Tourism is an important factor stimulating economic growth around the world. It is an important source of foreign exchange for many countries and employs millions of people. Tourism supports hospitality, restaurants, transport, guiding and a range of ancillary sectors. It also revitalises local businesses and contributes to local economies.
Tourism allows different cultures to come together and people to gain new experiences. This can increase cultural understanding and make people more tolerant. It also provides an opportunity to preserve and promote local cultures and traditions. However, rapid tourist development can also lead to damage to local cultures and the environment. Therefore, sustainable tourism practices are important.
Tourism also has significant impacts on the natural environment. Intensive tourist activities can lead to depletion of natural resources, accumulation of garbage and damage to ecosystems. Therefore, sustainable tourism practices and environmental protection measures can help reduce the negative impacts of tourism.
The development of digital technologies is transforming the tourism experience. Travel planning, bookings and guidance are becoming easier through mobile apps and online platforms. In addition, new tourism trends such as sustainability and nature tourism are emerging. In the future, the tourism industry will continue to embrace these sustainable and technological developments.
World tourism is of great economic, social and cultural importance. However, with this growth, it is important that we do not forget our environmental responsibilities. Sustainable tourism practices can help us reduce environmental damage while increasing the positive impacts of tourism. By following future tourism trends, we can maximise the positive impacts of tourism around the world.

Milena and Erdi

Milena and Erdi are German and Turkish involved in the International Tourism Day

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Peace day: How your inner peace makes the world a better place

21/9/2023

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Inner Peace is a goal that nearly everyone claims to achieve. In the week of the international day of peace, we get the chance to deal with this topic differentiated. The aim? To find peace for the world, to find peace within ourselves.

But first of all, what is the peace day at all? The international peace day is celebrated each year on the 21st of September to celebrate the power of global solidarity and to build a peaceful and sustainable world.

It was established in 1981 by the United Nations and it is dedicated to the absence of war and violence. The Motto for this years’ Peace day is “Actions for Peace: Our Ambitions for the #GlobalGoals”.
The goal is to fulfill the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) until 2030 and we need to be active to fulfill the SDG 3 (good health and well-being) and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) regarding the International Day of Peace.

To reach those goals as a society, it is important for each one of us to know and to find the importance of inner peace and to have the skills to reach it. Also, the picture of inner peace that we search for needs change within ourselves. That is challenging and it requires courage, but eventually we all get there if we want to.

What is inner peace about and why do we need to talk about it?
Inner peace is balance and reflection of your mind and also your body. It’s a state of mind where you don’t feel the need to compare yourself to others or to hate neither yourself nor others.
You can train your mind into a more peaceful mindset by focusing on special needs and feelings, inner peace gives you the skill to find a psychological state of calm within stressful situations that might overwhelm logical thinking. It navigates us through hard times and claims nice feelings.

In our fast- paced times nowadays, a clear and peaceful mind is necessary to not break under the pressure and fear of failing. Our inner peace is shown through our reflected behavior towards others in our daily life but also towards ourselves.

How to reach inner peace?
The way to inner peace is an individual way and there is not ONE right way, a lot of ways enter to Rome! There are just a few things you need to focus on that will help you to reach the goal; Saying no nicely to a request is totally okay and important when you feel overwhelmed sometimes. Also, the focus on your own peace and routine is an important step towards inner peace, if anything costs your peace, it’s too expensive! Another way to calm your mind, another skill, is meditation, it calms your mind and our body and through the quiet it will help you to sort your mind.

For further information and steps about inner peace, check out the post about inner peace on the @praxis.greece Instagram account.

Julia and Nele

Julia and Nele are German volunteers involved in the International Peace Day

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The international democracy day

15/9/2023

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The word Democracy is an ancient Greek word in the middle of the 5th century : Demos which means people and Kratos means power. Democracy is a system originally designates a political regime in which all citizens participate in public decisions and the political life of the city.
Now democracy means any political system in which the people are sovereign. More exactly There are two main forms of democracy : In a direct democracy, the people have the direct authority to deliberate and decide legislation. In a representative democracy, the people choose governing officials through elections to do so
Are there still direct democracies?
To put this into context, direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. It was a famous form of democracy in Athens in the 5th century BC. For information, In the 5th century BC, to become a citizen, you must be a free man born of an Athenian father, and have followed the Ephebia from 18 to 20 years old, that is to say be capable of defending the city. Slaves and women considered respectively as property and eternal minors, as well as metics (foreigners) were not included in the political community, as in most Greek cities. It is the assembly which brings together all the citizens gathered on the hill of the Pnyx. It votes on general laws. Any citizen can take the floor, exercise his power of amendment and propose a motion. This is the essence of direct democracy. Once passed, the law is exposed to the public in the Agora. There are many places like La Boulè where citizens used to vote to represent direct democracy.
But today are there countries with this democracy?
Switzerland is the only country with a direct democracy. So how does it work?
In addition to the right to vote, the Swiss population over the age of 18 also has the right to express their opinion on major questions. About four times a year, she is called to the polls to give her opinion on around fifteen objects on average. Over the past decades, voter turnout has been, on average, slightly above 40%.

And how does this work for countries without direct democracies?
Some countries operate with representative democracy, many countries in the European Union operate this way. Representative democracy is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people. Representative democracy places power in the hands of representatives who are elected by the people. Political parties often become central to this form of democracy if electoral systems require or encourage voters to vote for political parties or for candidates associated with political parties. France, Germany, Denmark and Austria for example are countries with representative democracies. In many countries this system is contested because the people want more power to express themselves more like a direct democracy.

What is a country without democracy ?
A country without democracy isn’t a democracy of course, some countries are with an authoritarian regime. That means that the Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting, the people can’t express themselves and they have less rights than the democratic regime. We could think that it is rarier today in our world to have authoritarian countries but no. Certainly, some countries have developed their regime like Franco's Spain who is today a representative democratic country but many others countries are authoritarian like Morocco, Vietnam, China or Venezuela.
This international democracy day is really important to show the different regime of countries, if it’s a democratic country or not. We can see that a lot of countries aren’t a democracy contrary to European countries or some of them say to themselves that they are a democratic system but in reality not really.

The number of democracies has increased significantly since 1946. Indeed, at that date, there were only twenty democracies out of the 72 States recognized at the time. This progress is due in particular to the end of the Cold War and to the democratization of the South American continent since the end of the 1980s.

Nuria and Mathilde

Nuria and Mathilde are a Spanish and French volunteers involved in the International Democracy Day

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INTERNATIONAL WORLD TOURISM DAY

Peace day: How your inner peace makes the world a better place

The international democracy day

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INTERNATIONAL WORLD TOURISM DAY

Peace day: How your inner peace makes the world a better place

The international democracy day

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Archives

MEDIART