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Global Responsibility
In
our first meeting Marlén Izquierdo - the leader of our workshop
- gave us a detailed introduction into the aim of our workshop. She told
us that we would focus on raising awareness of our (every human being's)
condition as borrowers of both the environment and the society in which
we live. We (Casey from England, Zaida from Spain, Sarah from Sweden and
I) looked at environmental issues and the social aspects related to global
responsibility. We soon decided to predominantly cover the social aspects
since we were mainly referring to them in our brainstorming and because
we only got a limited amount of time to do our work. We started creating
a photo documentary in the format of a power point presentation. For this
we collected different ideas of possible situations that show how somebody
is either globally responsible or rather globally irresponsible. One of
the situations displayed shows how an "irresponsible person"
is lighting up a cigarette at a dinner table while the people sitting
right next to this person don't dare to honestly say that they find this
quite inconsiderate. However, the most exciting part of our workshop so
far was an interview with Sean Nestor who is the landlord of half of the
cottages we live in here on Achill. He was very patient answering the
questions we had prepared and inspired us for the work on our photo documentary.
We all are very enthusiastic to continue our work and to start developing
a value tree which is going to be another piece we will be presenting
during the final presentation in the Achill Cliff House…
Matthias Göring
(German group)
The investigating tour of Achill Island - part one
To
better understand the development and history of Achill, we divided ourselves
in two groups and were packed in a minibus. The driver had ongoing commentary
playing on the bus's sound system, and as the Island had blessed us with
great weather, we had breathtaking scenery to look forward to. After passing
and being told about the well working retirement centre, we got a quite
interesting story about how the shark fishing used to make the area reek
with the smell from the shark liver. As the story proceeded we all suddenly
lost attention as the beautiful view of Keem Bay came before us. The water
was picture postcard turquoise and the cliffs around the little bay framing
the scene. It was astonishing, proving yet again the beauty of a land
that is withstanding some of the roughest weather in Europe. After a short
stop for photography and admiring the tour continued and we were told
more about both the history and the famous people that lived on Achill.
Some of us got our questions about the black brick like things lying around
everywhere on the island answered. It turned out the traditional turf
is harvested with special tools and then left to dry and finally used
as fuel when heating houses. This is also what produces the very distinctive
smell that can be felt in the area. This article is far too short to retell
everything we learned about Achill and its habitants, but both pirate
queens and famous artists got their fair share of our attention.
Sebastian Geijer
(Swedisch group)
The investigating tour of Achill Island - part two
What
impresses me the most was that Achill Island has got so many and beautiful
beaches. I expected to see much landscape but it is very impressive that
there are so many nice beaches. Some typical things of the island are the
stone walls all over Ireland as well as the sheeps standing at the street
or walking in front of the cars. Another typical thing is that the cottages
all look nearly the same. Most of them are white and they're built in a
special way. We also passed a small tower who was used by pirates to watch
out for enemies. So the location is chosen very well because it is located
next to the water and so they can oversee the whole area. There's one location
along the trip where we saw some fishing boats. The main catch is salmon,
oysters and mussels. Besides fishing the Achill Island people earn their
money with the tourism. Although the summer is a very attractive season
for the tourists because of the beaches, the winter also attracts many people.
Their main aim is to get in contact with the local people of Achill Island.
Another point belonging to the tourism is that Achill Island offers the
so called "Summer Schools" for children (from Ireland). The kids
live for 2 or 3 weeks in families in Achill Island to learn the Irish language.
Unfortunately there are not enough jobs to offer everyone on Achill Island
a job so some of them are going to Dublin or cities in Ireland to work over
there. But also some people work from their home through the internet for
big companies abroad. They are trained in working with the internet at the
IT-Center in Keel, one of Achill's four big villages.
Andrea Willems
(German group)
