Complaining on high level was a youth exchange that was held in Garnholt, Germany from 28th of April- 5th of May 2012. There were 24 youngsters from 4 different countries – Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and Italy.
“Complaining on high level” was a multicultural youth exchange about consumption where we have discussed how things that we use in our daily life are produced and how we can change things like environmental pollution or workers exploitation. People in developed countries are usually complaining about many things: the chocolate being 10 cents more expensive if it is fair trade, or having many different gadgets at home that they dont use, or the price of meat being too much. People often have misguided information about where things come from and how are they produced.
Therefore we needed to make the participants and the local public aware of how products are produced: i.e. chocolate – that the cocoa comes from Africa where there is child trafficking where those children are not with their families so they can work on the cocoa plants just that we in developed countries have cheaper chocolate to eat. Or that people assembling the mobile phones are working on traveling factories on a ship, and they are called by number and dont see the light of the day. Or that cows are being kept in 5m sqare and fed with antibiotics so they can grow big faster which is really bad for everyones health. And all this – so consumer can have things cheaper. We have exploited many similar examples and shown that every consumer must be aware of how products are made, and therefore not buy non-fair trade products. Therefore we can also lower our conform and also consumption and act sustainable on a long term.
The results of the workshops we have put together in a small artistic performance that we have shown to the local community. With our videos, performance, partner organizations and local citizens we have spread this information in whole Europe and got people’s attention.
Do not look away, do something!
This project was funded by “Jugend für Europa” through the “Youth in Action” program.