25 young people from Ukraine, Albania, Hungary and Georgia recently spent a week at the Europaburg in Neumarkt in Styria. The young Europeans expected a varied program of lectures, workshops, games and team building activities that provided entertainment, but also promoted mutual understanding.
Harald Koch, WIFI course leader for AI, introduced the participants to the dangers and tricks of artificial intelligence and showed how easily the human eye can be deceived by means of practical considerations. The handling of this still young technology therefore requires a lot of care and one’s own gut feeling can be helpful in debunking deep fakes in addition to critical questioning of the disseminated information. Mag. Dieter Bacher from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for War Research spoke in his lecture about secret services in Austria during the Cold War and beyond, the role of spies and secret services and their ways of obtaining information. Lorenca Bejko, diplomat from Albania, and Aldi Dedja from the Albanian Student Economic Forum discussed the role of communication in peace building. Prof. László Kovács from the KJU Hungary discussed in an interactive lecture with the students how art and enlightenment can serve as a means against fake news. The program was concluded by a workshop with Yuliia Voityshyn and Liliia Krysovata from the University of Ternopil, Western Ukraine, who discussed the importance of intercultural communication for international cooperation.
The leisure program led the young people this time to swim at the Furtner pond, as part of a “TabTour Europe” at various stations in Neumarkt and left them at a medievalChallenge with archery and various activities in the castle courtyard to prove their skill and creativity.
“This experience allowed me to get to know new traditions of European nations better and to experience the diversity of cultures. We had many relevant lectures and activities that allowed us to come together and gather unforgettable moments.” Such events help to sensitize young people to the current problems and the role of communication in solving them,” said Liliia, participant and speaker of the first PeaceDays this year.
