The second year in the course has started.

I think I have experienced my first moment when I really felt as if I were a real journalist. It was shockingly exciting. The first homework for Multimedia Reporting was to find a story, just like in last year. Subsequent to a long-drawn search for an original story, I decided to do a bit of research on the story of  the BBC Burmese facing potential funding cuts, thus putting its existence into jeopardy. It proved to be rather fruitful both in terms of gaining confidence and helping to understand my own limitations. I managed to contact people and organizations that I did not really expect to do so; the UN, the AI, the BBC -in the form of a FOI request-, and the Democratic Voice of Burma chief deputy editor as well. In addition, they even answered to my questions. As for finding out more about my limitations, I have realised that I am prone to divert from the road of writing in a balanced way in the midst of writing about something which is of great interest to me. However, I have, at least, noticed it.

12/10/10

The first Live Rolling News Day was a rather exciting experience. As far as my own contribution is concerned to news day, I felt that I have done a lot of work in advance to the event. I have prepared a lot and digged around for an original story, which I feel that I managed to find. I thought I was very successful in contacting people and getting quotes from them, as a result I was getting more confident in speaking to people. On the other hand, however, I was too focused on one story and did not pay enough attention to finding and researching other stories in addition to the one that I have already developed before the news day. I also had quite a lot of stylistic mistakes in my story, which is a general issue for my writings that I will have to work on in the future. As for the team-work aspect of the news day, I had the impression that we have managed to work as a team together, although the team could have pulled a bit more together by for example proofreading each others writings and making suggestions on the other one`s work as well.

A Council meeting took place one day before the date of John Sturt’s retirement on the 15th of October. The  members of the council played their tribute to the Council Secretary, leading figures of the parties presenting themselves and all gave a short speech in which they thanked for the service and help of the Council Secretary.

A member of the Green party claimed: ‘The advises he gave me were very professional and reflected a high understanding of the public service.’

The traditional opening formalities  in the beginning of the meeting were interrupted by Councillor Dawe, who was to ‘raise a point of order’ concerning a ‘dereliction of duties’, as she said. Mr Sturt, as it seemed during the meeting, at first looked rather anxiously on the interruption. Even though, the interruption proved to a speech with jokes in connection with Mr Sturt’s retirement.

Councillor Dawe, after all the political parties paid their tributes to the Secretary, read aloud a humorous poem about Mr Sturt being a Secretary, which she composed herself.

Following the speeches given by the members of the Council Mr Sturt after a deep breath and a slight hesitation said ‘..er..I love this city and..ehm..and I think I sort of love this chamber as well.’

Pubs, they are everywhere. Edinburgh is not exceptional as far as the latter sentence is concerned. The capital of Scotland is a vibrating city that is stuffed with them. One thing is for sure, if you are in Edinburgh you are bound to find one of that cosy small traditional Scottish pubs wherever you may be wandering about in the city; in the High Street, in a little square or just in a small dark avenue, which comes from a busy road.

Edinburgh the capital of Scotland is not only architecturally and artistically a place of excitement, but also from the point of entertainment. If one is to visit Scotland, than he or she can’t leave the Scottish soil without getting at least a bit of taste of the real pub experience. A visit to Edinburgh wouldn’t be the same without getting to know one of the most prevailing form of places of socializing.

When you enter a pub or tavern in Edinburgh, you are bound to encounter a mixture of impressions that you can find by and large in every cosy pubs. Brown and very often old-fashioned furniture, the typical benches and tables -sometimes barriers instead of them-, a barman asking like-mindedly what would you like drink and whether ‘Howareyedoin’. The guys leaning against the bar who look as if they were part of the furniture, and often some kind of a music played as a background noise, drinks, jokes, laughters and enthusiastic conversations -or less enthusiastic by the furniture-like ‘standstill audience’-  are pervading the place. The whole picture is spiced up by you entering the pub as you all of a sudden you become the part of the scene.

You can decide whether what role you would like to take on in the already existing audience of the pub; whether you want to be the loudly laugher, or the deeply thinker, or you rather want to create an entirely new role, it’s all up to you. Welcome to the stage.

Scene one; Royal Oak. Royal Oak is a pub where something is always going on. It is a folk music pub, where every evening music -and very often folk music- is played. Alan, the barman in Royal Oak, of course thinks that ‘this [Royal Oak] is the best pub in Scotland. Even if he is exaggerating, one thing is certain; you must see this pub at least once in the evening while you are in Scotland. Alan says ‘it is not only the Scottish culture that one would find in this pub, but internationalism as well.’ He says ‘it is about music: new ones as well as traditional folk music. It is also about Scottish culture, and probably if you come in you will find the same good mood and feeling in the pub every night.’

Scene two; Scotsman’s Lounge. It is a pub that even from outside of it you know that this is a place that is full of life. The barriers instead of tables for the task of keeping your drinks in a vertical position alongside with the pictures of people playing bagpipe and the live music going on in the evenings just make the bar to come into life. Jim, who has been working in the Scotsman’s Lounge as a barman now for 12 years, will readily give you the drink that you would like and is very happy to chat with you, you can be sure about that. He says ‘this place [Scotsman's Lounge] is where all kinds of people meet and exchange ideas and chat with each other; workers, millioners and tourists can all be found in this place having a good time together.’

Scene three; Canny Man’s. A place where one is destined to be fascinated by the way the place looks inside. This pub is not so much about live music but rather about the sitting and talking kind of pub experience. Benches and chairs alongside the walls and a really very crowded ceiling and walls. Everything is swimming in red lights that come from the street lamps, which are all over the place. Trumpets, model ships and planes, old and very much used umbrellas, drums, swords and old clocks, pictures, and paintings are hanging from the ceiling and are put on the wall.

Three pubs, though there are a lot more of them. They all have something in common. As Alan the barman of Royal Oak answers to the question whether how he would describe the place where he works, after a smile, a deep breath and a bit of hesitation he says; ‘it is alive’. They all are very much alive in Edinburgh, indeed.

Sidebar

Understanding what’s going on in the bar sometimes may be hard if you haven’t heard  Scottish accent before. It is, of course, the part of the Edinburgh pub feeling to try to get a grasp of what someone is saying to you. Knowing basic differences from the English that is generally taught worldwide in some cases can be very helpful. For example ‘ai’ means ‘yes’ and ‘cheers ma’ is the equivalent of thank you. The deeper one gets in the mysterious life of pubs in Scotland the more sophisticated one’s ‘Scottish pub communication skills’ will become. A pint or two can be also beneficial if it comes to understanding what is being said to you.

She and I were sitting close to each other in Princes street garden on a fine Sunday afternoon. The wind was blowing heavily; still, the sun was shining. We were unknown to each other until we struck up a conversation. She had a friendly, trustworthy appearance: that is why I fancied talking with her. Her countenance was relaxed, at the same it was giving away that she has seen and experienced a lot in her life. Carol is 56 years old. She has 2 children; a son who is 29 and a daughter who is 23. She is from the West Midlands, and this is the place where she grew up and spent the most of her lifetime.

She has been working in a primary school for fifteen years (the name of which she would not like to share with us for privacy reasons), and is still working there. She works in an office there, and is dealing from money matters of the school to children with special needs.

While smoking a cigarette she told me why she loves working with children and how much she has learnt from them. I asked her about her most everlasting experience in her working place, which she enthusiastically and readily shared with me.

Seven years ago, there were two children (named Barbara and Lucy) who had dawn syndrome attending the primary school where she is working. She especially cared for them, as she put it; ‘ I paid a lot of attention to their managing to become the part of the community in school.’ It was ‘staggering’ to see, she said, ‘how much and how fast the children as young as 7 learnt from the situation’ in the class which Barbara and Lucy was attending. Despite their young age, Carol said, ‘the children realised that in some way they have to adapt to a situation’, and they were approaching Barbara and Lucy in a very ‘friendly and trustworthy manner’, even though probably most of the pupils have never been in such a situation before. The children without being prompted by the teachers helped to make Barbara and Lucy feel to be the part of the class. Carol said it was ‘amazing to see how impressively the pupils in the class took on responsibility’ and became more helpful.

While stabbing her cigarette and looking at me she said ‘it was not only the children who learnt from that’, but also she and most of the staff in the school. ‘Just like many other times, it was me who learnt from the children. ‘

While both of us were drinking a coffee in a café house, -I in Edinburgh, she in Budapest- we were chatting about her ambitions; whether why she wanted to become a journalist, what fascinated her in that field.

Stefi has been writing for an online Hungarian magazine now for three months. Her writings so far were mostly in connection with homelessness, social issues, cultural events, but she also made a sequence of interviews with young people that attempted to explore the reasons why especially young people decide to leave Hungary for Western-Europe for a better future.

Stefi has been a very active member of the Hungarian humanist movement now for five years. She says she has ‘learnt, received, and experienced a lot’ during these five years. In fact, what she learnt from these 5 years was what motivated her to become a journalist.

‘I would like to give the experiences that I have gained to other people as well. I think these experiences really helped me to become an active member in the society I live in, and I am convinced that in some way with communicating these experiences I would bring people closer towards becoming an active member in the society, too.’

When I asked her what it means to be a part of the Hungarian humanist movement, what is/has she been doing, she readily shared it with me. ‘This is what makes up most of my free time, engaging with things that are related to it. We make big events that catch the attention of people as well as small ones that aim at dealing with our personal problems. This movement is, I think, fantastic and extremely unique because it offers advices and solutions to very low-level personal, at the same time to bigger, society-related problems and questions as well.’

Stefi took part in organizing the Hungarian peace sign in 2004, which has been being reorganized in every year. That event was what prompted the world piece sign in 2007, of which Stefi was a main organizer in Budapest and is still in every year. Over three thousand people now every year in the Hero’s Square in the capital of Hungary light a and form a peace sign in protest against warfare in the world.

The peace sign in 2006 has caught the attention of the world media. It was shown and discussed everywhere; BBC, CNN and most of the biggest newspapers brought news about it, some even headlines. Stefi said it was something ‘that very ordinary people made, people who have never done anything like that before, people who had absolutely no experience in organizing such events. That is why it is amazing and wonderful, we have showed to others and to ourselves that yes, we can do something, we can raise our voices, and we cannot be oppressed, even though we were just simple people with literally ‘no power’ in our hands.’

‘It is, of course, not only these catchy events that make me engaged in that movement. Its other side tries to offer solutions to personal issues via discussions and everyday activities organized by the members of the it. The experiences this movement-related meetings and discussions gave me helped me to tackle and solve problems in my own personal life a thousand times. They helped me to create a view that is exempt from being told what it means to be happy, and what is the generally state of success and happiness. That is an amazing feeling.’

‘It is not my purpose to persuade others that what I do is good, but it is to show them that something like this exists. And I think journalism is a very good means for doing that that is why I feel a desire for becoming one.’

Stefi is now a main organizer in the World Wide March in Hungary, which is due to take place this year, and will be the single biggest and longest peace march in the history which goes throughout the Earth. She says: ‘ I can’t wait writing about it. ‘