today i visited the audition 381of the salzburg university. the people are amazing and motivated, though they seemed tired, but now they are fully back at strength and looking forward to tomorrow.

just remember: focus on the main points, don’t take to wide topics and lighten up your creativity. you are great!

i did three interviews with some students. every single one has a different view on the situation but they are really interesting.

so first, i wanted to start with my old history-collegue korbinian, in short: korbi.

he was my first interview victim. since i’m not that great with technical things, i’m not able to post this interview now, but maybe with some help someone could tell me, how it works to put a wav audio thing online. thanks for your help. for all the guys, who like my english blog and who loves to read everything in english… here we go. the translation of the interview with korbi. i did it on thursday, 29th of october

 this is korbi.

lahja: sooo, we are at korbi’s, korbinian is one of the first guys, who joined “uni-brennt salzburg” and now we want to know just a little bit, p.e. what was the demonstration like? because yesterday wednesday, october 28th, 2009 we had a demonstration and announcement in salzburg at 15 o’clock. and now we get some further insider-details:

korbi: soo, first we had a big announcement about the nuisances (=Missstände) at especially the university of salzburg, but also at every austrian university. and after this there was a march through the inner city of salzburg… with traffic jam and it made a lot of fun and after about an hour of marching and showing our displeasure, there was a final announcement and afterwards the audition room 381 has been occupied.
we got a hand on the plate (wir bekamen eine steilvorlage) of the other universities and so the audition room 381 is occupied now and there are workshops, p.e. about university-capitalism or others to find some suggestions of solution, so noone can say that all the students are only sitting and hanging around and don’t do anything but wait for someone, who does anything.
we work out some suggestions and get them ready, if someone of the public representatives comes to us.

lahja: okay, thank you very much. korbi, you are a german – not that we want to be discriminatory – but why are you – as a German – so supporting for the austrian universities? why are so many germans so supporting for the austrian universities.

korbi: well, it’s like this, i study in austria, so i see it as my responsibility, that me too tell all about the nuisances and i admit that we germans have something to do with it, maybe you are more than twice eager and try out more things, because you know it’s a little bit your own fault… but you have to see it in this view: a lot of people, who study in austria, i study to become a teacher – and all the lectures are meant for austria – i will most likely be a teacher in austria, and with my taxes i’m going to finance more students, so i don’t see me as a parasite, but as an investment into the future, so i quasi can make another student’s life easier.

lahja: thank you very much, that is a surprising and great view, i think – really, nothing against the germans, we are neutral here.
yesterday there was a discussion between uni-minded people (but noone of the university! this has to be mentioned) and representatives of the retired. what do you say about the retired in austria want an increase of over 1,9% of their pension? do you think it’s good or fair or are you thinking, that the retired remove all the budget for the students and pupils?

korbi: well, i’m not so informed about the pensions, but there has to be always a relation about the past years. ordinary it is fair that the pensions increase in the same way as inflation does, so the money remains the same. if it was the past years above-average low, then i really understand this, but this year, there isn’t an inflation, but a light deflation and so it’s 100%.
and if you have the money, you can do it, but it is basically better to invest in future, because this will run into a big deficit. and better you invest in future, because i want a pension, too and just – i don’t know – taking some money of the banks, because they have p.e. in germany invested 150 billions in the banks, the so called bad banks and well austria is – i guess – discussing about this too.
and there you can surely balance it and – i think – the 100 millions the universities demand, to fix everything… this money should be there.

lahja: thank you. and you had been in the audition room 381, too and what was the atmosphere like?

korbi: so, i was there directly after the announcement. after the demonstration i was in the audition room 381 and it was quite stuffed. the atmosphere is very comfortable. the people are working a lot, the spirit is easy.
there isn’t any hierarchy. so the people can say something, if they want and it’s students among themselves. it’s easy going, not like “help, uni!”, but really comfortable, it’s like meeting somewhere in ordinary life.

lahja: so, there are new connections and friendshios at university, everyone has something of it through this initiative.

korbi: i re-met two old friends at the demo, and also you can find new and old friends. that’s for sure. you are talking more easily, because of the own interests and especially in the workshops you learn to know more people. that’s in every single way favorable.

lahja: so, the (social/political) project “uni brennt” wide spreaded trhough austria is a great success until now. in vienna yesterday (october, 28th) demonstrated about 50 000 people, although the police say something different about 10 000 or 15 000, but there were of course more people, everyone could see this on videos. thanks, for this lovely interview

korbi: no problem. gladly again.

lahja: very nice. thanks!
thank you, korbi, for your openness.

please remember, i’m no native speaker, so there are surely tons of mistakes in this post.