Refugee journey +++ Global Educator +++ UK referendum on EU +++ Julie Lindsay +++ Absolutely Intercultural 202 +++

Radwan Abdullah
Radwan Abdullah, former Social Studies teacher from Syria

If you have ever wondered about the journeys of those thousands of refugees from Syria then you will want to hear Radwan Abdullah’s story of how he got to Denmark with his cousin and disabled daughter. We will also be hearing from Julie Lindsay about her new book on how to become a Global Educator.

What else? Well we’ve been nominated in the Podcast Awards and are waiting to hear if we will get in the final selection on May 22nd. If we do, we will let you know and ask for your vote. So keep an eye on our Facebook page and here on our webiste.

And you may have noticed that there is a referendum coming up in the UK on whether or not to stay in the EU.

absolutely undemocratic?
Although I am British, I don’t get a vote even though the end result might affect me quite a lot. So instead of voting, I decided to see if I could do some research to find out what the issues are and help other people understand them. I did write a text book about the EU many years ago, so this was not a standing start, but even so I have been surprised by a couple of things and can now appreciate how many different issues the whole thing is about. I have also noticed how negative the tone can get when the two sides try to convince each other and wondered if I could do something about that so I have decided to offer a course on the topic which will be starting on 16th May and last for 5 weeks, finishing well before the referendum date of June 23rd. You don’t have to be British to sign up. It will be free. But there won’t be many places, so first come first served!

For this show, I did wonder about collecting some impressions about whether there is such a thing as a European identity but in the end this show is much more global in outlook than just the EU.

absolutely no alternative
Firstly, we will hear from Radwan Abdullah who is one of the many Syrians to have made the overland journey from Syria to Europe, ending up in Denmark. So now Radwan waits to hear if he and his cousin will be allowed to stay in Denmark while the baby is being well looked after by the local medical service and Radwan tells his story to local organisations. I was surprised that Radwan and his family had to go through a documentation procedure in every country they passed through, because watching the TV news you’d think that the migrants were simply walking through unhindered.

absolutely global
The last time I talked to Julie Lindsay it was to discuss the Flattening Classrooms book she had co-authored with Vicki Davies in 2012 in which they were describing how to start up global projects. Now Julie has written a new book, The Global Educator, in which she makes the case for why it is so important to work globally even with very young children. I started by asking Julie in Australia what was the main message of the book.  And Julie also talked about a project started by Pernille Ripp in the US.

You can get the book in June in digital format and in July in paper format by going to www.theglobaleducator.net which at the moment redirects you to the Flat Connections website but which will soon be a standalone website from which to get the book. And I will also add the book to the Absolutely Intercultural Amazon store where you can find quite a collection of books which we think are worth reading in the area of intercultural communication.

So that’s it for this show. Maybe you’ll vote for us in the Podcast Awards, or maybe you’ll buy Julie Lindsay’s new book or how about signing up for my free course on the UK referendum starting on May 16th?

Don’t forget to leave a comment on iTunes. We’ll be posting on the Facebook page. The next show will be coming to you from Germany with Laurent Borgmann on June 3rd. So until then stay tuned

The host of this show is: Anne Fox

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One thought on “Refugee journey +++ Global Educator +++ UK referendum on EU +++ Julie Lindsay +++ Absolutely Intercultural 202 +++”

  1. The latest news on Radwan is that he and his cousin and his baby have been granted refugee status in Denmark! This means that his future is a little more secure in the medium term.

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