A rose by any other name! Options

[alan]

The question here is Is Twinning still relevant today

This may seem a peculiar question to ask on a website devoted to town Twinning, but I am referring to the name.

Other countries have titles like Sister Cities, Jumelage, Partnerschaft etc. which, in their own context have a much more applicable meaning that "town twinning" has in this country.

Is the public conception of Twinning now a bit ancient, do the members of our community consider the twinning to be a jolly on taxpayers money for the priveleged few.?

Do they really understand the concept of twinning.?

Do we put across the benefits to the whole community as we should do or do we become a trifle insular and a bit of a cliche?

Would a change of descriptive title make a difference in our public image?

If so, what would you suggest?

[kidder]

I'm not sure that I want to change the name, but there may be something to be said for trying to define what it really means. Our German twin town - and no doubt most German twinnings - have the word "Partnerschaft" (partnership) in place of "twinning", and perhaps that's a more accurate description of what we're trying to do.

At a conference last week, Rev. Robin Blount pointed up the difference between the two - especially in the context of churches, but it applies more widely:

"twinning" implies getting to know you, having a good time, joining in the fun;
"partnership" implies working together, understanding, making a difference, applying what you've learned to your own situation.

So partnership is a good word, if what we're really doing is more than the "jolly"; if, like some of the big cities' twinning, you are getting to grips with social problems, employment, business exchanges, and so on.

Hope that's worthwhile!

[alan]

Hello Kidder,

First of, let me welcome you to the forums, I hope you will be a regular visitor.

Unfortunately, these discussion boards have not taken off a well as I hoped, I had anticipated that they would be a major part of the "Portal" which is meant, not only to publicise our members existence and contact details for, but also as a means of communicating with each other and discussing topics that are of interest to us all.

If you have any comments, suggestions, pet hates, proposals etc regarding twinning/partnerschaft/jumelage we would welcome your input, lets get some lively discusssions going.

Now, with regards to your post above, you make some valid points

"twinning" implies getting to know you, having a good time, joining in the fun;

"Getting to know you" is one of the key concepts of twinning which is to promote international understanding.
"Having a good time", "joining in the fun"these are possibly the elements which help to bring the support of the wider community.

"partnership" implies working together, understanding, making a difference, applying what you've learned to your own situation.

This is the more serious side of the twinning partnership, working together for the sake of our individual communities, learning from each other, bringing benefits in many aspects from town management, business, schools, youth organisations, sports clubs etc.etc.

In my mind they are both major elements in a successful twinning and can have an equal part to play its its operation, this however does not rectify or address the problems of the bad connotation the word "twinning" has amongst the general public.

With regard to the email from you I will reply as soon as I have had the chance to take actiion upon it. Thanks

[alan]

We received this reply from Bewdleytwinning today, he makes some very valid and well argues reasons for twinning.

Welcome to the boards Bewdleytwinning. Very nice to see you.

Hello there - I thought I'd have a browse for the first time and came across this topic. I have recently read a small piece in the Observer Comment page Sunday Oct 22.06 saying that town-twinning was a 'tired old institution', and wrote them the following reply. By the way, where I come from Kidder means Kidderminster, so you appear to have a 100% Worcestershire response to this topic:

"Hello there – twinning takes quite a bit of our time in this house, but the truth is, we’ve often wondered if it’s a tired old institution, and should we still be involved.

Here are some thoughts:
I think of twinners in three categories – the old ones who started it off as a post-war idealistic thing to bring enemies closer together; the group in their mid-forties – mid-fifties whose kids have left home, who tend to supply the energy that keeps it all going; young parents and their children who are generally way too occupied to be involved, but some are nevertheless.

Our town is Bewdley, Worcs, twinned with towns in France and Germany, and having a loose partnership with a town on the banks of the Ohio, USA (have I heard that somewhere before..). The Worcestershire twin-towns all meet regularly to compare notes – the things that preoccupy all of us are involving the young, funding, and whether we should go for new arrangements with underdeveloped parts of the world.

The Young: the issue of involving the young is linked with funding. The government’s strategy towards language teaching in schools is in chaos – kids are voting with their feet and Dearing has to complete an urgent review by December. Kids get bored with languages, but the one thing that might spice this up – the school trip – is becoming a thing of the past. Teachers are sick of them, the back-of-the-coach dynamic takes hold within the first couple of hours and language is the last thing on anyone’s mind. So what? Does it matter?

I think it does – English football fans only chucked tables, chairs and bottles at the police once in Germany apparently. How admirable… But when you look at the racism, hate and militancy that’s prevalent now among other European fans, surely respect through language is still an important part of integration. I’m not talking football, just using it to make the point.

The reason funding comes into it is that we can’t afford to subsidise families with children to bring them on our exchanges, and they can’t afford to bring them without subsidy. But the one kind of learning exchange that would guarantee good interactions, would be one that involves families rather than a coachload of kids in the care of four or five teachers.

Partnerships with the Underdeveloped: I know of a number of twinning organisations which have gone this route, whilst maintaining links with their twin-towns. The relationship is benefactor/recipient, and the contacts take the form of sponsorship of projects – I don’t know of too many visits taking place. We discussed this on numerous occasions at Bewdley – the general view is that people put a lot of time and effort in this area through other organisations, and we haven’t pursued it, not yet anyway. But we respond to situations like the Tsunami, and in fact have recently made a small grant to the local High School which is sending a party of teenagers to Sri Lanka, telling them to use it as they see fit, and should they come across a situation they would like to support longer term, we would try and help them.

                *                              *                            *
Twinning’s nothing special, but I think it still has a reasonable purpose. Civilisation is made up of countless little organisations that aren’t very special, run by the quiet and the anonymous – some younger, some older, who could chuck the towel in but don’t. Until someone can actually demonstrate it’s irrelevant, on balance I’ll probably stick with it."

Peter Hayden, Bewdley Twinning.

[alan]

Just to give this debate a new angle I am posting a link to a speech by Mr Johan Ortengren of the Swedish Association of Local Authorites & Regions, speaking about twinning at a CEMR conference.

Read it here, this is in pdf format.

Mr Ortengren speaks about the lessons we could learn from twinning and also the challenges that face us in the future.

Although he is speaking mainly in relation to the Scandinavian situation his comments are applicable to all of us.

What do you think of his ideas, comments please.

Alan

[kidder]

Hi, Alan

I read the piece by Mr. Ortengren with great interest. He made a lot of points that seemed very valid: "keep bureaucracy and red tape to a minimum"; "twinning has to be seen as relevant"; "small is fundamental for twinning", and so on - a lot of good stuff.

I then surfed around and found the latest "Europe for Citizens" information on the European Commission website. And guess what, "one size fits all", "do it this way or you won't get any money from us", "fill in these forms" (probably in triplicate), "stick to these themes", "invite these people", "have a meeting about this", "the group should include x number from here and y number from there". And so on.

OK, perhaps I'm exaggerating, and certainly EU-speak doesn't say it as baldly as that (they're diplomats, after all), but that's the feeling you still get. I've filled in the forms, jumped through the hoops, ticked all the boxes, and still had the rejection slips, and it looks to me as if nothing has changed or will change. Mr. Ortengren has talked the talk, but when is someone going to walk the walk and stop being hidebound by regulations and red tape?

I'm sorry, I'm beefing at too great length, but it saddens me to think of all the hundreds of people we've persuaded to go to our twin town (and the hundreds who've travelled in the other direction) completely at their own expense because the boxes weren't ticked. Small groups, getting to grips with the issues, living with their host families, building their own programmes, engaging with the people, just don't fit. We think we're doing it right, and we've got a lot of proof of that, in favourable press coverage, the ear of people at high level in the communities and areas, life experiences of individuals and families enhanced beyond measure, more individuals and groups wanting to get involved.

I suppose we're thinking "outside the box", and that sort of thing doesn't go down too well with some. So I suppose we shall soldier on in our own small, different, but very successful way.

Happy twinning!

[alan]

Well said Kidder, I suppose we all feel that way from time to time (sometimes it feels like, time AFTER time), however, if it was not for the small and independent groups I do not think the twinning movement would still be as active as it currently is.

At least we cannot be accused of following political pressures.

I know what you mean about ticking boxes, in the last two years we have had two anniversaries, 10 & 25 years and were turned down flat despite ticking virtually all the boxes yet we know of groups that have ticked perhaps 1 box at best and still received a grant.

This sort of reaction from the funding authorities does tend to tempt people into creative applications, which somewhat defeats the object.

Has anyone else any thoughts on the subject??

Alan

[Nick Goodwin]

Hi all,

On the relevance of twinning today, let me relay what happened to me in our twin city of Yaroslavl, Russia in May this year, as an example of what just one small incident had achieved. By the way, this is also on our website at www.eyta.org.uk

One of the pleasures of visiting our twin city is awarding prizes to the winners of the Yaroslavl Regional school's English essay competition, and see first hand the positive effect our sponsorship has for the local schoolchildren.

This year's subject was "a letter to the Queen and a letter to Vladimir Putin", in which the children freely expressed their aspirations, dreams and concerns on their lives and the things that affected them.

After the ceremony the competition's organiser explained to all present at the ceremony that all the children understood that it was only an exercise and that they were not really writing to the Queen. But that despite this, the letters expressed their genuine feelings.

The look on the children's faces made it plain that they had wished all along that this was not the case. I couldn't resist the opportunity, so announced that we would send them to the Queen for them.

For a few seconds you could have heard a pin drop. Needless to say, their eyes lit up, and it took me at least five minutes to get the organiser to finally grasp the fact that this was possible.

The essays were duly sent, and we received a reply within a week requesting that we convey to the children how pleased the Queen was to see their well-written and interesting works. A copy of the letter has been given to each child and one to their school for display on their notice board. Also in her letter the Queen said that she was interested to hear about the twinning link between Exeter and Yaroslavl and about our organisations valuable efforts to promote contacts between the citizens and businesses of Exeter and Yaroslavl.

This goes to show that all it takes is a little faith, and a postage stamp, you can do things others think impossible.

Shortly afterwards the russian press ran the story and the standing of our group in Russia jumped one-hundredfold. The Yaroslavl City Authorities have even quoted this "incident" to the EC as a shining example of the high level of trust and cooperation between our two communities. Given at the time the delicate state of relations between Russia and the UK, I think you will agree that this "incident" is proof that twinning, or whatever name you wish to give it, still has a very important place in this global world we live in. It has the ability to influence directly the way people from different countries and cultures view each other, often in counterbalance to the perceptions created by an individual country's media.


Regards,

Nick