Panel discussion
Gratis
19.februar
18:00
The Transborder Café returns during Barents Spektakel 2021 to bring the most important cross-border debate and discussion to the eyes and ears of the Barents Region and beyond.
Using digital solutions, Friday’s edition tackles the central question of the festival, ‘What is Essential?, What are we going to live off”. This truly international topic has both a wide reach as well as a Northern cross-border context. Kirkenes stood next to the Iron Curtain at the collapse of the Soviet Union. After Perestroika and the establishment of the Barents Cooperation in 1993, open borders have led to new opportunities, business, and stable processes of movement, settlement, and cultural exchange between the many border communities in the Barents region.
An increase in population had been forecast in light of development based on mining, tourism, oil activities, and the opening of the Northern Sea Route – all of which promised further opportunities and prosperity. In a short time however, this vision has been turned upside down. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, as well as increased and complex international political tension have all led to less traffic across the border. In addition, recent national policy has cooled the tone of the dialogue with our neighbour to the east.
The current situation generated by the Coronavirus pandemic, when the border with Russia has once again closed, and when tourism has all but stopped in the region, the narrative has been complicated even further. Conversations of ‘the green shift’ as a target and a solution for the future – away from local extractive practices and the jobs and infrastructure they create – beg several questions for the communities here in the North. What is it that we should live off now? What is essential in a post-pandemic world? And what is essential here in the North?
Participants include:
– Aili Keskitalo – president of the Sami Parliament
– Geir Hønneland – leader of the Helsingfors Committee
– Geir Torbjørnsen – director of Barel
– Evgeny Nikora – mayor of Murmansk
– Rune Rafaelsen – local politician
– Andrey Fomenko – director of Petchenga-districts Center for social projects Second School
– Vladimir Komyagin – leader of The Snow Village in Kirovsk
Moderator: Anki Gerhardsen