The Town of Neuchatel Communiqué

Press release

Report following Neuchatel Town’s delegation visit to South Africa

To ensure the longevity of the Alliance

Ensure the longevity of the Alliance! This summarised the general feeling that pervaded all debates during the 7th Summit of the “Newcastles of the World” which took place between 17th and 23rd October in Newcastle, South Africa. Six countries took part. Neuchatel spoke in favour of the assets of young people, a theme close to the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela’s heart. The future is in good hands!

Other than the South African organisers, 40 delegates from the towns and youth parliaments participated in the Newcastles of the World Summit. Led by Vice-President of the Town Council, Alain Ribaux, the Neuchâtel delegation consisted of Rémy Voirol, Chancellor, Jean-Marc Sandoz, technical representative and Vânia Carvalho, Coordinator of Youth Activities. President of the Youth Parliament, Timothée Pages and vice-president, Joana Giani accompanied the delegation and during the week, took the role of leader amongst their counterparts from all four continents.

Created in 1988 following the initiative of the Japanese town, Shinshiro, the network, renamed an Alliance in 2008, aims to strengthen links and encourage exchange in all areas between its members.

2010 has been the year to take the opportunity to present steps that have been taken to facilitate young people’s access into the business world and ways to mentor young people as they move from an academic environment to that of a professional one.

England in 2012

Newcastle –upon-Tyne will have the honour of welcoming the next summit in 2012. The delegates will be concentrating on the realisation of projects and those in progress within the social sphere.

Other than Neuchâtel and Shinshiro in Japan, the following towns form the Alliance: Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Newcastle-Upon -Tyne in England New Castle (Pennsylvania) and New Castle (Indiana) in America, Newcastle in South Africa, Neuburg-an-der-Donau in Germany and Neufchâteau in France. Discussions are underway with a view to inviting the towns of Newcastle (Australia) and Akhaltsikhe, in Georgia.

Positive development

How to be more efficient and practical? In order to avoid over diversification, each town agreed to take on a specific area of activity and take the role of its leader within the network with a view to submitting the results of its work at each summit, as well as, it is understood, subjects regularly developed by the members as a whole.

As a result, Neuchatel has been given the mission to encourage the creation of a Youth Parliament in each town on the basis of its experiences gained here since 1992. A positive activity that resulted from the reflections discussed last week in South Africa on the theme of youth.

Other areas to develop

School and student exchanges (Germany), new communication technologies, the Internet in particular (England), the environment and renewable energy (USA), the creation of a “Newcastle Passport” to encourage tourist interest and the member town citizens (South Africa) and citizen participation (Japan) will also be central themes for discussion over the coming years.

Reunion at Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The next meeting has been fixed in 2012 in Newcastle-upon -Tyne. Located in the northeast of England, the city consists of 270’000 inhabitants and is governed by Mayor Michael Cookson. It has benefitted from a rich experience of international relations, taking into account its eight twinnings with other towns, including in particular Nancy (France), Bergen (Norway), Haifa (Israel) and ... Newcastle in Australia. We have come full circle!

An Alliance based on the name of cities that is made up of... an original way for Neuchatel to show its openness to the world and cultivate tolerance.

A brief history

It is not known from when the first population of South Africa actually dates. Bone fragments found in the North-West Province on the Sterkfortein site, designated a UNESCO heritage site, prove however a very ancient presence of hominid dating from 3.3 million years ago.

South Africa today is a democratic Republic, a legal state governed by the 1996 constitution, which is more or less based on that of 1993 following negotiations between the parties after the end of the apartheid regime (a term signifying “separate living” in Dutch) based on the supremacy of the Whites and a strict separation of ethnic groups. Pretoria is the capital of the country that became a member of the United Nations on 7th November 1945.

Estimations calculate the number of inhabitants at around 48 million. The Blacks represent 75% of the population (of which 20% are Zoulous), the Whites 13%, the Mixed Race 9% and the Asians 3%. Added to this are several million illegal immigrants....

The different peoples that make up South Africa each have their own history, traditions and beliefs. With the end of Apartheid, considerable progress has been made to give back each ethnic group their dignity and place that they are owed in teaching and in cultural life. But there is still a long way to go.........

Like the Americans, the white South Africans have the impression that they are living in a new country. It is quite common for a church dating from the 19th century to be classed as “very ancient”. South Africa’s history is still not that of a nation, but rather that of each of the peoples of which it is made up. The flag of new South Africa, symbolising the “rainbow nation”, is a “nice ideal, which is left to be built on the ruins of a turbulent past”. The richness of South Africa’s wildlife is one of the greatest tourist attractions to the country. It is the reason why we hear talk of the “Big Five”, the five largest wild animals coveted by hunters, elephants, lions, leopards, rhinoceroses and buffalos, which are the pride of the main game reserves.

KwaZulu-Natal

The KwaZula-Natal Province, created in 1994 and numbering 10 million inhabitants, is the most populated in South Africa. It was Vasco de Gama who, sailing along the shores of the Indian Ocean on Christmas Day in 1947, bestowed the Portuguese name of the Nativity on the region. Durban is its financial capital.

Newcastle

Founded in 1864 at the River Ncandu ford, Newcastle owes its name to the Duke of Newcastle, the Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time. It is the largest industrial agglomeration of North-West Province (iron, steel, coal, chemicals, paint, machine, textiles). It is has 400’000 inhabitants (80’000 of whom live in the centre) of which almost 60% are under the age of 18. Unemployment stands at 46%.

Neuchatel, 27th October 2010 Chancery

Further information: Alain Ribaux, Town Councillor, ph 032 717 71 01
Rémy Voirol, Chancellor, ph. 032 717 77 01

Photos

From left to right: Nobuhide Takeshita (J), David Faulkner (GB) and Alain Ribaux, Vice-President of the Neuchâtel General Council, sign the final declaration of the summit under the gaze of Newcastle Mayor, Afzul Rehman (right).

The delegates made numerous visits to the schools in Newcastle and the neighbouring town of Madadeni. The steps that should be taken to facilitate young peoples’ access into the business world and how to mentor the teenagers’ transition from an academic environment into that of a professional one were central discussion topics during this Neuchâtels of the World summit.