News: Age discrimination in a poster competition, again
January 18, 2009

Radovan Jenko, graphic designer from Slovenia, has sent me the "Call for entries" for a poster competition in Ljubljana about Climate Change. He is in the organizing committee of the www.posterfestival-ljubljana.si. The competition rules exclude participants older than 35 years. When I wrote him that I do not like age discrimination in poster competitions, he replied that he agrees with that, but they would loose the sponsorship (50%) of the Culture Programme of the European Union if they had no age limit. I said it before: As one of those being fenced out, I don't like this age discrimination. It is, in my opinion, just as bad as "whites only", "men only", "don't buy from Jews" and other such unjust propositions. The "Call for entries" implies that people older than 35 do not have "a fresh and unique way of looking at the problems regarding our living environment" which I personally consider an insult. I have written to the organizers and to the institutions endorsing this project and asked them to drop the age restriction. Please do the same if you agree:   Posterfestival Ljubljana info@posterfestival-ljubljana.si   Brumen Foundation info@brumen.org   Jan Figel, EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth Cab-FIGEL@ec.europa.eu   Jacques Barrot, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security cab-archive-barrot@ec.europa.eu You may also consult the website stop-discrimination.info, published by the EU.