Berlin is on the brink of bankruptcy. It can be felt in the uncut lawns of parks, the empty storefronts of small businesses, and now in the echoes of bustling crowds and chants that fill the streets of Berlin almost everyday. Students have begun to protest in response to the brash plans of government policies, which include budget cuts of 50 million euros in the years 2004 and 2005 and 75 million euros by 2009, faculty members and course numbers eliminated by their hundreds, and no clear solutions for future developments - all topped off by the fact that, though Germany's flailing economy hasn't helped, Berlin's predicaments are a direct results of a government bank scandal that took place 9 years ago. But these protests have not just been about demonstrating and petitioning. Powered by the internet and mobile phones, students are arranging themselves in much more fluent ways than before, and the results have been creative, to say the least.

www.shift.jp.org/086/activeslumming/