Two degrees of separation between hope and despair
A young people's summary of the United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008
The young people of the world have produced a Youth Booklet that includes drawings, poems and human stories on climate change and development, entirely made by and for young people!
The booklet has been developed by Peace Child International jointly with HDRO, and launched on Youth Day 2008.
So I finally arrived at the 4th World Youth Congress which is taking place in Quebec City, Quebec Canada on August 10th in the early hours of the morning. I had started my journey at 10am from the small town in England where I was living and took the public transit bus to the Stansted airport where I then took a National Express bus to the Heathrow airport. The traffice was slow due to the time of day and it would be a general summary of the over all trip to Canada but once I arrived at Heathrow things went smoothly checking in all the camera equipment that I would be using to bring the congress to youth who are interested but could not attend though the World Youth Congress YouTube Channel. The flight across the Atlantic was long but it allowed me to catch up on some applications and scholarships that I was getting close on the deadline to but I was glad to have finally arried back in Canada. The trip trough Canadian customs was quick and painless and I was soon on my third bus from the Montreal airport to the downtown bus station where I would cathc my final bus to Quebec City. When I finally arrived to Quebec City it was 1am Eastern and I was looking forward to getting rid of my luggage and getting to sleep in a bed but that was not to be the case. With things not being to organized I had arrived to Laval University with no where to check into a room, while I knew the othe Peace Child International staff who had flown two days prior were somewhere on campus without any contact information it would have to be a combination of sleeping on a chair and some times leaning on a table to get some sleep until 7am when I was hoping to finally made the end of my journey finished by checking into a room. I did get to see a former Peace Child intern, Annas who I had breakfast with him and his wife Claire which was a not to bad way to wrap up a very long journey to the congress. With all of my recent work on an UNDP Youth Climate Change Project will the emissions from my travel be worth me attending the congress? I will find out in the upcoming days.
Here is a very amazing story of someone who is making huge waves for African women with HIV-AIDS. Kristin Roe who has swam from my little province of Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick and then straight back again.
BORDEN-CARLETON, P.E.I. — After just under 15 hours of swimming in 19-degree water, a Nova Scotia woman completed a marathon swim Saturday that took her from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick and back, all in less than a day.
Kristin Roe, 27, touched shore in P.E.I. Saturday evening after finishing a gruelling 30-kilometre double-crossing of the Northumberland Strait, the body of water between P.E.I. on the Maritime mainland.
"I'm really glad I finished, I'm really glad I'm on land," said Roe after her swim. "It was a long-haul."
Roe left P.E.I. just after 4 a.m. and was ahead of schedule before she was confronted with strong tides just off the coast of New Brunswick. She had to power through the tides in order to make it to shore around noon.
"I was feeling frustration throughout most of it," said Roe. "It wasn't really a great weather day, and I didn't swim as fast as I had hoped...I was swimming against the wind at the end of the first crossing."
Roe waded on shore in New Brunswick to eat and get a medical check-up before diving back in the water.
"The second crossing was better, but still really hard," she said. "I was so tired from the first, and I just did the best I could."
Following her throughout the entire swim was a boat carrying her family, best friend, a paramedic and the boat captain.
Roe has three brothers who joined her from time to time in the water.
Her older brother, Christopher, brought along a surf board and paddled next to Roe to motivate her and keep her company.
"I was feeling pretty frustrated at the end of the first crossing, and I almost couldn't look at him because I started to cry when I saw him paddling next to me," said Roe. "I thought it was pretty amazing."
Roe, who now lives in Halifax, did the marathon to raise money for two Canadian aid organizations with a focus on Africa and helping women with HIV-AIDS.
The Hamilton, Ont., native estimates she's raised close to $30,000 toward her goal of $100,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Farmers Helping Farmers, an organization that assists women farmers in Kenya.
It's a cause that's close to Roe's heart. In 2006, she spent six months living in South Africa and while there she became the first Canadian to swim from Cape Town, South Africa to Robben Island, in a fundraiser for women living with HIV-AIDS.
"I think it's created a lot of awareness in the country, and I think it's benefiting women in Africa," said Roe of her swim. "These are very much grassroots projects for women affected by AIDS and women involved in the agriculture sector who are also affected by HIV-AIDS."
After you make your $20 donation you will be able to use an emailed status of membership until your official Sierra Youth Coalition membership card arrives. All you then need to do is mention the discount code (11261) when booking your train ticket with VIA Rail and have proof of membership and your ID when you pick up your ticket.
Now you can still enjoy travel and exploring with having a smaller impact on the planet.
The following is an article from CBC News, this greatly saddens me to read this story and puts even more anger in me to know that as a Canadian tax payer that the citizens of Canada are funding this so called "expansion of democracy".
If this our country exporting democracy I wonder what the reaction of Canadian citizens would be if an outside country send an army to Canada to protect us and the same event would happen.
The death of children's lives no matter where they live is still not justified by any countries government.
Canadian troops kill 2 children after car nears convoy
Monday, July 28, 2008 | CBC News
A two-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister have died after Canadian troops opened fire on a car they feared was about to attack their convoy in Afghanistan, the Canadian Forces said Monday.
A gunner in a light-armoured vehicle pulled the trigger on a 25-millimetre cannon after the driver of a car ignored repeated signals to keep a safe distance, officials said.
The incident happened around sunset Sunday when the car approached within 10 metres of the convoy, a Canadian military statement said.
Witnesses reported the little girl was struck in the head and her younger brother in the chest.
The children's grief-stricken mother was seen pacing the hallway at the local hospital, sobbing and shrieking that her children had been killed by foreigners for no reason. The father was treated for lacerations.
"We deeply regret this incident, and our thoughts are with the families and friends of the deceased during this difficult time," the Canadian military said in a statement.
"Our soldiers are trained to take all appropriate steps to minimize civilian casualties. However, they must take action to protect themselves when they believe they are being threatened."
The statement said the fourth and fifth occupants of the vehicle were not injured.
Afghan police and coalition forces will be investigating Sunday's incident.
Coalition forces run frequent advertising campaigns to warn locals to keep a safe distance from convoys and many locals are scared of getting close to military vehicles.
NATO commanders say they take all reasonable precautions and that militants, who regularly use civilian cars loaded with explosives in suicide missions, are to blame for endangering innocents.
Human Rights Watch estimates at least 300 Afghan civilians were mistakenly killed by coalition forces in 2007, with thousands dead since the mission's start six years ago.
Afghan and United Nations officials have urged international troops to take extra precautions to prevent civilian casualties.
The UNDP Youth Climate Change Publication is reaching its final stages and will be sent off to the printers in the next few days. The process to create a summary of this years United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008 has been a long road but very rewarding one. We have had some amazing young editors come to work work at the Peace Child International office, worked along side some of the UNDP's staff and had many wonderful submissions to the project.
We will be launching the publication at the 4th World Youth Congress in Quebec City, Canada on August 12th.
If you are attending the congress make sure to come up to the Peace Child staff afterwards but if you are not attending you can still how everything unfolds and be involved through the Virtual Congress.
Since a main portion of this years World Youth Congress is focused on Climate Change I thought I would share this article on how the Canadian government is trying to sweep dirt under the mat. I also wanted to extent anyone who is using Facebook to join the growing International Youth Climate Movement.
OTTAWA — The Conservative government is planning a quiet release for a major Health Canada report that warns of the harmful impact of climate change on the health of Canadians, particularly the young, elderly and aboriginals.
Should the department follow through with its communications plan, it will be the second time this year that the government has taken such an approach with a major climate-change study.
Those involved with the report were informed in a July 3 conference call that the government is preparing a “low-profile release” on the Health Canada website, rather than launching the report with major media fanfare, sources told The Globe and Mail.
McMaster University chemistry professor Brian McCarry, who chairs a group called Clean Air Hamilton, said the dangers of global warming and fossil fuels on human health deserve far more attention, not less.
“Certainly, the stance taken by this government has been to keep climate change in a low-profile format,” he said. “Unfortunately, Canada and the U.S. are almost singular in the world now as being not quite climate-change deniers, but they’re not putting much emphasis on [it.]“
Canadian scientists and climate experts worked for months on a similar major study last year for Natural Resources Canada called From Impacts to Adaptation, which warned of the specific impacts of climate change for each region of the country.
The release of that report was delayed for several months before being posted in a hard-to-find section of the Natural Resources Canada website. As a result, the report received little media coverage, frustrating many of the public servants, scientists and academics who worked on it.
Similar frustration is now beginning to surface over the government’s handling of the Health Canada study.
Health Minister Tony Clement’s press secretary, Laryssa Waler, issued a brief response yesterday to questions about the department’s communications plan. “Health Canada is preparing the report for release. Once it’s ready, it will be released,” she said in an e-mail.
Peter Berry, Health Canada’s senior policy analyst for climate change and health, who was on the July 3 conference call discussing the communications plan for releasing the report, offered an outline of the study during a February presentation to Clean Air Hamilton.
At that time, Dr. Berry said the report would be released in the spring. It is expected to warn of the health dangers of longer and hotter heat waves on the elderly and children, while saying that changing vegetation will affect the traditional ways of northern aboriginals.
Dr. Berry’s presentation included a quotation about how society will only act to avoid the effects of climate change if it is aware of the possible negative consequences.
Environmentalist Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation, who has been critical of what he describes as the Conservative government’s “weak” climate-change policies, offered an exasperated sigh yesterday when told of the government’s plans.
“If this government cared about climate change,” he said, “then it would highlight these reports and use them as a way of engaging Canadians on the importance of addressing the issue.”
OTTAWA — The Conservative government is planning a quiet release for a major Health Canada report that warns of the harmful impact of climate change on the health of Canadians, particularly the young, elderly and aboriginals.
Should the department follow through with its communications plan, it will be the second time this year that the government has taken such an approach with a major climate-change study.
Those involved with the report were informed in a July 3 conference call that the government is preparing a “low-profile release” on the Health Canada website, rather than launching the report with major media fanfare, sources told The Globe and Mail.
McMaster University chemistry professor Brian McCarry, who chairs a group called Clean Air Hamilton, said the dangers of global warming and fossil fuels on human health deserve far more attention, not less.
“Certainly, the stance taken by this government has been to keep climate change in a low-profile format,” he said. “Unfortunately, Canada and the U.S. are almost singular in the world now as being not quite climate-change deniers, but they’re not putting much emphasis on [it.]“
Canadian scientists and climate experts worked for months on a similar major study last year for Natural Resources Canada called From Impacts to Adaptation, which warned of the specific impacts of climate change for each region of the country.
The release of that report was delayed for several months before being posted in a hard-to-find section of the Natural Resources Canada website. As a result, the report received little media coverage, frustrating many of the public servants, scientists and academics who worked on it.
Similar frustration is now beginning to surface over the government’s handling of the Health Canada study.
Health Minister Tony Clement’s press secretary, Laryssa Waler, issued a brief response yesterday to questions about the department’s communications plan. “Health Canada is preparing the report for release. Once it’s ready, it will be released,” she said in an e-mail.
Peter Berry, Health Canada’s senior policy analyst for climate change and health, who was on the July 3 conference call discussing the communications plan for releasing the report, offered an outline of the study during a February presentation to Clean Air Hamilton.
At that time, Dr. Berry said the report would be released in the spring. It is expected to warn of the health dangers of longer and hotter heat waves on the elderly and children, while saying that changing vegetation will affect the traditional ways of northern aboriginals.
Dr. Berry’s presentation included a quotation about how society will only act to avoid the effects of climate change if it is aware of the possible negative consequences.
Environmentalist Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation, who has been critical of what he describes as the Conservative government’s “weak” climate-change policies, offered an exasperated sigh yesterday when told of the government’s plans.
“If this government cared about climate change,” he said, “then it would highlight these reports and use them as a way of engaging Canadians on the importance of addressing the issue.”
At the 4th World Youth Congress there will be the creation of, 'A Celebration of Youth-led Development' book, supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The congress will be taking place in Quebec 10th-21st August and the creation of this publication will also take place during this time.
We are looking for your stories on how you, your organization or your friends are involved in youth-led development. We are particularly focusing on the work that young people are doing toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We will be including stories from groups attending the congress in Quebec as well as stories from those who can't attend. This book will have a 'by youth' focus: we'd like to hear your experience of youth-designed and delivered projects.
If you have such stories, reports or evaluations, please send them to us. Ideally, we are looking for a 250-word summary of the project (with, if possible, some first person statements / opinions from the young people who did the project), plus 2-4 photographs illustrating the faces of the young person or team who designed and delivered the project, the need their project addressed, and a photo that confirms that they did what they set out to do. Send it to: publications@peacechild.org
Alternatively, if you have no specific project stories that you would like to highlight – but would like to be identified in the book as an organization that supports the notion of youth-led development (community improvement projects designed and delivered by young people under the age of 30) – please write to the Publications email address provided and they will recognize your support in the publication.
I just wanted to share with everyone who is attending the 4th World Youth Congress and the rest of the TakingITGlobal.org network that they can watch everything as it happens during the congress.
So share the World Youth Congress YouTube Channel with anyone you think would be interested in watching what will take place from August 10th - 21st 2008.
Respond to the posted videos with text and video comments and keep an eye open for the soon to be launched Virtual Congress which will allow for additional interaction through blogs, podcasts, live chats, congress news, and information on the congress book and action projects.
I am honoured to share a reflection on my experience at the 2008 Silver Bay Leadership Forum in Silver Bay, New York where they are celebrating their 90th Anniversary of a conference that explores the current and emerging state of leadership.
Last night I was one of three recipients of the Inaugural Leadership Forum Awards. As stated in the program “each of this year’s honoured recipients has been selected for his/her demonstrated ability to take bold action, provide solutions to complex leadership dilemmas, and generate tremendous followership. These leaders have also exhibited the rare ability to cross streams and address issues through commercial, governmental, social and economic channels”. We were recognized for our work in solving ‘wicked’ problems and as you might imagine, it was a very humbling and uplifting experience for me.
In accepting the award, we were each asked to make a few remarks and share our perspectives on leadership. I kicked off my comments on how leadership emerges based on your state of mind. I asked the room two questions. The first – ‘how many of you believe that every problem has a solution’? A collection of people put up their hands. I then asked ‘how many of you believe that NOT every problem has a solution’. An even larger group of people raised their hands. I then went on to share a visual diagram that came to mind while travelling to Silver Bay and reflecting on my perspective of leadership.
In the past, my perspective on leadership was somewhat simplistic and singular. Today, I see leadership in the context of trying to solve some of the world’s most complex and interconnected challenges. It is a moving and evolving target that requires constant re-alignment and mobility. In response to my questions that I posed to the room, I shared my realization that problems are interconnected – and YES – there are solutions, though we often need to invent and co-create them.
While preparing for my remarks on leadership on the plane, in addition to my diagram, I also prepared a series of reflections on what I have learned about leadership over the years:
For me, leadership has been about...
- Being aware of problems and taking an active role in being part of creating solutions
- Being called upon to reflect and represent collective and shared experiences
- Asking critical questions in order to better understand realties
- Energizing processes through taking interest, showing appreciation and participating
- Making connections between diverging ideas and different people with diverse backgrounds
- Reflecting on lessons of the past and making decisions that move towards a brighter future
- Having perspective with the ability to both focus in on a situation as well as see a bigger picture
- Taking responsibility for my actions and intentions
- Believing in ideas and possibilities
- Convening conversations across differences and differences
- Resolving conflict through deep listening, understanding and building trust
- Transforming ideas into actions and new realities
- Dancing with life and celebrating beauty in the midst of it all
While at Silver Bay, in addition to connecting with official conference delegates from various corporations and non-profit organizations, I also enjoyed spending time with the children of the delegates. They were truly delightful and took great interest in TakingITGlobal and my experiences with leadership. I enjoyed responding to their questions and learning from their own experiences. A highlight was also being able to go Kayaking & make a necklace at the Craft Shop!
It was so exciting for the TakingITGlobal team to be part of our sixth year at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) these past few days here in San Antonio, Texas! TakingITGlobal had a great presence across the conference, and I am proud to share the ways in which we were able to reach out and connect with so many educators. To start with, I’ve personally just renewed my commitment to serve on the NECC conference committee for the next two years. I see my role as helping to think about the ways in which we can best engage the next generation of educators.
Before the NECC conference kicks off on opening day (Sunday, June 29th this year), an International Reception is held at the Global Connections Lounge, to welcome attendees from around the world (over 30 countries this year!) and to provide a space to share and discuss opportunities for global connections.
This year, TakingITGlobal was an organizing sponsor of the International Reception, and my co-founder Michael Furdyk along with our US Education Program Manager Emily Kornblut, presented an overview of TakingITGlobal’s recent work and invited the attendees to collaborate with us for greater global awareness. Following the International Reception, the conference’s Opening Reception was held, and provided about a dozen poster sessions for presenters to share their work. TakingITGlobal was one of the organizations provided with this opportunity. We spoke with hundreds of attendees and were able to share our programs with many enthusiastic educators.
On the following afternoon, we had a Spotlight Session, Social Networking for Social Good, held in the Lila Cochrell Auditorium, where we discussed the opportunity for educators to incorporate TakingITGlobal programs into the classroom, and shared many stories of how young people’s use of social web tools have provided them with life-changing opportunities to engage with the issues facing our planet. For the rest of the afternoon, our booth was abuzz with discussions of classroom collaboration and opportunities for partnership with dozens of school districts and organizations.
TakingITGlobal was also featured as an example of positive youth engagement by Education Technology consultant Sara Armstrong in her session Educating Students about Online Safety. The following morning was an exciting one – two educators who have been using our TIGed tools, Mali Bickley and Jim Carleton, were invited by ISTE to give a keynote speech about the collaborations they developed with schools around the world. During their talk, they highlighted TakingITGlobal.org as a social network for social good, and also showed screenshots of the TIG homepage and their TIGed classroom space.
On the final afternoon, Steve Dembo from Discovery Education featured TakingITGlobal as a resource in his session Policies, Safety and Socialm, where he provided our website as an example of well moderated, classroom friendly, safe social networking website. The conference was closed by TakingITGlobal US Advisor Idit Caperton, who provided the conference’s closing keynote, and highlighted TakingITGlobal as a resource for positive student engagement.
We have been so pleased to work with ISTE and engage with the NECC conference on so many fronts! Our partnership with ISTE has also lead to a recent presentation in Dubai and a future event in Singapore, and we were honoured to be mentioned in ISTE’s 2008 Annual Report as one of their key institutional partners!
Special Thanks to our TakingITGlobal staff at NECC !
(below photo: from left to right)
Michael Furdyk
Jennifer Corriero
Emily Kornblut
Kirsten Jordan
Luke Walker
I think I have realised the two strongest contributors to the evaporation of time;
1) Taking it slow and steady
2) Age.
Taking it slow and steady (CERTAINLY wins the race).
This first 6 months of 2008 have definitely been consumed with less on my plate. I have tried to tackle each task as it has arisen and in doing so, I lost track of time.
I welcomed in the new year while volunteering with Kristina at the Woodford Folk Festival. It was a wonderful opportunity to take a break from work and reconnect with everything else I love; people, food, music and the environment. It was a break I was definitely craving and it left me with some clear resolutions for 2008.
By the time my birthday came around I realised just how unhappy I was at work. The job itself was fine but the organisation was not a fit with me, this was emphasised by a few key people who were determined to drive me away. So I gave myself a much needed present and quit the job in favour of working part-time at the Queensland University of Technology as a tutor of marketing and creative industries classes, and volunteering part-time at the Hear and Say Centre for deaf children and their families.
I am so delighted I gave myself the freedom to move onto QUT and the Hear and Say Centre because I LOVE WORKING AT THEM BOTH. I am able to keep up my marketing and communications skills as well as meet, interact and shape the learning experiences of many intelligent individuals. I get to guide, share and learn with my students in a very rewarding exchange that has made me very happy.
There have been other projects that have come up this semester but nothing in particular worth mentioning just now. Maybe sometime soon though...
Age.
The other factor I have recognised as the major consumer of time is age. The older I get, the more time slips away! I haven't quite recognised why this is the case but I have recognised that there are probably only about 65 years or so left of my life (and at this rate, that is going to disappear in what will feel like 5 years), so I have to take advantage of this second before it passes!
It is kind of in this mentality, of living for this second and valuing everything that it is offering that I got married, vary spontaneously (yet a long time in the making), in June. We were on a walk and looking out over the ocean as a storm became ever-present. We decided there and then that it was the right time and so asked the wind and the sea and the earth to recognise the fire within us and bare witness to the exchange of our commitment to each other, to our relationship and ourselves. I have no doubt that I am with the right person for me and although not legal, we, and those around us know that our relationship is real, our commitment is real and our love is real.
So although I haven't travelled anywhere in particular this first 6 months of 2008, I have come a very long way. I am very much looking forward to keeping up with the next 6 months of 2008.
Thank all of you for your support along this journey.
Here is a wealth of knowledge for any of the delegates who are attending the congress who want to harness the power of media and technology to help share the experience they are having at the congress to everyone online.
This guide has step-by-step instructions for shooting, editing, and publishing online videos that can be watched and subscribed to by millions of people.
