PYEN launched

The UN Environment Program's (UNEP) Pacific Youth Environment Network (PYEN) conference this week was a fantastic learning experience.

[Ed: You might need to click on the timestamp; for some reason this one's not cooperating.]



It was a small conference, with about 30-40 delegates from the Pacific - comprising about 22 island states if I'm not wrong. But the breadth of the issues covered did a fine job of opening my eyes to the tip of the iceberg that is environmental sustainability. (yes, just *had* to use an environmental metaphor.)

In particular, I really liked Stuart Hill's presentation on practical strategies for progress. [conference program here.] It's the little steps, and touching your immediate sphere of influence, often, that is really what carries a ripple effect to a broader platform. But this sounds cheesy for anyone who didn't hear him speak. Still - I appreciated his underdog-made-good story, with plenty of inspiring examples of practical nuggets for social change.

It was amazing to meet all the Pacific-ers doing the good work they're doing in their beautiful islands. Their dedication to environmental progress is really something else. Being in constant contact with them for 3 days, talking about all the projects they were involved in - from biodiversity to clean energy to ecological footprints - you can imagine what a powerful experience that was, for a person attending her first environmental conference ever. (I know, shame!)

It got my reminiscing about my time with Greenpeace as a frontline campaigner, yonks back. Hi there! Do you know much about whaling and how that impacts on the environment? .. And this is what Greenpeace is doing about it.. Fond memories of learning, of abuse and developing the thick skin I'm now blessed with, and of greenie hippy tree-hugging pot-smoking friends! Go the stereotypes.

Did you know? Tonga, consisting of about 150 little islands, has only 2 of them with electricity. It jolted in me an appreciation of the conditions under which these determined people are trying to make change - that my ignorance had precluded me from before.

And... as it turns out with most things I come into mere contact with, I got roped in. This time, to help coordinate the inaugural Issues Paper for PYEN, which is going to be used as a tool to lobby governments and inter-governmental bodies (like SPREP) on environmental issues in the Pacific, from a youth perspective. It's a first for Pacific Youth, and a big task - but we have a great team, and I'm confident that everyone's gonna put in great content that will make it a fantastic paper (with clout!).

A highlight (other than my newfound Pacific friends) was getting to meet Surendra Shrestha, director of UNEP Asia-Pacific. It was even luckier still, being an ASEAN observer at PYEN - thus not being a particularly relevant person there - that I managed to squeeze in a brief chat with him about my ASEAN project. (Sorry, can't divulge anything yet.) And he's offered to hook me up with relevant people in UNDP (!!) - so I need to get cracking on my concept paper so he can look over it.

I'll remember this week for some time to come. (Will put up cool pics here!)


And in the spirit of learning and sharing:

UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)

Agenda 21

UNEP TUNZA for Youth

UN & Civil Society

Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future

Greenpeace International - campaigns



Technorati: UN, environment, Pacific, youth

[More..]

Shipwrecked

- the GOP, that is.

How coincidental it was, that, right after Paul O'Neill - former Secretary of the Treasury - had his candid assessment of Bush published in The Price of Loyalty, he got accussed of leaking classified information. Which had the desired effect of silencing him.

John Danforth's (former US Senator for 18 years, who later resigned after serving as Ambassador to UN briefly) comments on the breakdown of the secular state under Republican rule are something - for the radical right more than anybody else, really - to chew on:

Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. .. a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement. .. Our current fixation on a religious agenda has turned us in the wrong direction. It is time for Republicans to rediscover our roots.

Check out Sidney Blumenthal's piece in Salon. (Yes, you have to click an ad first, but trust me it's worth it.) In any case, how do you pass up on an article that opens like this --

There is no one left to rescue the Republican Party from George W. Bush. He is home alone. The Republican-establishment wise men whose words were once quiet commands are shouting unheeded warnings. The Republican leaders of Congress are distracted and obsessed with their own crises of corruption.

Now, for any chance of salvation, the big guns are going to have to do some serious rethinking - be it a major overhaul of policy, or people. (Both desperately needed, actually.) As it did for Reagan.

And while they're at it, put Cheney on the to-boot list.


Technorati: US politics, Bush, Republican

[More..]

PYEN in the Pac

Just a quick drop in - am tied up this week with a conference.

Muy interesante. Tell more after I get some decent sleep later this week. Rushing a proposal for big time money too.

Later

[More..]

What academic freedom?

A wake-up call, is all I'm hoping this signifies.

Thanks to Adrian (and earlier, Beach-yi) for tip-offs.

Mr T says: Singapore's academic freedom must evolve - Reuters 22 Oct

Earlier this week the University of Warwick, which was most recently ranked eighth among British universities in The Times Good University Guide, abandoned plans to set up a campus in the state, citing concerns over academic freedom.

Apparently, our freedom rating of 147 (out of 167 countries) leaves us behind Afghanistan (97), Sudan (132) and Uzbekistan (142). It's painfully funny - no, wait - just painful.


Technorati: freedom, civil liberties, Singapore, higher education

[More..]

MakingPovertyHistory

It's been just everywhere! - TV, posters, magazines, a huge rally in Edinburgh, and tons, and tons, of websites - so what's the deal with making poverty history anyway?

It's been over a year since the MakePovertyHistory (MPH) coalition was formed. But I'll spare you the details of how some lefty comrades got together and decided to do something to save the world. (Very tongue-in-cheek, btw.)

I will, however, give you the necessary 3-point brief on MPH - as I understand it anyways:

Trade justice: Making globalisation work for the world's poor.

Drop the debt: So debt dollars can instead go to food, health, education - and reform.

More & better aid: No strings attached please; and autonomy to end poverty!

(You can check out the manifesto here.)

The MPH however - in all unlikelihood - has faced some criticism. The strongest (in my opinion) is that aid without reform will lead to greater dependency. The weakest (in that of many) is that Bono (and Geldof, and the like) did it for ego.

There are more chunky issues of varying complexity, it seems, being nutted (or in some cases, jousted) out by development economists, policy analysts and other academiacs. Rather than butt it out here, though, I will let you look at the main counters, offered in a hot sheet (!) by Global Growth Org, one of the anti-poverty advocates who - interestingly - argue for free trade. Go figure.

One thing that I can't help chewing on, though - the relevance of MPH to our generation. With all these efforts including celebrities and plenty of media pizazz, we are obviously a target audience for mobilisation on poverty and the broader Millennium Developments Goals.

IMHO, I think the campaign's usefulness has been in bringing poverty out of invisibility, in our minds. Others argue that the general public's understanding of poverty has not been deepened, and MPH has merely made wearing white bands fashionable.

What do you think?


Technorati: makepovertyhistory, MDG, poverty

[More..]

Equality in Australian Defence Forces

Yet another victory!

Congratulations to all who were responsible for this faboulous, significant development!!

Previously dogs had more rights in the Australian Defence Force than partners of same-sex couples. For example dogs were allocated relocation funds when their owner had to move to another state, however partners of same-sex couples were not given such funds, unlike heterosexual partners. Same-sex partners would also not be automatically notified if their partners were killed in battle and they were also not eligible for the war pension. This has all changed on Friday 21 October 2005!!

More in this AAP article. [21 Oct 7:24pm]


Technorati: gay, GLBT, Australia, military

[More..]

Heit and Hype

Finally caught the fantastic double bill of Fahrenheit and FahrenHype 911, thanks to Young Liberals (!) at Sydney Uni.

I don't want to give a blow-by-blow analysis of the movies, but I will say what issues stuck out, for me:

The tenuous connections between Clinton, George Bush Sr, Carlyle, Halliburton - and freakin' Bin Laden!

Moore's failure to obtain consent from (some of) the people he featured

The factual errors in Fahrenheit as claimed by FahrenHype

It was also mortifying to see the horrendous civilian suffering resulting from the decision to wage the Iraqi war - regardless of why it happened, or who was to blame. There is so much way to go, in peacebuilding.

I found it difficult to piece together a cogent picture of the events and politics in the lead-up to, and continuing in, the war, since both films were obviously highly biased. Still, I thought Moore's version offered more in the way of analysis than did the counter-Hype, a lot of which was personal mudslinging at Moore. But, Mike - you really should've gotten consent first. The various accounts of people upset that you didn't portray them fairly just broke the credibility of anything that might actually have been, in 911.

The complexities of this topic will demand revisiting, for sure.

For now, a question for the floor: Was it about the oil (and money), political jousting - or something else?


Technorati: 911, Iraq, Michael Moore

[More..]

UnRavelling

Last night I caught the UNSW Orchestra's performance of Grieg's Morgenstimmung, conducted by Colin Piper, and Ravel's Piano Concerto, conducted by Steven Hillinger.

Been a while since I'd had any contact with live classical music performance, and it made me realise how much I'd missed it.

It was an "ok" performance, I thought - much better than the concert band's right before, thank goodness - but rather shy of the standard we used to play at. The horns used to be *so* much better (that mortifying solo!), the woodwinds more in tune, upper strings more together. Then again, the flute and cor anglais solos were really quite well done in the Ravel - though I'm being more suayed by their tone, rather than technique.

Times like these, I wish Darren (and Aaron!) was around so he could give their blow-by-blow accounts (literally, for the winds) on each phrase and dynamic. There's so much on music analysis I could learn from them, and they always makes it so interesting to listen. Miss them, and Garçon.

But I miss playing trumpet more. :(

Ps. Yikes. My posts are getting more and more degenerate. Soon I will have to just lay off completely, for a good while. So I can ramble to myself, like this, in private. Lol.

[More..]

Living on Minimum Wage

No, I wasn't referring to myself. Lol.

Last week I watched the Australian premiere of Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days: the first episode was on minimum wage.

The synopsis from FX:

The day after the Oscars, nominee Morgan Spurlock and his fiancée Alex uproot themselves from the financial security of their fabulous New York City lives and move to the struggling heart of the Midwest - Columbus Ohio - and work at multiple minimum wage jobs for 30 days. Their effort to make ends meet is further complicated when Morgan's nieces come to live with him and he explores first hand what it's like to feed and support a family while living on a measly $5.15 an hour.

I was thoroughly glued from the first scene to the last - Morgan Spurlock being one of my all-time heroes notwithstanding.

It was interesting for me, coming from a Psych background, to see the psychological effects that living on minimum wage had on Alex, when the kids came over for the weekend. The shift in mindset seemed rather dramatic, which I suppose might have been made more pronounced by the fact that they'd been used to living in Manhattan.

It angered me that the Congress has been refusing to increase the minimum wage since 1997, and yet has had the audacity to grant itself a US$27,000 pay raise - over the same period. So-called protection.

It was heartbreaking to see how American citizens of certain socio/economic/ethnic backgrounds are so vulnerable when it comes to health, in particular. It is ironic - and so unjust - that those who need safety nets the most are precisely the ones most denied access to them.

I'm curious about the impact that this episode had on the campaign/movement pushing to increase the minimum wage in the States. (Feel free to inform me.) Meanwhile, I leave you with an anti-establishment (by coincidence, of course) discussion on 30 Days. Enjoy.

***
This week's episode is on the anti-aging obsession. I'll be looking forward to it.


Technorati: 30 Days, Spurlock

[More..]

NLC: 20 years

The National Convenor of my beloved NLC (National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia) delivers the following speech at the 2005 IDP Australian International Education Conference in Gold Coast, Queensland. One of the better ones from student activists, if I might say so myself.

Update: The speech yesterday ended up being a catalyst to a senate enquiry into the ESOS amendments. The vote on ESOS legislation is also off the table for now. Woooot!!

ON behalf of the National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia, I would like to thank IDP and AEI for the opportunity to address the conference today.

NLC, since its inception, has had a close working relationship with industry groups and government bodies, seeking the betterment of international education in Australia, not just for the students, but the industry as a whole.

For those of you unfamiliar with our organisation, it might surprise you that we are as old as this industry, having grown from the student movement against the Australian Government's introduction of the Full-fee international student program back in 1986. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to continue our mission to seek excellence in the quality of education and equitable welfare for international students in Australia. With many of our policies now having been adopted either through legislation or institutional and government policies, NLC continues to strive to improve the student experience.

The National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia is recognised by industry and government as the peak body for international students in Australia. We draw our membership from international student organisations from across the country, with branches in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territories.

Having recently celebrated our 20th anniversary conference in July this year, today, I would like to share with you NLC's vision for international education in the next twenty years.

Aristotle once said "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet". These days, as an international student in Australia, I can tell that it is as bitter as it can get.

After years of lobbying for greater intervention in the processing of visa cancellations due to errors in the department, we find that the adamant denials of fault by DIMIA in the past are but one of many schizophrenic personalities that the Australian Government has adopted for their face of international education. The question we have to ask is, without student organisations such as the NLC, who will speak for those who have been prejudiced by a system that on the one hand seem to open its arms widely to welcome them, and on the other, seeking opportunities to keep them out?

Yet, today, while I am here speaking to you about what international students would like to see for international education in the next twenty years, my fellow international students, while juggling full-time studies, are desperately fighting to ensure that student organisations such as NLC, and our membership constituents continue to exist beyond 2006. We had a brief moment of happiness this morning with reports of Senator Barnaby Joyce crossing the floor on this issue. But we are not rejoicing yet, as this government has had VSU on its radar since its parliamentary members were student politicians themselves, and as the news cycle unfolds today, we will be hearing more from their misplaced determination to get this legislation through.

In 2003, the Australian Government introduced a $113million package to strengthen International Education in Australia. NLC congratulated the minister and DEST in recognising quality assurance, not just of the
in-country activities of institutions, but also the offshore delivery of institutional programs, as a key issue that needed urgent attention.

While going across our archives since I came into office, I discovered a discussion paper prepared by NLC back in 1986. In it, it predicted quite accurately, a future of international education in Australia as a commodity, and educational institutions prepared to discount the quality of education in favour of the economic benefits reaped through the minimisation of institutional assets.

As you can see, the international education package was, in fact, the gift on a silver platter that NLC has been lobbying for since our existence. It represented a policy shift from the economics of international education to the institutional, social and cultural benefits that can be gained from the program.

Over the years, international students have had to suffer the burden of fee increases. In today's world of the free economy, where the consumer is king, one would assume that the ability to vote with one's feet is paramount in the church of corporate globalisation, the Australian Government, in 2000, at the insistence of industry groups fearing the "poaching of students, introduced a $120 fee for students who wish to transfer to another education provider, in addition to a letter expressing the current provider's permission for the student to transfer courses and a twelve month freeze on the ability for a student to attempt such a transfer. Many students, having found themselves stuck in an institution that were not meeting their expectations, unable to transfer to an alternate education provider in Australia.

It is taught in the schools of marketing and commerce that the monetary value of a product is a reflection of the quality and prestige of the product that you buy. No sane individual, having lived in this, the age of consumerism would part with money enough to buy a Bentley be satisfied with just a humble Toyota. Yet, in Australia, it seems that the Government, and education providers want prospective international students to believe that they are paying for Holden HSVs - not quite a Bentley, but enough bells and whistles to be priced above Toyota.

Every year, international students face a fee increase. Some educational institutions have publicly attributed it towards spiraling costs, others have been more honest in acknowledging that price sells. But everybody is in the same state of denial that the ability of an institution to deliver the same level of quality it did ten years ago, has vastly been deprived.

The total contribution the Commonwealth made to universities core operating costs is $4.9 billion. This funding represents 41 per cent of university funding, which is a drop from 57 per cent in 1996. Since 1996 fees and charges have risen from 13 per cent to 22 per cent and that the amount of funding obtained through HECS has risen from 12 per cent in 1996 to 16 per cent in 2003 (prior the last round of HECS increases). Total student financial contribution had risen from 25% to 38% over 1996 - 2003.

As the fees are increased, and Federal funding diminished, class sizes seem to increase exponentially, the cohort of full-time academic staff decrease, libraries cancelling journal subscriptions, international students around the country are asking what is the value of education I am paying for?

Ladies and gentleman, I am an international student. I've paid for what I thought was a HSV and got a lemon.

IDP, and the Australian Government, and many members of the Australian International Education industry want us to believe that Australia has the ability to provide quality education, and is in the same league as its global competition. So let us have a look at what some of the competition has.

Cambridge University, with a student cohort of about 16,500 students, 11,600 who are undergrads, and 5000 graduate students, of which 17% are international, operates from an endowment worth £2.7 billion ($6.4 billion Australian dollars) is embarking on an effort to raise a further £1 billion by 2012, and is currently operating with a deficit of £10.5million (or $24 million Australian dollars)

Harvard University, with a student cohort of about 19,700 students, 6,500 who are undergrads, and 12,200 graduate students, of which 17% are international, operates from an endowment worth USD$22.6billion ($30billion Australian dollars).

On some campuses in Australia, international students outnumber domestic students, comprising of up to 35% of student cohort. The current total contribution the Australian Government made to universities core operating costs is $4.9 billion. This funding represents 41 per cent of university funding, which is a drop from 57 per cent in 1996. Since 1996 fees and charges have risen from 13 per cent to 22 per cent and that the amount of funding obtained through HECS has risen from 12 per cent in 1996 to 16 per cent in 2003 (prior the last round of HECS increases). Total student financial contribution had risen from 25% to 38% over 1996 - 2003. As you can see, Australian
The industry has, for many years, prided themselves with the phrase "bigger than wheat, not as big as wool". Today, it is bigger than wheat and wool, with the $5.6billion of revenue that international students contribute to the system.

As an international student, I have to ask myself. Why is it I seem to be paying more every year, but am getting less each year?

$5.6billion is alot to crow about, but, comparing it with the competition, the annual combined revenue is not quite the value of the endowments each institution is operating from.

The Australian Government and the International education industry cannot continue to live with the illusion that international students are economic cows with an infinite supply of milk. In order to produce milk, cows need to be fed. Just because international students provide $5.6billion of revenue doesn't mean that institutional funding can be diminished. The less feed you provide, the less milk will be produced.

Ladies and gentleman, I promised you, at the beginning of this presentation, that I will be sharing with you NLC's vision of the next twenty years. So far, I have been digging up alot of the past. Rest assured, before we leave this room today, this promise will be kept. However, I cannot talk about the future, when NLC's presence at this conference next year is currently at stake. Having been participating in every conference since the Australian international education conference was first convened, NLC has had the opportunity to interact with industry, government and institutional representatives, and in our own little way, contribute to the shape of international education in Australia. For nineteen of our twenty years of existence, we have made many positive contributions to this conference. My fear, however, is that we may not exist after December this year.

If you have been following the news, the Australian Government has introduced the Anti Student Organisations legislation or commonly known as VSU "Voluntary Student Unionism". In an amendment to the Higher Education Act, the Minister has instituted measures preventing universities from the collection of fees that do not directly contribute towards academic activities.

You probably have heard from Universities, Sporting Institutions, Churches, community groups, local representatives from rural communities and of course, the students on the negative impact of such a legislation.

The NLC, is naturally, in opposition to such a legislation. While we have been known in the past to be sensitive to fee fluctuations and additional costs, this is a legislation that we cannot bring ourselves to support.
Policy makers in Canberra are obsessed with the concept of outcomes based education. Will students get jobs when they graduate? Will the degree they possess equip them with skills that employers want?

These policy makers seem to have forgotten that the University is not just a piece of land where buildings exist for individuals to join a production line where after a certain accumulation of said skills, emerge from buildings clothed in a gown and armed with a piece of paper that bestows a qualification. We have factories and sweat shops for that.

This piece of legislation intends to eliminate the student's contribution towards sporting facilities, cultural events, community building, welfare and support services on campus. Without these, the soul of the university, what difference is there between a university and a factory?

The University is about a community of individuals exchanging ideas and imagining the future. By eliminating the fees that goes to support community that is the university, this government is depriving the universities of its soul.

The Australian Government, however, doesn't just want to eliminate the student's contribution to the soul of the universities, it intends to create a divide between domestic students and international students by legislating for the ability to collect non-academic fees from international students for the provision of services listed in the National Code. This was done without much fanfare through an amendment in the ESOS legislation.

At first glance, it may seem an adequate compromise. How are universities able to provide for a legislated list of services without funding? However, the plot is more sinister than it seems, especially when the minister and his spokespeople have questioned "is the Labor Party seriously suggesting Australian students need to subsidise the activities for international students that the universities are meant to be providing?¹

Perhaps the Minister and his aides have not been doing their homework, or this is a serious case of a red herring.

I hope that there is a representative from DEST in this room, and that you will convey the following information that I will be sharing with you in the next slide with the minister.

As you can see from the slide, taken from sample universities across the country, that there is a significant difference between the fees that international students and domestic students. If the minister is suggesting that international students do not currently already pay for the services that have been legislated for, he is very mistaken.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Melbourne University for doing the right thing and not charging any additional fees to international students. At the same time, I would like to make a plea to the University of Queensland to do the right thing. International Students are UQ are already paying for services in their fees. Do not charge us additional fees unless you intend to make it a universal fee for all students at UQ.

I would like to invite the Minister (or his representative) to be honest with us on the ESOS legislation amendments. Was the amendment introduced to allow universities to continue its current operations, or was it to allow universities to to impose an additional fee only for international students.

Lets look at the list of services that the Universities have to provide under the National Code of Practise. As you can see, many of these services are required by all students, international or domestic.

Perhaps the question we need ask the minister :"is the Liberal Party seriously suggesting International Students need to subsidise the activites for domestic students that the universities are meant to be providing?"

As I am making this presentation, the amendments to the ESOS legislation to introduce the ability for universities to collect an additional fee from international students is currently sitting on the parliamentary agenda, and there will probably be a vote today. Considering that international students in this country are of little significance to the politicians of in Australia as we do not carry any votes, this myopic amendment will probably pass.

While the rest of the student population are holding their breath in anticipation of the shape the VSU legislation will be in after negotiations within the governing coalition, international students will see a new tax adding to the financial burden of studying in Australia by the end of today.

So let me return to my promise to share with you the vision that NLC has for international education in Australia in the next twenty years.

First of all, even though we are facing extinction in the next three months, I hope that in the next twenty years, NLC will continue to play its role in the shaping of international education in Australia.

We hope that Universities will be funded to a level where it is no longer reliant on the international student population to provide revenue for their continued existence.

We hope that the Australian Government will not hold university funding at hostage with thier ideological beliefs.

We hope that class sizes and student:staff ratios are kept reasonably small.

We hope that the continued existence of university departments (especially in Arts) will not be subject to economic rationalisation.

And, finally, we hope that being an international student in Australia actually means that we get to interact with Australian students, whether in class our out.

With all these bitterness, I hope the fruit of education will truly be sweet.

If we are here again next year, you will know we achieved some success. Otherwise, it has been an enjoyable journey, this last twenty years.

Thank You.


Technorati: international education, Australia, higher education

[More..]

VSU BLOCKED!

The Federal Government appears set to abandon its proposal to ban compulsory student unionism from next year in the face of unbending opposition from key Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson has conceded he may have to postpone the controversial changes because the legislation may not be passed in time for the 2006 academic year.
...
The VSU laws have met concerted opposition from universities, students and opposition political parties, while dividing the federal Coalition.

- Age 12 Oct

The answer to cynics skeptical of the power of a united student movement.

Soak in the victory, comrades.


Technorati: Australia, higher education, VSU, students

[More..]

Staggering (again)

A confluence of personal and professional happenings dictates that I stagger my postings for the next .. I dunno, month or so. (That duration is totally arbitrary, by the way. You'll see.)

And of course, the fact that I'm also in need of gummy berry blog juice top-up.

Make this open thread a currant one. (Couldn't resist! Lol.)

[More..]

Big(ger) joys

In terms of the youth agenda, the 60^th General Assembly on the WPAY+10¹ took a big dip earlier on the last day. The UK youth delegate [name witheld] delivering their statement - on behalf of the flippin EU - made absolutely no mention of the Policy Document, no mention about Youth-Led Development (YLD), nothing about anything of youth in the achivement of the Millennium Development Goals.

He also praised UNICEF's work, which is astounding considering UNICEF confesses to, in David's (Peace Child International) words, "do nothing for youth, only young children".

I felt, quite honestly, betrayed - as did David, and the rest of the YLD team.

To think I had helped him prepare for his role before he left for NY, in the few MSN conversations we had, when he was just absolutely clueless (if I may say so myself).

BUT.

After.

Oh. My. Gosh.

The Youth Resolution A/60/L.2 was passed.

The final draft included not one - but three - clauses on youth and development. My team had helped draft para 3:

Calls upon Governments, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations to develop strong partnerships to scale up investments in youth and to encourage youth-led contributions to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, in particular those contained in the Millennium Declaration;

But it turns out that the youth delegates in NY went even further than what we negotiated for, and included in paras 4 and 14:

Urges Governments, in consultation with youth organizations, to develop holistic and integrated youth policies based on the World Programme of Action for Youth and to evaluate them regularly as part of the follow-up action on and implementation of the World Programme of Action;

Requests the Secretariat, in collaboration with other relevant United Nations programmes and agencies, to establish a broad set of indicators related to youth, which Governments and other actors may choose to use to measure progress towards the implementation of the World Programme of Action;

The (rest of the) youth delegates' speeches, too, were amazing (those whose countries let them deliver their country statements anyway).

Hanna (Sweden) did a double-act with her minister, and her speech started with these words:

Imagine a world where youth have confidence in the future into which they are growing up; imagine a world where the voices of youth are heard and count; imagine a world where youth get to get their ideas on the statute book - we are moving towards such a world in Sweden...

And Thomas! Thomas' (Ghana) statement made possibly the strongest, most explicit reference to YLD as he closed his speech:

Ghana strongly supports Youth-Led Development and argues that there should be strong partnerships between youthful zeal and the experience of elders...

All the crazy negotiations and lobbying of the last few weeks paid off.

David, who was there to witness the proceedings, left in his email words that give me some reason for hope.

Now that the Secretariat has been "instructed" to create disaggregated indicators for youth - no longer can people like Hilary Benn say that youth is not a separate sector. And the stuff about scaling up youth-led contributions is brilliant. So all is not lost, my friend. With youth like Eric and Sania and Thomas speaking as well as they did - it was an impressive session. One that will live in the UN's institutional memory.

I could almost cry.


Technorati: United Nations, youth, MDG
¹10-year review on the UN World Program of Action for Youth

[More..]

Little joys

Alright, alright. Something to let y'all know I'm still alive. And to say thank you for the emails texts and comments after the last post. *big hugs*

I did get my fair share of little joys of the last month to pull my chin up. I just took a while to take it all in, and see it.

3 new friendships formed, 2 old ones refreshed, and one special one lost - or so I despaired - then found.

A boost of inspiration, and a shot of clarity, for my way-too-ambitious projects. All 3 of them.

Also, on wednesday, a really heartwarming show of support and conviction to do something right about the human wrongs in Australia. I am particularly excited because this campaign is uncannily similar to an idea I've had, for Singapore, for a coupla years now. And I will be following this project very, very carefully - if I can even keep my paws off the campaign committee to begin with. Lol. I highly recommend all to check this out.

And, on a more frivolous note! Stumbled on this somewhat random, logically flaw-riddled, but nontheless thought-provoking clip on albinoblacksheep.com: perspectives on life, death, war, peace, humanity. Watch and tell me what you think.

[More..]

sluggish

trés fatigué.

low on sleep, system, and most of all - spirit.

will try to rummage around dusty corners of the house, or the obscure recesses of my being, for ambers.

meanwhile... whatever.

[More..]