TakingITGlobal Proudly Presents:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The TakingITGlobal Dispatch!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
•¸¸•´¯`•¸¸•´¯`•¸¸•´¯`•¸¸•´¯`•¸¸•´¯`•¸¸•´¯`•¸
For the month of April 2004 (Volume 4.4)
In this Issue:
1 -> Welcome to the Dispatch
2 -> Monthly Theme: Rural Youth
3 -> Featured Country Site - A New Section on the TIG main page!
4 -> Global Gallery Contest Winners: Images of Intolerance
5 -> Global Gallery: Rice
6 -> Global Gallery: Visions of Peace
7 -> Panorama: Rural Youth
8 -> TakingITGlobal en français Contest!
9 -> TIGed
10 -> Warning: Fake Event Invitations
11 -> Wrap up
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 1. Welcome to the Dispatch ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to TakingITGlobal's Dispatch for the month of April!
In this issue, we invite you to inform yourself with our new monthly
theme of Rural Youth, see which country is first to be featured with
our NEW Featured Country Sites, contribute to the Rice Global Gallery
contest, check out the Images of Intolerance contest winners, warn of
fake invitations to conferences, help to make TIG multilingual, get
motivated to learn more with TIGed, and read the second issue of
Panorama! Read on, and stay connected!
As we write this month's issue of the Dispatch, TakingITGlobal has just
welcomed our 40,000th member! Thanks for telling your friends about TIG
and helping us grow!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 2. Monthly Theme: Rural Youth ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This month we delve into the issues that face Rural Youth. We focused
our energy on concerns such as poverty, migration, education and
substance abuse. Why do people continue to leave the country for the
city in such large numbers? How does the cycle of poverty work? How do
you educate when you become father from the centre of the curriculum?
Why does substance abuse continue to increase in rural areas? These are
all pressing issues in rural areas.
Rural communities are sometimes viewed as a link to the past and a link
to a better time. Just as many things that are thought of in happy
terms have their own issues just below the surface. That is what we
were aiming for in this Monthly Theme. But we didn’t want to focus
solely on negative topics. We also wanted to find out what programs and
success stories there were in a rural field. With the help and
partnership of the FAO’s Rural Youth Department, we were given stories
and interviews with people working directly with the issues we
discussed on the main page. We have included these in a special
supplement to this month’s issues of Panorama. We would also like to
thank the FAO Rural Youth Department and FAO Waicent for opening up
their libraries and resources for us to use.
So enjoy learning about the issues, and sharing experiences with our
rural members, as we explore Rural Youth!
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/themes/ruralyouth/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 3. Featured Country Site - A New Section on the TIG main page! ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting this month, Country Sites will be a new feature on the main
page of TIG. One country site will be featured for each two week
period, providing an opportunity for members from that country to
showcase their local ideas, projects, expressions and perspectives as
well as raise awareness about current events that are happening in
their country! Another purpose of country sites are to give TIG
members a space to view regional content and connect to opportunities
that relate to their interests on a local level. TakingITGlobal looks
forward to this development in further developing Country Sites as
another step towards fostering cross-cultural exchange and
understanding.
To check out India, our first Featured Country Site, visit:
http://featuredcountry.takingitglobal.org
(or http://india.takingitglobal.org)
Want to learn more about how to help with your country site? Have a look
at our new Guide to Developing and Promoting your Country Site:
http://local.takingitglobal.org/guide/
To check out your own Country Site go to:
http://(your country).takingitglobal.org
For more information about featured country sites, please email Melina,
our Country Site Program Manager, at countrysites@takingitglobal.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 4. Images of Intolerance Contest Winners ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last month the Global Gallery ran a contest entitled "Images of
Intolerance" around our monthly theme of Human Rights. Listed below
are the winners:
WINNER
"Brave and Suffered" by Kouji Oshiro Kochi:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/express/gallery/view.html?sid=3742
RUNNERS-UP
"Hunger to be Heard" by Jarra McGrath:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/express/gallery/view.html?sid=3665
"Fearful Eyes" by Tyrone Pierce:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/express/gallery/view.html?sid=3758
"Nunca Más / Never More" by Mariana Ballestero:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/express/gallery/view.html?sid=3777
"Vision of Liberty" by Sam Tizza Anneh:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/express/gallery/view.html?sid=3836
Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who
participated! Check out this month's Global Gallery contest here:
http://gallery.takingitglobal.org/contest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 5. Global Gallery: Rice ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2004 has been declared the International Year of Rice!
(Learn more here: http://www.fao.org/rice2004)
Almost 3 billion people share the culture, traditions, and untapped
potentials of rice. In remote villages of southeast Asia, farmers still
compare a grain of rice to a "grain of gold". In modern Japan, people
see rice as the very heart of their culture. Along the Senegal River in
West Africa, villagers greet guests with specially prepared rice dishes.
In the western hemisphere rice becomes a wonderful risotto and at the
same time is also symbolic of wedding celebrations.
Wherever it is grown, rice enters people's lives not only as a daily
food but also at religious festivals, in paintings, myths, and in songs.
Even in nations "new to rice", cultivation of the crop has changed
landscapes, introduced new cuisine, and provided farmers with new sources
of income. Rice is food - but more than a food. "The medium is the
message": Rice is society, culture, politics, business, the beauty of a
landscape, people in their communities.
Rice is life.
For the month of April 2004, TakingITGlobal and the Global Gallery are
asking you to create your artwork using rice as an element of expression.
As part of a painting, a drawing, a component of a sculpture, in a
photograph: You choose. Rice goes beyond all boundaries. Creativity is
confined only by imagination.
To learn more about the contest and submit:
http://gallery.takingitglobal.org/contest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 6. Global Gallery: Visions of Peace ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Global Gallery is holding a second contest this month in
partnership with the Youth Millennium Project (YMP)! Visions of Peace
is a traveling art exhibition developed by, with, and for youth. It is
part of YMP's Peace Challenge program, and is your opportunity to
showcase your artistic talent, and raise awareness about peace
building in communities around the world!
Participants have the opportunity to submit up to three pieces of
gallery-ready artwork. Furthermore the YMP Peace Challenge, in
partnership with the TakingITGlobal Global Gallery Program, will
develop and launch an online platform for the Visions of Peace
initiative. Noteworthy submissions will be displayed and included in an
album of the exhibition. Your piece may be anything encompassed in the
broad spectrum of art media; from painting, photography, and sculpture,
to film, dance, musical composition, or poetry. The deadline for
submitting pieces is May 30, 2004. The exhibition (including live
performances) will take place from July 12-17, 2004, and selected pieces
will travel to cities around the world. All submissions to the contest,
including those submitted physically, will become a virtual collection
within the TakingITGlobal Global Gallery that will be launched in July
during the final exhibition.
For more information on Visions of Peace, or to download an application
form for offline work, visit http://www.peacechallenge.org and click on
the Visions of Peace logo!
To start submitting online, visit
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/express/gallery/vopsubmit.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 7. Panorama: Rural Youth ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Going with this month's theme of Rural Youth, our featured article,
‘Rural Broadcasting & Good Governance’, discusses the effectiveness of
a village-run radio and television broadcasting system instead of a
centralized broadcasting system which does not properly reflect the
needs of villagers. The author also stresses the importance of
government support for these programs. He writes, "Villagers can not
read newspapers due to illiteracy and besides, literate villagers can
not read newspapers due to the high price, therefore, village
broadcasting especially Radio and TV can influence the illiterate
people effectively. But due to the centralized broadcasting system
people are deprived of that opportunity."
Read the article here:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/panorama/article.html?ContentID=2957
Read this issue here:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/panorama/?ZineID=31
This month we also have a supplement in Panorama that showcases some
interviews and success stories of Rural Youth and the people and
agencies that work with them. Thanks go to the FAO’s Rural Youth
Department for their help and contributions for this special feature.
Read the special supplement here:
http://d.takingitglobal.org/4.4/panorama/?ZineID=32
We are accepting submissions for this supplement throughout the month,
so if you have your own success story that you would like to share
with us please submit it!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 8. TakingITGlobal en français Contest! ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TakingITGlobal is in the process of translating TakingITGlobal.org into
French through a global team of francophone members. A TIG Contest
will award the Top Ten Translators leading up to our launch in June
2004 with prizes, including a Hewlett Packard digital camera, printer
or scanner, TIG T-shirts, mousepads and much more! It will measure not
only the number of phrases translated correctly, but also the content
submitted in French to the TIG site (ie. articles for Panorama, Global
Gallery artwork, updates, discussions, projects, organizations, events,
e-cards etc). So if you have excellent written French and are
interested in becoming a volunteer translator, please send a sample
translation of our mission statement (available at
http://www.takingitglobal.org/aboutus/) to Alex Fielding, Multilingual
Program Coordinator (multilingual@takingitglobal.org).
TakingITGlobal est en train de traduire TakingITGlobal.org en français
avec une équipe global de membres francophones. Un Concours TIG
attribuera aux Dix Meilleurs Traducteurs (jusqu'à notre lancement en
juin 2004) des prix, y compris un Hewlett Packard appareil-photo
numérique, imprimeur ou sondeur, des T-shirts TIG et beaucoup plus! Il
mesurera non seulement le nombre de phrases traduites correctement,
mais également le nombre de soumissions en français au site de TIG
(articles pour le magazine Panorama, journal, les discussions, les
projets, les organisations, les e-cards, les événements et l'art pour
la Galerie Globale). Alors si vous avez une maitrise excellente du
français écrit et vous vous intéressez à devenir traducteur benevole,
s'il vous plaît envoyez une traduction de notre mission (disponible à
http://www.takingitglobal.org/aboutus) à Alex Fielding, Coordinateur
du Programme Multilingue (multilingual@takingitglobal.org).
Don't worry, other languages (including Portuguese and Spanish, for
example, with help from GYAN in Brazil and TIG members in Argentina
led by Damian Profeta) are coming soon as well! E-mail Alex if you
are interested in helping with other languages.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 9. TIGed: TakingITGlobal in Education ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TIGed, or TakingITGlobal in Education, is an initiative of
TakingITGlobal that aims to transform educational experiences in ways
that promote peer-to-peer, participatory learning, global awareness
and meaningful uses of technology. It will be a resource for teachers
which integrates e-applications with different sets of classroom
activities.
TIGed's primary goal is to work with teachers to inspire creative ways
of using the TakingITGlobal site within the classroom. If you are a
student and you have used TIG for your school, or if you are a teacher
who has used the site, and are interested in exploring different ways in
using the TIG site in exploring curriculum please join our new project
page!
http://projects.takingitglobal.org/TIGed
If you have any questions or ideas about TakingITGlobal in Education,
please e-mail Lisa Campbell, Education Program Manager, at
education@takingitglobal.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 10. Warning: Fake Invitations ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have received many warnings about "scams" going around via e-mail
messages and the Internet in general, promoting fake events, trying to
get you to pay a registration fee before coming to the event.
The "events" are often advertised in personal e-mails, inviting you to
an event, with promises of a "free trip with free airfare and hotel"
and the opportunity to "represent your country". You "only" have to pay
some money, fee, etc in advance - after paying you will never hear back
from them!
Please proceed with caution in working with individuals, groups, or
organizations you don't know!
Here a few criteria that could help you identify "real" and "fake"
events:
- Does the organization exist? Try to find their website, for example,
in a search engine. Try to find other information about the organization,
other places they have been mentioned, etc.
- Where did you get the information about the event? If by e-mail, how
did the group know about your e-mail address? Also be cautious with
information from all kinds of databases.
- If the event is sponsored, who is the sponsor? Sponsors usually give
money because they want to have their name published, if there is a
"Mysterious" sponsor, be suspicious!
- The fake event organizers often promise to take care of all visa
issues, and that you don't need to do anything than send a copy of
passports. Be suspicious! Most countries don't issue visas like that,
of course you need the help of organizers (e.g. invitation letter),
but they usually want you to take care of visas yourself.
TakingITGlobal is doing everything in its capacity to make sure that
all events in our databases are real events; all events are reviewed,
and deleted immediately if they appear fake or if we can't confirm
details about them. However, we can't guarantee that the listings in
the databases are always correct, as we can't physically travel around
the world to check to make sure every group exists, but we do our best!
Below is an example of a fake invitation:
*****************
Dear Name,
My name is Firstname Lastname, female, working with (WORLD YOUTH
ORGANIZATION FOR SOMETHING) California, USA. We are organizing a global
youths combined conferences taking place from the 21nd - 23th of March
2004 at California in the United States and in Guinea-Bissau, on
2th - 9th of April 2004. In our request to invite people from various
countries around the world, I went in search of e-mails on the web
site as a means of contacting youths and organizations. As a result,
I picked your e-mail from an N.G.O's website. If you are interested to
participate and want to represent your country, you may contact the
secretariat of the organizing committee for details and information.
You should also inform them that you were invited to participate by a
friend of yours (Firstname Lastname), who is a member of the American
Youths 4 Peace and a staff of (WORLD YOUTH ORGANIZATION FOR SOMETHING).
I believe that we may have the opportunity to meet if you may be
willing to participate in this event.
You can also relate these conferences, to any existing youths & NGOs
in your country. A round trip ticket and accommodation for the period
of participants' stay in the U.S., shall be provided to all registered
participants by the benevolent donors of the Organizing Committee.
Holders of passports which may require visas to enter the United
States, must inform the conference secretariat at the time of
registration, as the organizing committee is responsible for all visa
arrangements and travel assistance. Below is the contact address of
the conference secretariat:
By Tel/Fax:1-555-555-1212 or by email: something@yahoo.com. (usually
yahoo or hotmail accounts are used)
Sincerely,
Firstname Lastname
*****************
Please contact us right away at memberservices@takingitglobal.org if
you ever see anything suspicious in our databases!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++ 11. Wrap Up ++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Your interest, support and involvement with TakingITGlobal helps our
community to grow and encourage more young people to become inspired,
informed and involved everyday! Thank you for being a member with the
vision of positive change!
In friendship,
The TakingITGlobal Team
dispatch@takingitglobal.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The TakingITGlobal Dispatch is the official newsletter of
TakingITGlobal, electronically published via email, and compiled from
various events and news from within the TakingITGlobal network.
Contributions should be sent to dispatch@takingitglobal.org.
Please include your full name, age, and your member name.
Past issues of the Dispatch can be read in the dispatch archive, found
at http://www.takingitglobal.org/community/newsletters/dispatch
|