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Tiara's Words [and the occasional EducateDeviate]
| August 29, 2007 | 8:08 AM |
Oxfam Youth Engagement Internship - Applications Open
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If you’re passionate about youth engagement, and the arts, Oxfam has an amazing opportunity for you.
Oxfam is looking for 16 young people (18-30 years) to participate in a one-year internship program. As interns, they will participate in a 10-day program in Sydney in October 2007, followed by a one day a week commitment for a year. The internship will focus on engaging youth through the arts, such as setting up events and festivals.
More information is available on their website. Applications close 30th August 2007.
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| August 26, 2007 | 4:08 AM |
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AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Vote For Me!
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I’ve just been shortlisted for the AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007 in the Most Outstanding Youth category. Check out my profile, which includes a short interview with myself and my mother. I thought they played up the depression/anxiety angle a bit too much, but oh well - it is about overcoming adversity, after all.
To vote, send AYA Y 14 as a text message to 36828. Each text message costs 80 sen and I think you can vote more than once.
The other people shortlisted are:
- Gopinath Nadaraju, who gives free tuition to underprivileged students
- Jasvinder Kaur, who motivates young people to excel in life
- Jessica Mak, who serves the Malaysian deaf community through leadership programs and sign language books
- Kenny Lee Kian Yee, a doctor who mainly serves in rural areas
- Martin Majod Richard, another dedicated doctor that battled mediocrity growing up
- Muhtar bin Suhaili, who was born in poverty but is now an inspiring engineer
- Ruth Yeo Pei Cheen, who coedited a book on business and climate change
- S. Sivam, who battled a death in the family and being the breadwinner at such a young age
- Suzanna Saw San San, organizer of various youth choirs
- Tan Chui Mui, active in the independent film scene
- Teng Poh Si, cofounder and coeditor of Malaysian youth webmag theCICAK
- Tina Yap Li Yan, who had a rough adolescence but found peace through faith
- Vinod Laxmikanth, who survived his parents’ tough divorce and went on to be a doctor
Hmm…looks like a lot of doctors!
Check out their profiles and if you like, vote for them too! You may even win tickets to the Awards Ceremony if you’re lucky!
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| August 26, 2007 | 2:08 AM |
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Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 3 - Our Commitment To Our House - Mother Earth - Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
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We’ve got a former astronaut speaking on this panel. Woo!
This former astronaut is Dr. Brian O’ Leary, who is currently the Director of the Centre of Peace and Sustainability in Ecuador. His speech was basically basic polemics on the importance of good leadership in maintaining the environment, the roles young people have, and so on - but there were some points where he sounded very conspiracy-theory-ish, claiming that the media and the government are blacking out possible environmental solutions. That may be true, but I would have liked to know what those solutions were when we’re free of the blackout! It didn’t captivate me so I didn’t really pay much attention.
Next was Jon Beyer, founder of TerraCycle, a company that makes environmentally-friendly products using recycled packaging. The Aquafina bottle I’m drinking out of now will turn into a plant food spray in their factory. They also sell worm poop (yes, literally) as fertilizer - the worms eat through the waste and apparently it’s very good. It all started from writing a business plan for a college competition about the worm poop idea - while they didn’t succeed in the competition, they borrowed money to make a larger-scale device and got started. Apparently cafeteria waste is horrid to work it. THey started out as a waste-disposal company but decided to focus more on their end products, while still maintaining the environmental focus. They also had faced challenges trying to get their packaging (originally through custom molds) - when they saw that the bottle process was quite toxic, they figured they had to rethink it - and that’s how the recycling-bottles idea comes from. Other products they have include solid fertilizer (packaged in milk jugs), pots made from crushed car plastic that are uniquely graffitied, and some other ingenious ideas up their sleeve. Intriguing!
Lunch next!
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| August 15, 2007 | 12:08 PM |
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Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 3 - Hip Hop MDG Campaign Part II
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Charles Fisher, who founded the Hip Hop Youth Summit, came up to me a few minutes ago and told me he read this blog. Huh, I’m being read by celebrities (sort of). My sister thought I was skeptical of the Hip Hop MDGs Campaign, based on how I wrote the article about the first presentation. I actually thought it was a really cool idea - it’s about time that pop culture became more socially aware. There were some claims that seemed a bit out there (like how celebrities were going to come to our country to record PSAs with us - nice idea, not sure if it’ll ever happen) but overall it’s a great initiative. I’m just not a fan of hip-hop in general, though, so I wasn’t as engaged as I could have been. If it was the Darren Hayes MDGs Campaign on the other hand…
I’m really really tired today so I’ll keep all liveblogs today short.
Charles talked a LOT about their plans for the campaign - and seriously, there’s plenty planned. Raffles, competitions, training, scholarships, seminars…anything you can imagine really! In return, we would be representatives of the youths in our community, be marketing and promotional consultants, we would advise them on how the campaign can move forward, and we would hold them accountable. When I asked him about his plans and whether he can make them real (because seriously they sounded very lofty), he told me that I can use my blog to hold him accountable - if he doesn’t make any progress by next year I have every right to report on it! He’s even called me Blog Lady, haha! Someone else brought up how hip-hip music now tends to objectify women and how the values doesn’t match up. Charles replied that hip-hop is changing and it’s up to us to let them know what they want to see - Dr Valdov shared some support. He then showed off an upcoming fashion trend, Spinwear - basically turning your T-shirt around! Heh.
It will be interesting to see how this Hip Hop MDGs Campaign plays out. I suppose this isn’t the first time a subculture went all out to make a difference, but how many of them have been successful? Maybe this one can start a positive trend of its own.
One minute till the next panel…
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| August 15, 2007 | 10:08 AM |
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