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Engaging Youth Reform: An International Contest for Young People
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

NB: directly adapted from (http://www.cipe.org/programs/women/essay.php)

Theme: Engaging Youth in Reform

The deadline for the 2009 competition is March 1, 2009!

Young people can be a powerful force for change! As future reformers, young people (18-30) have innovative ideas on how to solve the political, economic, and social problems facing their countries. However, they often lack the voice to bring these ideas to policymakers. Simply, young people are often regarded as recipients of reforms, not active participants in the reform process.

CIPE’s essay contest gives you the opportunity to share your ideas about citizenship, democratic and market-oriented reform, youth leadership, and the ways that your country can create avenues for youth to participate in the political and economic spheres. We encourage you to get thinking, get involved, and use your own experiences to develop concrete solutions to these development issues.

A $1,000 honorarium will be given for each winning essay.

ligibility
Open to students and young professionals aged 18-30. Special weight will be given to essays submitted by citizens of non-OECD countries.

Topic Categories

* Citizenship in a Democratic Society

What needs to be done to develop a sense of citizenship in young people and help them realize their role in a democratic society?
True reform occurs only when citizens actively participate in the governance process – it can’t be achieved by street protests alone. Young people are an integral part of society and their input and participation in their countries’ governance is necessary to effect political and economic reform. However, many lack the skills and opportunity to communicate with policymakers and get involved in their country’s development. Youth are often disengaged from the political process and rarely develop the sense of citizenship that is so crucial to building an inclusive, participatory democracy. To become active citizens in their countries, young people must have the skills to develop their ideas on reform and outlets to express those ideas in a constructive manner. What does citizenship mean to you? How are citizenship and good governance connected? How can your country engage and enable young people to participate constructively in the governance process? Be sure to begin your essay by describing the situation in your country.

* Educational Reform and Employment Opportunities

How can you reform your country’s education system so that graduates have the necessary skills for employment in the public and private sectors?
In many countries, the youth unemployment rate is very high. In some countries, this is caused by a lack of jobs. However, in many others, young people entering the workforce are not prepared for the jobs available – they lack the necessary skills and education. Unable to find good jobs, they face a difficult choice: remain unemployed or accept low-paying jobs with no opportunity for advancement. Improving the educational systems of many countries is a key step towards creating a generation of young people who possess the skills and knowledge to participate in the economy, locally and globally. What are the major employment problems young people face in your country? What can be done to give them the right skills and opportunities to enter the workforce? Who should taking the lead in doing so? Be sure to begin your essay by describing the situation in your country.

* Entrepreneurship and Leadership

What needs to be done in your country to provide youth with the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and/or leaders in their communities?
Young people can play a positive role in the political and economic spheres in their countries, on both local and national levels. Unfortunately they often lack access to the resources and groups that would help them get involved and have an impact. However, when provided with the opportunity and skills to become influential members of their communities, youth can accomplish their goals. What are the skills that young people need to acquire to start a successful business or civil society group? What are the major barriers that prevent them from opening a business or assuming a leadership position in your country? What programs or policies would give youth the skills to become active and influential members of society? Be sure to begin your essay by describing the situation in your country.

February 12, 2009 | 10:40 PM Comments  0 comments



Ljubljana Poster Festival ’09-Brumen Foundation
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Funding: there is no entry fee
Deadline: 27 February 2009 - before 16.00 h
Open to: the competition is open to anyone born after 17 May 1974, which can be proved with a photocopy of an identification document

The international competition for young designers on the topic “Climate Change” has the goal of raising and spreading awareness, through the medium of posters, of the environmental situation in which we find ourselves. The future depends on our common awareness and responsibility regarding what we can put right and how we must start to function in our relation to nature for a more promising future. It is vitally important to involve in this process young creative people who have a fresh and unique way of looking at these problems regarding our living environment.

The competition is open to anyone born after 17 May 1974, which can be proved with a photocopy of an identification document.

For works that have already been published, the minimum size is 420 x 600 mm, and the maximum size 700 x 1000 mm.

Original works must be 590 x 840 mm in size.

There are no restrictions regarding the number of works entered per designer.

Works may already be published or made especially for this festival. Posters must arrive undamaged with completed stickers in the upper right corner on the back.

Posters may not be backed or framed.
There is no entry fee.
Works will not be returned.

Poster must be in the ratio 1 : 1, and must be set to net format of the product.

Exhibited posters will be selected by a preliminary jury appointed by the event committee. The entrans will be notified of acceptance on the exhibition via our website. The winners will be awarded by the international jury.

The International Jury
• Mr. Dimitris Arvanitis, Greece
• Ms. Anette Lenz, France
• Mr. Piotr Młodozeniec, Poland
• Mr. Bruno Monguzzi, Switzerland
• Mr. Leonardo Sonnoli, Italy

The jury will adhere to criteria based on: creativity, originality, aesthetics, communicability and excellence of execution.

Awards
• 1st prize (1.000 eur)
• 2nd prize (700 eur)
• 3rd prize (350 eur)
• 3 distinctive merit awards
• 4 merit awards
• Prize of the City of Ljubljana

Copyrights
− All posters become part of the collection of visual communication of the Brumen Foundation; they will be displayed on the website of the festival, where they will be available to governmental and non-governmental institutions in Europe for a formal compensation (transmission costs).
− Information in the application form will be used in the catalogue.
− The organizer can use the posters for pedagogical, promotion and publishing purposes without special consent of the author.
− The organizer may reproduce and distribute the posters in the catalogue and in other printed media, on the internet and in any other electronic form.
− Your signature on the application form means that you fully agree with the terms of cooperation in the workshop.


Contact:
Fundacija Brumen / Poster Festival
Dolenjska 83
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenija
tel: +386 51 371 233
fax: +386 1 42 725 93
info@posterfestival-ljubljana.si This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
posterfestival-ljubljana (http://www.posterfestival-ljubljana.si/)
Competition - Call for Entries
Entry Form

NB: directly adapted from http://www.mladiinfo.com/contests/595-ljubljana-poster-festival-09-brumen-foundation.html

February 12, 2009 | 10:17 PM Comments  0 comments



Experimenting with Haiku
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

1)
A lonely cold heart
a candle burns with desire
the space in between.

2)
My soul is whirling
drunkenness makes me fly high
your arms wide open.

February 3, 2009 | 9:43 PM Comments  0 comments

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Breast Cancer: When your cell turns against you.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Recently, my mom underwent mastectomy (a surgical term for removing one or both breasts for cancer). It was a shock to me when I found out about it. All along, I thought it was just plain lump in her breast. After all, the biopsy said it was benign. Her surgeon, who is the leading surgeon of our country, told her she had nothing to worry. Thing is, we have a history in our family. Two of my mom's sisters already had breast cancer, her youngest sister for 10 years and elder sister for 7 years. Both underwent mastectomy and are still living quite normally until today. So it was this reason why her doctors had to remove her left breast, just to make sure it would not spread.

During her operation, my sister began to panic and started to cry. She said, how come the operation took so long when the doctors said it would only take 4 hours. I didn't know what was happening in the operating room. I wasn't aware of mastectomy as part of the option. But I didn't want to cry. I didn't not want to panic. I had to remain still. I already prayed and I kept my faith all the time. My sister asked, what if something went wrong, how could she live without our mom? I dismissed that thought. Mom would be alright. Whatever happened there, I knew she'd survive it.

If it was hard for me and my sister to wait, it must be harder for our dad, who at the time was in Europe, working thousands of miles away as an engineer. Could he sleep well? Was he focused on his work? What was he thinking, same as my sister or me? Dad used to sweat the small stuff. I wondered how he was taking it. Mom and dad are so close and connected to each other, they feel each other when something is wrong with the other.

When hospital staff brought my mom in her room, I felt relieved. She just turned her head to me and my sister and then closed her eyes. She was still groggy. My sister began crying again and my aunt called me outside, she said she had something to say. This was the time she disclosed to me about mastectomy. A surge of fear and pain overtook me. I felt something was clutching my neck and I couldn't breathe. I was just quiet, nodded to my Aunt, and found myself walking endlessly round the hospital until I realized there was a place for me to go. I climbed the stairs to the 4th floor and knelt down in the chapel. I was face to face with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the loving mother who the world has come to know. Her face was still and her eyes were expressive, her arms were open, perhaps ready to catch me if ever I fell down. I began to cry. I remember praying or asking her, "Tell me, it's gonna be alright. You love me right? You love my mom and my family? Please, please send me your love." For one hour I was just talking to her. But the whole chapel fell silent and the only thing I could hear was my mind, the beat of my heart and the constant soft sobbing. After awhile, I found my feet again. I was ready to see my mom and my sister. They didn't need to see me crying.

On my way back, I began texting my friends both global and local. I asked them to send me and my mom their love, prayers and healing positive energies. After a few minutes, my phone was filled with love and prayers from my friends. I saved them and thought of reading them one by one to my mom. That night, I didn't sleep. I was just beside her, holding her hands, sending positive energies. I said my prayers for her in all religious traditions I could think of: Tibetan, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Islam, Pagan or just anything that I learned from the heart. I called the Gods and Goddesses who I loved. I told them to help heal my mom quickly and to keep her safe and positive.

It only took my mom two days to put a smile on her face, even if her surgery was very painful. She said, "it's just a breast, I still have my life." On the third day, she woke up early, took a shower, put on her make-up and perfume and changed her hospital gown to a regular pair of pyjamas (easier for nursing staff to check her wounds); she was ready to receive visitors. My family and friends came flocking and although her eyes get teary once in awhile, it was easy for her to put her smile back. She said, at the operating room, she was singing "jingle bells" until anesthesia put her to sleep. I read to her all the messages my friends sent her and she was grateful.

Looking back, I remember that a few months ago, I read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, when Jacopo, one of the editors and main charcters, gets cancer. He talks about metastasis and how your cells turn against you. He says:

"And what are cells? For months, like devout rabbis, we uttered different combinations of the letters of the Book. GCC, CGC, GCG, CGG. What our lips said, our cells learned. What did my cells do? They invented a different Plan, and now they are proceeding on their own, creating a history, a unique, private history. My cells have learned that you can blaspheme by ana-grammatizing the Book, and all the books of
the world. And they have learned to do this now with my body. They invert, transpose, alternate, transform themselves into cells unheard of, new cells without meaning, or with meaning contrary to the right meaning. There must be a right meaning and a wrong meaning; otherwise you die. My cells joke, without faith, blindly." (Eco, 514)

My mom is fast recovering and her doctors are surprised and happy that she's healing faster than average women who have cancer, considering that mom is also diabetic and hypertensive. Mom can say to her cell which Jacopo thought it was only the cells who could do the talking, "...(M)ethistemi? It’s the same thing: I move, I transform, I transpose, I switch cliches, I take leave of my senses." (514) Yes, my mom's cells turned against her that's why she's left with one breast and her physical body altered. But when this happened to her, everything around her went on her side--love, love is on her side and that's everything she could ask for.

January 5, 2009 | 11:04 PM Comments  0 comments



Child/Youth Prostitution and Sexual Abuse
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

I hear a lot of cases about sexual abuse on children and young people. Often, it happens in their own homes where their own father, male relatives or other close friends who the children trust are the ones who betray them. I don't understand, how a father or an uncle or a grandfather could ever do that to his own. Is it a mental illness? While I do not believe in capital punishment, when I hear of such crimes like child molestations or sexual abuse, I cannot help myself but think that the best punishment for them is to show everything that they did to those children, picture by picture, frame by frame, until the fang of their guilt devour them. Like a month ago, there was this young girl who was burned alive after she was sexually molested. These kinds of evil, I cannot take. I cannot make peace with these things, not when children are involved.

For children who are made prostitutes by their own parents, or relatives, there's no forgiveness. It's the responsibility of the parents to provide a good life for their children. If they cannot, they should not be allowed to have children in the first place (this may sound a violation of human rights, especially freedom of choice but really, what rights do they have to sell their children?!) Even if the parents are poor, they should be the one to make every legal means possible to at least feed their children, or clothed them or give them shelter. I know a lot of poor families and the parents do their best, work almost 24/7 just to make sure that their children eat 3x/day, or that they have blankets to keep them warm. But of course, we are responsible for them as well. For allowing it to happen. For making them poorer, more envious. For allowing child prostitution businesses to prosper. For keeping our mouth shut when we know that the kid next door is being molested and made prositute by his or her parents.


For some people, prostitution is an opportunity to live, or to survive rather. For those who are 18 and above, it's become a personal choice, not that they have other choices. I'm sure, if there's a better job out there and if they have the skill, prostitution would not have been included in their choice of work. Like, the other night, I was watching on a local network the "local bills" that our councilors passed. One of them was talking about prostituttions. He said that "it is very alarming that when the sun sets, prostitutes are on queue" on this particular avenue, and "these prostitutes are very young like 14-16 years old." He added, "these young women are not native of this town, they've come from other poor provinces. We therefore think that we should set a raid, and take all the prostitutes." One chauvinist councilor in a malicious tone said, "I'll go with you", and all other chauvinist councilors, as if in unison, reiterated, "me, too", and they all laughed. Bastards! They wanted to go there not because they want to save these young women but because they want to see a spectacle, being surrounded by half-naked women, would have been a taste of ectasy. If they trully want to be of help, they would have a ready-made alternative for these young women. They would have planned it really well, like send them to school after the Department of Social Welfare and Development officers have counselled them. But no, they just wanted to "catch" these young women as if they were the criminals. Like most raids, these women would be put to jail, subject to more molestations and sexual abuses by God-knows-who. And what about those people who made profits out of these poor young women? Nothing. They just enjoy their profit, relocate and look for another opportunity to lure poor young women to their bait. Our local government, obviously is oblivious of women's rights, of gender sensitivity. They make local bills that are trully nonsensical. They don't even read, I'm sure, that's why they are so dense. Again, it's our fault for voting these people. Well, I didn't vote for them but the rest of local city populace did.

August 19, 2008 | 11:59 AM Comments  1 comments



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