Vote for an EducateDeviate Proposal on ChangeThis!

My manifesto proposal, How to Get Involved with your Passions (based on this entry) has been approved and is now up for voting on ChangeThis!
ChangeThis manifestos are often filled with useful knowledge and information on self development, business, worldchanging, culture, politics, and other issues. Some of the great ChangeThis manifestos are Change the Way You [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 3 – A Call For Action II

Ah, colour! Specifically the New Jersey Ghanian Seventh Adventist Youth Choir. Inspiring and so full of life. My favourite performance so far!
According to Dr Valdov, it’s the beginning of the closing. To start us off is Rwanda genocide survivor Jacqueline Murkete, who has transformed her experience to help others and to inspire others to fight [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 3 – Our Commitment To Our House – Mother Earth – Ensuring Environmental Sustainability

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 [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 3 – With All Our Strength, Hearts, and Minds – Combating HIV/AIDS

The session started with a moment of silence for independence, in honour of India’s Independence Day. The first speaker was Dr. Aleksandra Sasha Bodiroza, Technical Specialist for HIV/AIDS at the UNFPA. He describes the various approaches that UN bodies and NGOs have taken to combat and educate people on AIDS – and why they DON’T [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 3 – Hip Hop MDG Campaign Part II

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. [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 2 – Saving Our Children And Their Mothers

One thing I found a bit odd about this whole MDG business is the constant linking between women as mothers and children. People keep bringing up the need to implement the MDGs “for the children”. Women are said to have power “because they take care of the children” (Charles Fisher’s words). Maternal health gets its [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 2 – Women’s Voice Be Heard

I came in a bit late and was greeted with a young girl telling a story about life, the universe, and the power of women. WOW. WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. If only more speakers had her passion, her grace, her power. Standing ovation. WOW.
She’s followed by Grandmother Sara Smith, an Indigenous Elder from the [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 2 – Model UN Day 2

The Model UN crew has thinned down considerably – I suppose a lot of people are either networking, signing up for things, or being interviewed for UN Radio.
Argentina suggests writing a resolution to solve corruption going through the grassroots level – if they don’t get the appropriate resources, they won’t be able to help as [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 2 – Education = Peace and Development

The next panel is about education – huzzah! Obviously something I was looking forward to. The first speaker is Dr. Cream Wright, Chief of Education at UNICEF. He talks about how it is important to give children a basic education – that doesn’t necessarily mean building more nurseries, but giving children the opportunity to learn [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 2 – Eradicting Extreme Poverty & Hunger

The second session begins with Elaine talking about how some people think that if you don’t save one issue, there’s no point. Every issue is important, though, and to me there is no point alienating an issue just to promote your own. So it’s great that there are people with different issues here to talk [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 2 – MTV Youth Activist Program

Good morning! Here’s the second day of the Youth Assembly, and it’s bound to be just as busy as the first.
Starting off the day is Ian Rowe, VP of Public Affairs at MTV. MTV is passionate about young people and their possibilities for being a force of good – just like the UN. MTV mainly [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 1 – Youth Call To Action

After a somewhat nutty first half, the second half starts with a song! It’s a guy named Nick, who sounds a bit like a Disney singer crossed with Clay Aiken, and it’s about taking the moment to make a difference. This is followed by Dr Noel Brown, former director of UNIP and current president of [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 1 – Call To Action

For some reason the 2nd workshop (Youth Venture) didn’t seem to happen (the speakers didn’t show up) so I went for lunch instead. Now we’re about to start the Call To Action, which basically describes campaigns and how we can get involved.
The first campaign: Hip Hop. Yes, no kidding. Charles Fisher, producer and founder of [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 1 – Modern Minds: Just Start Your Leadership

This workshop was introduced as “how to do what you love by doing what you love”. Interesting. Darren Olstad, the presenter was a delegate at a Youth Assembly last year and found the changes in between assemblies interesting. He asks around for ideas on what they expect – getting youth voices heard, the nuts-and-bolts of [...]

Liveblogging: UN Youth Assembly Day 1 – Model UN Day 1

Model UN is a student competition where young people assume roles as delegates of various countries in the UN and come together to discuss world issues. You’re either given a hypothetical situation (a crisis in a country, for instance) or a topic, and you have to come up with a resolution. Today we will be [...]