Jackie invites you to become a United Nations Ambassador.
United Nations, New York, 3 August 2010:
Video Contest: Tell the World Leaders what YOU think about the Millennium Development Goals.
Contest Rules:
Only entries submitted via the YouTube platform will be eligible for consideration. To sign up for an account on YouTube, please visit http://www.youtube.com/create_account.
Video entries should be two (2) minutes in duration or less.
The contestant must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to enter the contest. Video submissions should be original and unpublished work by the contestant.
The submitted video must address at least one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) listed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. For more information about the MDGs, please visit http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals
The submitted video should address one of the following challenges:
1. "Why are the Millennium Development Goals important to you and your family?"
2. "What is your community, city or country doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?"
3. "How can the international community better work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?"
Submitted videos must be recorded in English or French, or in any other language but with English or French subtitles.
The nationality and age of the contestant must be clearly indicated in the YouTube user profile to be eligible for consideration.
Video submissions may not contain any offensive or inappropriate content, according to United Nations principles and practices, and must comply with YouTube's general terms and conditions.
Current or former staff members, interns or retirees of the United Nations Organization, its Agencies, Funds or Programmes and any family and/or house-hold members of these staff members are not eligible for consideration in the contest.
Submissions will end on 23 August 2010 at 11:59 p.m. New York time. Any entry submitted after this time will not be accepted. Any video modified after the end of the contest will not be eligible.
The results will be announced in late September 2010 on the official Citizen Ambassadors website, on http://www.uncitizenambassadors.org and on the UN Channel on YouTube.
While not being quite certain precisely what these types of things achieve beyond giving people a voice - I am however 100% behind the Millennium Development Goals.
You can read more about the MDG's through these links:
UN invites ‘Citizen Ambassadors’ to film anti-poverty goals in action
23 June 2010 – The United Nations launched today a video contest inviting people from around the world, particularly youth, to tell leaders what the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mean to them by uploading short films on the UN YouTube channel.
“Use your voice as a global citizen to tell world leaders in a short video what you think needs to be done to make this world a better and safer place,” the contest website reads, featuring messages from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassadors Angelique Kidjo and Youssou N’Dour.
Additional videos featuring UN Messengers of Peace Stevie Wonder and Princess Haya of Jordan, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Lionel Messi and Jackie Chan, and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador Maria Sharapova, will be posted throughout the contest.
Starting today and until 23 August, people will be able to upload short videos answering questions such as “What is your community, city or country doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?” or “How can the international community better work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?”
The six winners will be announced during the high-level MDG summit in New York hosted by the Secretary-General on 23 September, and will meet with him on UN Day 2010 on 24 October.
The campaign – organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) in partnership with YouTube, UNDP, the UN Foundation (UNF), French broadcaster TV5Monde and with support from Flip Video – is part of a UN initiative to utilize the Internet and social media “to engage a new generation of world citizens in the importance of international diplomacy.”
In a related development, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched today the annual MDG assessment report. It showed that while countries continue to make advances despite the global economic downturn, the rate of improvement remains too slow and countries must step up their efforts if the MDGs are to be achieved by their target date of 2015.
The MDGs will be discussed at the G-20 meeting in Toronto, Canada, this weekend, and at a special high-level summit at the UN Headquarters in New York.
UN Secretary-General invites you to be a Citizen Ambassador United Nations, New York, 23 June 2010:
Video Contest: Tell the World Leaders what YOU think about the Millennium Development Goals.
Contest Rules:
Only entries submitted via the YouTube platform will be eligible for consideration. To sign up for an account on YouTube, please visit http://www.youtube.com/create_account.
Video entries should be two (2) minutes in duration or less.
The contestant must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to enter the contest.
Video submissions should be original and unpublished work by the contestant.
The submitted video must address at least one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) listed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. For more information about the MDGs, please visit http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals.
The submitted video should address one of the following challenges:
1. "Why are the Millennium Development Goals important to you and your family?" 2. "What is your community, city or country doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?" 3. "How can the international community better work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?"
Submitted videos must be recorded in English or French, or in any other language but with English or French subtitles.
Please see http://www.youtube.com/t/captions_about for simple instructions on how to create closed captioned subtitles for YouTube videos.
The nationality and age of the contestant must be clearly indicated in the YouTube user profile to be eligible for consideration.
Video submissions may not contain any offensive or inappropriate content, according to United Nations principles and practices, and must comply with YouTube's general terms and conditions.
Current or former staff members, interns or retirees of the United Nations Organization, its Agencies, Funds or Programmes and any family and/or house-hold members of these staff members are not eligible for consideration in the contest.
Submissions will end on 23 August 2010 at 11:59 p.m. New York time. Any entry submitted after this time will not be accepted. Any video modified after the end of the contest will not be eligible.
The results will be announced in late September 2010 on the official Citizen Ambassadors website, on http://www.uncitizenambassadors.org and on the UN Channel on YouTube.
I heard this song on the TV this morning and was very moved by it so I am sharing it with you.
New Delhi, 26 February,2007, (Asiantribune.com): Poverty has found a new singing voice -- the voice of India's music virtuoso A R Rahman, whose English single 'Pray For Me Brother' will be the UN's anthem for its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the eight promises of MDG -- a program drawn up by world governments -- is to end poverty, hunger and disease by 2015.
In his song he asks: "Are you searching for a reason to be kind?"
Rahman says: "Poverty and hunger have no religion or gender and this song is to inspire people to do a little bit about the world. We all believe in a creator and even a prayer can change things," Rahman said at the launch of 'Pray For Me Brother' and its music video here today.
Explaining the reason for singing the song in English, Rahman said it was like a "statement from India". "If we have a message for the world, English is the best form of expression," he observed.
Music, he pointed out, had the power to change the lives of the people.
"Poverty is the root of all problems like disease and crime," he said.
'Pray For Me Brother' is the world's first music video shot in the mobile cinemascope format to enable suitable viewing by mobile customers.
Here is the full text of the song:
Pray For Me Brother
Composed by A.R.Rahman
Lyrics by Blaaze
Singers: A.R.Rahman and Blaaze
Pray for me brother Pray for me brother Pray for me sister Are you searchin’…. Pray for me brother
Look-in’ for the answers To all the questions In my life Will I be alone Will you be there By my side Is it something he said Is it something he did I wonder why He is searchin’ For the answers To stay alive
Could you ever listen could you ever care To speak your mind Only for a minute For only one moment In time
The joy is around us But show me the love That we must find Are you searchin’ For a reason to be kind, to be kind… He said… Pray for me brother
Pray for me brother Pray for me sister Pray for me brother Say what you wanna say now But keep your hearts open Be what you wanna be now Let’s heal the confusion Pray for me brother
Don’t let me take When you don’t wanna give Don’t be afraid Just let me live Don’t let me take When you don’t wanna give Don’t be afraid Say what you wanna say now But keep your hearts open
Be what you wanna be now Let’s heal the confusion Pray for me brother Pray for me brother I’m ashamed ah, brother be dying of poverty when he down on his knees its only then he prays And it’s a shame ah, brother be dying of ignorance cos the world is a trip and everybody’s a hypocrite Need to stop ah , taking a look at the other
I’m not ashamed of poverty need to be making his life better So think about it, think about it once more cos life is a blessing and it’s not justa show, ah Round and round the world is spinning around
We need to be singing a prayer, we need to be singing it now Round and round the world is turning around We need to be singing a prayer, we need to be singing it now Need to be feeling the power, need to be feeling the faith We need to coming together just to win this race
Need to be feeling the power, need to be feeling the faith We need to coming together just to win this race (twice) Are you searching for a reason to be kind ?
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development.
Please follow the link to read more in detail about it.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." - Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953
