News
News
( 30 September 2010 // Youth Future Project )News - September 30th
The 2010 Right Livelihood Awards
The 2010 Right Livelihood Awards: True change starts at the grassroots level!
Jakob von Uexkull, Founder and Co-Chair of the Right Livelihood Awards, noted after the jury decision:
“True change starts at the grassroots level: physicians who did not wait for politicians before acting to end unnecessary suffering in the Middle East; villagers who work themselves out of poverty; and environmental movements which unite the victims of ecological devastation. Combine this work on the ground with targeted advocacy, for example for the constitutional rights of indigenous people, and you understand why this year’s Right Livelihood Award Laureates yet again offer role models, whose work and commitment can be replicated throughout the world.”
The 2010 Right Livelihood Awards go to four recipients who will share the € 200.000 cash award:
Nnimmo Bassey (Nigeria) receives an Award “for revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production and for his inspired work to strengthen the environmental movement in Nigeria and globally”.
- Bassey surrounded by journalists during climate talks in Copenhagen, Dec 2009
Bishop Erwin Kräutler (Brazil) is honored “for a lifetime of work for the human and environmental rights of indigenous peoples and for his tireless efforts to save the Amazon forest from destruction”.
- Kräutler (middle) marching against Belo Monte dam
Shrikrishna Upadhyay and the organisation SAPPROS (Nepal) are recognised “for demonstrating over many years the power of community mobilization to address the multiple causes of poverty even when threatened by political violence and instability”.
- Upadhyay (left) discussing with irrigation user group in Makwanpur
The organisation Physicians For Human Rights-Israel (Israel) is awarded “for their indomitable spirit in working for the right to health for all people in Israel and Palestine”.
- Dr. Hassan Matani operating on a Palestinian villager in a class room, Burin village, Nablus district
Picture: Muchamad Abu Ali
News - September 10th
We are fully booked - no more free seats at the youth conference.
Watch our daily-updated conference media...
News - August 13th
Schedule updated.
We've got new laureates and lecturers for our conference - You can find them here.
There are still some free seats at our conference - apply now!
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Good News - July 5th
We have received another donation - now we are able to pay a travel-support to at least ten participants from abroad.
Furthermore, we have made more donation requests - but we are awaiting confirmation. However, it appears that we will be able to pay the travel costs of up to 30 foreign participants. Just apply to the conference and aks for "the travel-cost-aplication-formular" - we will get in touch with you asap.
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NEWSLETTER 2 – JUNE 2010
Dear Friends of the Youth Future Project,
this is our second newsletter (June 2010) and we have lots of good news for you!
Exactly one year ago, June 20th 2009, we had our first meeting in Kassel to kick off the youth conference in Bonn this September.
And now the latest news:
1. Program Highlights
We have great news concerning the week-long youth conference in September in Bonn.
The schedule will be slightly adjusted: there will be more time to kick off and present new initiatives.
Numerous projects will present themselves during extensive Open-Spaces (marked ‘free initiatives’ in the schedule).
Laureates and Lectures:
We now have first confirmations from those laureates of the Alternative Nobel Prize that will participate in workshops and give lectures during the youth conference. More will follow.
The topics of the individual workshops will be announced in the coming weeks. The specific questions discussed are also dependent on the ideas and interests of individual participants.
There will also be Cluster-Events: Ten external institutions (local community, NGOs, schools) will hold parallel events, in which those award laureates not present at out conference will participate.
We will have the opportunity to send some participants to accompany the laureates during their cluster-events and witness first-hand practical work.
2. City Event
Our conference coincides with the action day ‘Stand up against Poverty’ of the UN’s millennium goals campaign. Thus, we will cooperate with millennium goals campaign and the RLA laureates to organize a ‘flashmob’ in downtown Bonn on September 18th. Also, the UN-youth-delegates will come to the conference to bring our Youth Future message with them to the UN World Poverty Summit in New York.
More information on the UN millennium goals and the Stand Up initiative.
In relation to the city event, we are looking for artists that can give a public street performance, thematically underlining the 8 millennium goals - eight groups of participants will enact the demands of Stand Up theatrically. Tell us if you are interested in participating in or organizing one of the 8 millennium goals groups!
3. Sign up now!
Enrollment for the youth conference is in full swing – our postbox is bursting. Apart from many applicants from Germany we can thus far welcome international participants from Indonesia, Sweden, England, and India.
You can sign up until midnight of August 2nd 2010: Sign up now!
4. Fundraising
The youth conference is mainly funded by donations. Thanks to support from the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, endorsing the Youth Future Project, we have raised 80 percent of the required funds within only 6 months. Thus, we are confident about the realization of our project – all basic provisions for the conference are well financed.
We are already able to pay the travel expenses of around 10 young people from abroad. Everybody can apply. Feel free to contact us.
However, our goal is to enable as many young people as possible to travel to Bonn from all over the world. In most cases, this depends on financial support for travel expenses.
We aim to raise a further 25.000 Euro in the coming weeks to enable at least 30 young people from developing countries to travel to Bonn. Please help us: each participant paying the full fee of 150 Euro can help those in need of travel bursaries by paying an additional sum. Also, if you are connected to any foundations or individuals supporting our cause and willing to sponsor young people who want to meet RLA laureates, let us know! Contact karolin@youthfuture.de
5. Food for Thought
Jakob von Uexküll , founder of the Alternative Nobel Prize, says in his book We owe this to our Children: Had our ancestors lived like we do today, we would be here, because the planet would simply be uninhabitable.
We still have a choice, a choice to take a different course.
Goods have to be produced in a sustainable way, promoting natural balance. Energy has to be produced in a renewable way. We have to change our habits and consumer lifestyle. Global politics have to become more democratic and less self-centered.
To realize a change on this scale, the young generation needs to voice its views more loudly in all social and political processes.
One of the discussion topics at the youth conference will be our demand:
“Stop using up our future!”
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“I believe that people do not wish to live at the expense of their children and grand-children. This is a universal value of all human societies. We have to act accordingly now, and react to our current global imbalance!”
Jakob v. Uexküll
You can find a list with suggested reading on our website.
Fact of the Month:
From Frances Moore - Lappé’s book Getting a Grip
The notion of Thin Democracy
Our current democratic system is flawed, because it has given itself up to the ‘magic of the markets’ (Reagan) and reduces democracy to two things: An elected government and a market economy – a minimalistic duo.
However, democracy actually rests on the decentralization of power. Yet, the market economy is inevitable moving in the opposite direction: there is a continuous concentration of power in the hands of shareholders and CEOs. The number of billionaires has increased eight times faster than the world’s economic growth. In 2007, 40 percent of the global wealth was commanded by only 946 people.
We know very well that markets do not automatically lead to harmonious societies and good livelihood. We also know that we thus need to regulate market forces in a way that does not give the highest returns to shareholders and CEOs, while humanity faces increasing poverty in developing countries.
More on this issue – take a look at Frances Moore - Lappé’s Getting a Grip.