Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!

A mouse ran into my room and under my bed. And now I can't find it.

And on top of that - my bed collapsed, expedia.co.uk is playing me around as usual and my room now looks like a bombshell hit it.

On a good note - I've bought my air ticket for the WSIS Summit this December in Geneva.

I recently saw an article on news.bbc.co.uk announcing that the 50 or so heads of state planning to attend have better things to do than sign a bland meaningless declaration of principles and action plan. This kind of talk really does not help our cause.

Check the article out at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3161568.stm

I sent an email to the author, explaining that the Youth Caucus is initiating and maintaining real-world projects and programmes that have, do and will make a real difference to many people's lives.

Hey,

I've just read the draught UN Youth Resolution (9th of October 2003). I would advise anybody who has or aspires to have a role as a youth leader, motivator or facilitator.

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/58english.pdf

Regards,

Luke Cholerton

TIME Magazine (October 20th 2003) quotes that '50% is the proportion of the world's population that is younger than 25'. That is half the world's population being classed as youth. That's great news for youth. So how do we use this great number to our good? Well, the next figure in the TIME numbers section is: '6,000 Number of people ages 15 to 24 who are infected with HIV each day, or one every 14 seconds'. I know this figure counts some of the youth in third world countries where poor conditions facilitate the spread of HIV, but a great deal of this number comes from unprotected sex in the west. Here in the UK, we are dealing with an STD epidemic amongst our youth, this is shameful behaviour from the generation that many of us are pinning the future hopes of the planet to. If you want to have multiple sexual partners - use the adequate contraception.

On a lighter note, the fact that youth now account for 50% of the world's population gives us a greater political advantage - if you want an example of that just look to the youth-related paragraph that was announced at WSIS PREPCOM-III last month. Excellent work.

Luke

Hey everyone,

I would like to make available to the community an opportunity to be involved in a long-term global education project. CodeSpark was started in early 2002, at first as a basic knowledge base; subsequently grew to a fully-featured online education resource, aimed at literally anybody that wants to get a foot in the door with IT, or even just to touch up one's IT skills. Now it has got to the point where it's looking increasingly likely that CodeSpark will be used in schools in Africa (and other places) to educate children in their mother tongues, the basics and not-so basics of Information Technology.

The opportunity is for somebody to join the executive board as a Managing Director; responsible for over-seeing day-to-day operations. At first, this position will be pro-bono work, but as the organisation progresses, finance will be made available. You must be passionate and committed to making positive change in our globe, have an understanding of the web and be fluent in English. Geographical location is not an important factor.

Please email me at: l.cholerton(at)codespark.net. Telephone interviews will take place if sufficient feedback is produced.