খুব শিগগীর প্রজেক্টের পাতাটার চারদিকে একটু চোখবুলিয়ে নিন...নতুন কিছু দেখছেন না? বাঁ-দিকে পাতার খানিকটা নিচে জল্পাই রঙের বাক্সটাতে টিগ-বাংলার টুইটার ফীড আসছে! আমরা এখন টুইটারে-ও। প্রতিদিনের খবরাখবর সরবরাহ করবে টুইটার। আপনি যদি দেখতে চান আমরা কতদুর এগিয়েছি, প্রজেক্ট পেজটা একবার ঘুরে যেতে পারেন...একঝলকে সারা দিনের গরমাগরম খবর।
আমাদের ফলো করুন TIG_Bengali নামে।

কিম্বা অনুবাদক-রা আপনাদের কাজের আপডেট টুইট করতে থাকুন। যেমন আমাদের টিমের আনোয়ার হয়ত লিখবে" ৫৪৪ টা ফ্রেজ একবারে করে ফেললাম!!!!...Translation is Addictive" । বলতে গেলে টুইটার ফীডগুলো ট্রান্সলেশন প্ল্যাটফর্মের দৈনন্দিন কাজকর্মের সঙ্গে আপনাদের একটা যোগসূত্র স্থাপন করবে...অনেকেই জিজ্ঞাসা করেন, কেমন চলছে, কদ্দুর এগোলো...এবার আর উত্তরের অপেক্ষা করতে হবেনা!

এবার দুটি আভ্যন্তরীন ঘোষনা -
>টিগ_বাংলা দলের থেকে টুইটার ফীড যারা দিতে চান তারা গ্রুপে ইমেল করুন, তাদের পাসোয়ার্ড জানানো হবে।

>দ্বিতীয়ত, প্রজেক্ট-পাতার নতুন আরেকটি সঙ্কলন হল 'আলাপ'...এই থ্রেডটি সৃষ্টি করা হয়েছে, আমাদের পরিচয় ও আদানপ্রদান আরেকটু বাড়ানোর জন্য। প্রজেক্টের সাথে যুক্ত যে কেউই এখানে পোস্ট করতে পারেন।

কি বলেন?

~দেবশ্রী

From: World March
Date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Subject: World March-USA - Thanks for your Initiative

A Better Community for All (ABC4All) has endorsed the World March for Peace! See:
http://www.worldmarchusa.net/endorsements.php

THANKS FOR YOUR INITIATIVE!
http://www.theworldmarch.org/

Name:Burton Danet, Ph.D.
Phone:310-712-5477
Email:abc4all (at) gmail (dot) com

Description: A Better Community for All (ABC4All) has endorsed the World March for Peace and is sharing with ABC4All Mentors in 104 countries (to date).

When:10/02/2009 - 01/02/2010
Where:Manhattan Beach and all over the world
Organization: A Better Community for All (ABC4All)

HOW CAN I HELP SUPPORT THE MARCH?

Join or Form a Local Promotion Team

Local Promotion Teams are being formed in New York, Washington, Red Bluff, San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the international team of marchers will visit, and in any city that wants to offer its support to the march through
the development of local marches or initiatives. Local Promotion Teams will coordinate outreach to organizations, schools, community groups and congregations in their area; encourage the development of locally developed events or initiatives, giving them a common framework and helping to
publicize them; and plan and oversee local press and contact with government representatives It is our plan to have initiatives in support of the March in each of the fifty States. We are looking for State Coordinators who
will oversee outreach within their state connect its activities to the national plan.

Help Plan a Local March

The route of the international base team of marchers has been decided by the International Coordination Team of the World March, but there exists the possibility of forming converging marches that will connect to the marchers
on various points on the main route and that can connect to other marches locally or regionally.

Develop an Initiative or Project

The backbone of the march will be the route through 90 countries, but the heart and body will be the thousands of local initiatives developed at each point along the way. These initiatives will vary in form and size (e.g., a
concert with thousands of people, a university symposium on economic violence, a community forum on discrimination against immigrants, a workshop on civil disobedience, a theater or dance piece that expresses the hope for
a violence-free future, seminars with school children on conflict resolution, a neighborhood potluck for peace, street actions, art exhibits, etc .). These initiatives can be developed by individuals, organizations, mayoralties, universities or schools, or by coalitions of groups who want to publicize the specific area of peace or nonviolence work in which they are engaged. There is space for everything the imagination is capable of conceiving.

Volunteer

There are lots of tasks that will need to be done, including:

Publicity/Marketing -- provide media research and connections! write, design, etc.
Research -- conduct Internet research on national organizations, universities, municipalities that might be interested in participating in the march.
Video/photographers -- document events and collect mages, make promotional videos for the march.
Fundraising -- help plan fundraising events and activities, obtain sponsorships, etc.
Website -- provide assistance in website design a nd maintenance
Phone calls -- provide follow up phone calls to organizations that have been invited to participate in the march

Get the Word Out

The march will be successful according to its ability to reach the billions of people worldwide who are yearning for an end to the violence. You can help by talking about the march with your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and fellow students, and referring them to this website --

http://www.worldmarchusa.net

and

http://www.theworldmarch.org/

--
ABC4All Basics
http://abc4all.net/abc4allbasics.html

Since the founding of TakingITGlobal in 1999, I have been incredibly inspired by my interactions with thousands of young change makers from all around the world. Through my Masters Research on youth-led action in an international context along with exposure to other studies and international conferences examining the role of today's generation of youth as change agents, I have gained an important observation. My observation is that I have seen the emergence of Six Archetypes of Youth Change Makers, which provide a glance at the roles young people are taking on in the process of creating change.


The Dreamer

The Dreamer is the driver behind new ideas. Dreamers are often the first to articulate a long-term vision for the future and think big. It is the sense of aspiration, optimism and imagination of dreamers that drive progress, innovation and change.

The Megaphone

The Megaphone is a vocal advocate for change. Megaphones are very focused on delivering the message and will campaign tirelessly and work hard to lobby for a message to be heard. They inspire action through their words and help to shift priorities on the agenda.

The Spark Plug

The Spark Plug is a catalyst and has a gift for networking and connecting people. The Spark Plug is able to foster collaborations and bring many different organizations and individuals together in dialogue, convincing diverse interest groups to come together for a common goal.

The Task Master

The Task Master is often behind the scenes making things happen and is sometimes the under-rated player within a group or organization. Often, it is the Task Master who literally keeps things together by turning ideas into manageable tasks with actionable timelines. Task Masters are practical, objective-oriented individuals.

The Sherpa

The Sherpa serves as a guide who provides mentorship, insight and training through peer education. Sherpas are natural educators with a strong interest in learning and sharing knowledge. Sherpas value hands on experiences and are able to draw upon the expertise and resources of those they encounter.

The Storyteller

The Storyteller is often the documenter of an organization and its projects, preparing short stories, interviews, blogs, webcasts newsletters and more. Storytellers become a vehicle for spreading inspiration and sharing of best practices through identifying patterns and strengthening movements through recognizing exceptional individuals.

Last week I heard a very interesting presentation about a pattern that is emerging in Europe around the seizure of generic medicines. According to Percy Makombe from the Economic Justice Network presenting a paper at the Symposium on Health For All in an Interconnected World at York University, its possible to draw parallels between recent drug seizures (17 in Holland in 2008 alone) in Europe and the havoc being wrought by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.

Though the generic drug trade is legalized through the agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), there is some confusion about their legal status, says Makombe. There is a perception that generic drugs are pirated or counterfeit, while in actual fact international agreements create certain provisions related generic medicines.

Makombe cites the example of a recent seizure of a shipment of Amoxicillin in Germany because the shipment - destined for the Pacific Island of Vanuatu - was suspected of violating trademarks. It wasn’t until GlaxoSmithKlein, the former patent holder of the drug, verified that there was no conflict that the drugs were released. They had been held for four weeks.

But, as Makombe points out, this is by no means an isolated incident. Ron Labonte from the University of Ottawa goes further to state explicitly that it is “fairly clear that there is a deliberate block against generic medicines by the European Commission.”

Some of the issues:

• Seizures are allowed based on “suspicion” that they could be counterfeit rather than real legal issues.
• Slowing down the transit of essential medicines has real implications for public health in the destination countries.
• Seizures block the legitimate growth of the generic industry.
• The European argument is that they are “saving lives” by verifying that the drugs are not counterfeit or pirated.

For more info:

• European Commission Regulation 1383/2003 (22 July 2003)
• June 2009 TRIPS Council Meeting; more
• Additional media coverage; more

(photo credit: aussiegall)

Yesterday I went to a Global Health Discussion Forum, a “monthly forum for members of the healthcare and educational communities to learn more about international projects around Toronto.” This particular one highlighted the brand new Textbook on International Health: Global Health in a Dynamic World, written by Anne-Emanuelle Birn (a former professor of mine), Timothy Holtz and Yogan Pillay.

In the discussion, Birn focused on how the textbook is different from those that have come before it, emphasizing that it approaches the subject of international health from a critical political economic perspective.  In other words, the textbook not only provides information, but tries to situate that information in a broad context of global neoliberalism.  Written by a historian, epidemiologist and policy maker who all met at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health as students, it sounds like the book does a good job of looking at the issues from a variety of angles.

The authors divide the book up into three general sections:

Basic Tools (Chapters 1-6)

• including history, actors, the political economy of health and development, data on health, and epidemiological profiles of health and disease

Key Lenses and Priority Areas (Chapters 7-12)

• including social determinants of health, health under crisis, globalization/trade/work/health, health economics, health care systems, and health & environment

Change through Action (Chapter 13-14)

• including a “hopeful realist approach” to where do we go from here, and an appendix of organizations that work on global health issues

Unfortunately, they sold out all their copies of the book before I could get a hold of one, so I’ll have to wait until it arrives from Amazon.

(photo credit: Diego Cupolo)