Global Young Greens - the blog

Structure Reform (2)

2010-06-14T03:53:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

the day is getting closer on which the Structure WG will "publish" their draft of the new GYG-Statues. However, some things still remain unclear. How do we want to proceed with individual members and non-political NGOs?
I am deeply in favor of working close together with environmental and social NGOs but I don't want them as full members in this network. While they should be on our eList and advance our common discussions, the decisions should always be taken by the "Greens" as we are the Global Young Greens. On the other hand, I find individual Greens a vital part of this (political) Green movement. Until we have established stronger Regional Federations that can incorporate all "lose" parts, we have to take care of these individuals and give them a home. So I would argue for a "phase-out" of individuals. So we should give them limited voting-rights (e.g. <40% of a Region's vote) so GYG will not be "overrun by individuals" but I am against excluding them totally. Nevertheless, I dream of a strong GYG as a roof-organization of all Young Green organizations one day. One day in the future.

:) Georg

Discussion on the new GYG Structure is getting hotter

2010-06-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

please find below a text that Georg Koessler - Co-Chair of the Structure Working Group of GYG - has send to interested parties (namely the "Global Greens") to update them on the current state of discussion. (There is one adjustment because there was a new idea coming up recently). Thus, this is a personal perception of an open debate. The Structure WG will soon send its first proposal to all members to comment. There will be no decision taken before the final debate in Berlin!

Please feel free to comment by replying to this blog, writing to the structure-eList or directly to georg (georg(dot)koessler(a-t)gmail(dott).com)

A new beginning for GYG or just a small improvement?

The GLOBAL YOUNG GREENS (GYG) is an incredible network as it serves to connect young greens – individuals and organizations alike – all around the globe. However, some problems became clear since the GYG last met in Nairobi (2007) and São Paulo (2008). Having no „platform of power“ like a world-parliament or government towards we can aim our ideas, protests and political work, the network is mainly about an exchange of ideas and experiences. We aim at being fruitful to each other. Nevertheless, active GYG-people are mostly also heavily involved in their local, national and regional green groups. Therefore, activity in the network is low (about 5 mail/week on the general list). While young people show great interest in GYG after being told about it, participation is unclear, abstract and – at best – digital. In addition to this comes the problem of great geographic distance between GYG-people. The exchanges GYG were made possible only after heavy funding efforts in Regions like Europe or Australia. While this will be one of the backbones of GYG-activity in the future as well, the network needs to act more into the regional and local spaces in order to ascend the number of face-to-face exchanges without the painful and time-eating funding efforts. In doing so, GYG has no intention of being a competition to existing local and regional structures like FYEG but wants to „hop on“ and add in a global perspectives by bringing in one or two faces form a different continent or provide topical input via delegates like SC-representatives or Working-Group members from the respective Regions.

The Form of GYG

GYG is an NGO registered under Belgian law just like CDN and FYEG. We are unsure whether to call us a “network” or “organization”. It is very likely that we remain a “network”.

We want to connect the four Regions and bring green individuals to the movement by setting them in contact with organizations.

Changes to Status Quo: none

Relation to the Global Greens

As discussed in Copenhagen, we are striving for more cooperation. The GG have less strict rules on “who is green” but do not include individuals. This makes us somewhat different. The GYG is aware of the immense advantages it brings to be an official youth wing of GG. However, we count on the help of GG-individuals as well as the GG-Secretary prior to this point in order to grow stronger.

We have to raise the point, however, that an accession to the GG is a danger to some young greens that have differences with their national Green Party. We want those people involved in the green exchange while the official dealing with rogue Members has to be done by the GGC. This separation of work makes sense for us and will let us grow together.

GYG needs time to be capable to get into the GG officially (just like FYEG needed some time). Our common basis is the Canberra Charter which makes us One in effect.

Changes to Status Quo: none, the vision of accession remains and gets closer

Membership

We allow all people in our network that are “green” following the Canberra Charter as well as our GYG platform. There is no formal admittance into the network (except to get on the eMail-list) so far. Ideas go towards a 2/3 vote in the Steering Committee (will be proposed in Berlin) but as long as we have individual people and such a loose affiliation, it is likely to remain completely open. Further, the question of membership could be completely yielded to the Regions. Member organizations have no minimum size so far as our voting system (see below) is not very central to our main goals which is networking and exchange of ideas. As GYG receives no money at all from any Member Organization (MO) it is not on the table to distinguish between them. This is very likely to remain as it is. As long as we have individual members, there will be no minimum size for organizations. NGOs are not permitted as MOs in GYG but only political youth wings. We are aware of the fact, that GYG itself is an NGO and we will separate the legal from the political form.

Nevertheless, we plan to have a more clear membership with a registration with the SC (or the GG-Secretary if possible) to take the eMail-membership one step further. During the Congress in Berlin, this process could officially kick-off. We are currently looking into appropriate software and methodologies. It was thought to have an “Individual Members Network” to contain somehow individuals into their own organization. Right now, this idea is likely to be dropped in favor of giving responsibility directly to the Regions (see below).

GYG aims to have the youth wings of all Green Parties incorporated. We wish that all individuals find – or found – their respective Young Greens, hence making GYG an organization based on MOs like GG or FYEG. Until then, responsibility lies with the Regions

Changes to Status Quo: medium but easy to follow

Voting at the Congress

Organizations have to be registered with GYG prior to the Congress (not in effect in Berlin) and one person may have only one vote. Large organizations remain with a maximum of 4 votes. It is being discussed to delegate or accumulate votes in order to make MOs send the asked for 2 instead of 4 delegates (and give the remaining money into the solidary-fund). It is unclear how we proceed on this.

Further, there was the idea of a “Returning Officer”. This seems unlikely now. The discussion evolves into the direction of the FYEG-voting model (2 official delegates per MO with 1 vote each). The EGP/GG model of having different numbers of delegates and votes seemed unlikely as we have no proper numbers (e.g. election-results) on which to base the amount of votes.

The rule that no Region shall have more votes than the others combined emerged as a consensus until now. Further, the idea of at least 60% of each Regions votes must go to MOs finds great interest. While in Europe this might be a non-existing question, in Asia more individuals might appear than there are votes left. Hence, individuals would have to organize themselves (like an MO) to find a way to deal with “their” <40%>

Changes to Status Quo: big, MOs gain influence and GYG is put on a path to become an MO-based organization

Steering Committee (SC)

The SC had no clear tasks in the past as the organization of Congresses can has has been outsourced to local PrepTeams. SC-members have to be more active. One idea is to give them more responsibility by allowing them to issue political statements on behalf of GYG. This has worked with FYEG but today only the Congress can do this. There is still discussion on the rules but we are likely to come up with a set of procedures e.g. „The Steering Committee issues political statement on behalf of GYG after appropriate consultation with its Individual members via the GYG Email-list, Member Organisations and regional federations if existent.“. The SC has to be more active in organizing exchanges (by connecting the network to local events like FYEG-seminar). This all will make GYG more visible and let it grow.

The SC is not allowed to take GYG into debt but shall remain in financial authority (with appropriate checks-and-balances!). However, the account shall continue to be administered by the FYEG or the GG Secretary. The political report as well as a budget was not done in the past and should be an integral part in the future. The SC should meet in person once a year or at least once between Congresses with a preference to the latter. Inactive members shall be replaced after a procedure (e.g. consensus of remaining SC-members and respective Region) by its Region.

Thus, the SC gains some competence but at the same time will have to be more active than before. This is a real political mandate that requires several hours of work each week!

Changes to Status Quo: big, if the SC works the GYG will work better

The Regions

The Regions are the backbone of GYG and the primary linkage between the global and the national and local level. Individuals are referred to the networks and encouraged to be a political part of those.

Changes to Status Quo: none

General Comments

The Structure is not all. We aim at having a better presence in the Web 2.0 as well as broader participation in our Forum and Blog. As a network purely dependent on charity from GG and others, we have very little power to empower weaker parts other than our ideas and visions. This is what we want to bring into the global green family.

African Greens Met in Kampala

2010-05-06T08:30:00.000-07:00
The African Greens had a Congress in the Ugandan capital Kampala a few weeks ago. Please take note of their report. The Global Young Greens hope it was a fruitful event and that young people had the opportunity to exchange and brainstorm for our common greener future.

Click on this Banner to get to the full report.

Age of Stupid

2009-09-21T03:47:00.000-07:00

The Global Premiere of The Age of Stupid on Sept 21st 2009 is a live event from a solar cinema in New York City, with satellite links to 700+ cinemas in 40+ countries with live climate impact updates from the Arctic, a Himalayan glacier and New Orleans.

The Age of Stupid is the new four-year epic from McLibel director Franny Armstrong. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Third Day Meeting

2009-09-16T06:58:00.000-07:00
This is the last day, and we have to see importants things:

Most of them have been seen the day before, and today is the presentation of these working groups.
Sarah and Sanka present website and mobilization:

Douglas present the content:

Then the structure (I have forgot who!!):

During the presentation of content, we have a big brainstorming on slogan about this congress and theme on which we should concentrate us. See all our good ideas!

Finally, we make the planning for the congress (lots of discussions!):

And... We have finished everything!

Some of us stay few days in the beautiful city of Graz, others go back at home, others go to Mollina, in Spain, for the University for Youth and Development organised by ICMYO.

A great and efficient meeting!
Now start the work. Go on our website to see how to be involved!

Overview of second day meeting

2009-09-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

A big day! The final report is not ready, so here is minutes with pictures.

First, we establish the differents points to see for these two next days:

We finish the fundraising:

and all these points:

Do you recognise these feet?

First day of Prep Team meeting

2009-09-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

Present:
Douglas (Kenya)
Sanka (Sri Lanka)
Mariana (Brazil)
Sarah (France)
Jakob (Austria)
Simon (Italy)
Tom, arrived at lunch (Tasmania)
Lukas (Austria)
Stefan, left at lunch (Austria)
Elyssa (Australia)
Jessica (New Zealand)
MORNING SESSION

Discussed strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats to GYG

Strengths
Gaining GYG ,brand’ recognition
Website and mailing list is established
Diversity of youth talents
Independence
Hard working volunteers
Weaknesses
Lacking coordination
Communication not working volunteers are all busy
Steering Committee not answering emails
Active members get old and dont prepare succession

Opportunities
Can become an institution of credibility
Coordinate global action to fight
Environmental and social issues are becoming highlighted

Threats
Members are more involved in local issues
No funding and finance program
Not engaging new members or organisations
Politically boring

AFTERNOON SESSION
FACILITATOR: TOM MILLEN
RAPPORTER: DOUGLAS AREGE

AGENDA

The proposal on what to discuss in the next three days was set.

DAY ONE
1500- 1800 Program

DAY TWO
Organizational matters for Berlin
Logistics
timeline
Program
Finance including structure of finance committee
Budget

DAY THREE
Communication + web + wikis
Allocating jobs/delegation of responsibilities
Local organisers
Structure proposals/changes

ACTIONS/OBSERVATIONS
Daily reporting on discussions

program for Berlin 2010

THEME

2010- INTERNATIONAL UN YEAR OF BIODIVERSTY
SOCIAL IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

1.content
Speakers/ Subject/workshops/side events/actions/training/ a demonstration or street activity
Introduction to GYG and historical background
Cultural welcome
Getting to know participants
Invitations
online –web communication/wiki/ film festival
advertising the conference
local organising
fundraising
people logistics-arriving/departing
content of the conference

2.Organizational matters
Election of new steering committee
Change of GYG statutes/organizational principles
Direction and future campaigns
Create a framework/guiding principles for future campaigns

3.General

Event location should be in an area that promotes attendants to stay together
Perhaps camping
Need to minimise waste and calculate carbon offsets
Try to keep the costs for attendees relatively low but will need to have a participation fee. Graz proposed to charge 180 euro for people from the global north and 30 euro for people from the global south.
Personalise plenaries to ensure they do not become boring.
Instead of the normal plenary session, the audience could form small groups and discuss a subject, then a representative from the groups could report back to the plenary. Have decision and action outcomes

Tom shared his experiences in holding a successful event in Nairobi. He advised that the below are the pillars for a better well organised congress.

Local organizing
Logistical support to ensure things runs smooth during the event
Fundraising
Participant Selection
Content Development for the congress

1730 : end of first day

Graz is where Young Greens meet next summer

2008-09-12T03:24:00.000-07:00
Graz is small but beautiful. A perfect place for young Greens meeting. This is where the second Global Young Greens (GYG) congress will be held next year in summer. Young Greens in Austria are all set to take on this challenge. Both the environment and spirit of young greens there assures for a successful congress.

I visited Graz, Austria this week to observe the national conference of the Austrian Greens and to hold preliminary meeting for next congress. Fruitful discussions took palace and optimistic message has been gathered for a good gathering of young greens next year. Christina, Stefan, Lucas along with the local team are ready to go into action. Of course, now they are busy with the national election campaign to be held in two weeks time.

The streets were full of political advertisements for up coming election. Some sounded quite radical, the Austrian Communist Party referred in their slogan to the Himalayan state being communist, probably it was indicated to Nepal which is the latest republic in the world and is govern by the Maoist (this put me to read the message as I come from Nepal). But of all signs, this one caught my eyes "No kangaroos in Austria," I think I liked it. I was wondering if our Australian friends can bring some next year................

Stefan has a rally cool place to live, just below the hills. It is quiet and beautiful. Thank you for sharing your wonderful house. I was also really excited to see Christina and Stafan coming to the train station to bid goodbye. Thanks for all the support.

On my way back I was in Vienna for a day, it was a beautiful city with lots of historical museums. Next year people could also see bit of Vienna on their way back home. It's worth visiting once.

For a successful congress, I know we need to work hard and I am sure with high motivation and support from all sides we will be able to hold a successful congress. But we should not wait too long to kick start the preparation.....................!!!!

For more info http://www.globalyounggreens.org/

Green Greetings!!!!!

Raju Pandit Chhetri
rajupc80@yahoo.com
GYG Steering Committee Member

GYG taps the Opportunity !!!!!

2008-09-04T08:02:00.000-07:00
The Green European Summer University ended last week with a grater hope for European election next June. The European Greens are all set to plunge into election campaign with many great ideas drawn from the Summer University. Around 800 participants from 43 different countries participated in the ever first summer university held between the border of Germany and Poland.

Global Young Greens took this opportunity to organise a workshop at the Summer University. The topic chosen was Natural Resource Governance with much focus on forestry issues. The workshop drew attention as cases from Cameroon, Brazil, Nepal, and Congo were to be discussed. Thanks to Mariana and Franklin who joined us from Brazil and Cameroon.

Finnish Member of Parliament Satu Hassi chaired the session while other speakers Janna, Judith and Paul shared their concepts. I too shared a case on community forestry from Nepal.

O yes I did enjoy the GMO tour. By the way we also got free organic lunch there..... Yummy..(Boiled potatoes with insightful lectures)..... Well people did go to canoe tour as well.....many offered their tickets to someone interested as it was bit raining and chilly but many beat the weather.

I am sure Franklin and Janna enjoyed the bicycle tour along the rive Oder.

Mariana, how was Poland? You were excited to be on the bridge between Poland and Germany, weren't you? If not other things I am sure you enjoyed staying in the hostel rather to camping. But Camping was fun, wasn't it Franklin? I can imagine what you went through.

Juliana from Brazil (who was on a Europe tour) came to the summer university with her mother and paid lots of money. I think the organisers were happy but not Juliana and her mother. Do you still have the lunch, dinner and tour vouchers?

It was also fun to see Stefan from Austria and Miren from Ireland again in Germany.

In the beginning GYG workshop looked shaky as it was not confirmed and we lacked resources to invite GYG members from other regions, however, this worked out well as we received support from the Green Group in the Parliament and MEP Satu Hassi. As an organiser I was really happy to see the number of people turning to the workshop. The room was full and exciting discussions took place.

For more info also http://www.thegreensareunited.eu/ or http://www.green-summer-university.eu/

Green Greetings!!!!!

Raju Pandit Chhetri
rajupc80@yahoo.com
GYG Steering Committee Member

Time, Team and Energy Japanese way....

2008-07-16T11:53:00.001-07:00

Unexpected!! Going to Japan!! Very Excited!! I was right into the Japanese way of working when I received an invitation to attend the World Youth Forum and Alternative Summit towards G8 starting from 27 June to 08 July 2008. The place was Tokyo and Sapporo, Japan. The Japanese Young Greens and A SEED Japan managed to get two of us, me and Hannah (Australia) to their forum.

I was thrilled to see Hiroki, who attended the first GYG congress in Nairobi had managed to get a one and half year project after he returned from Kenya. He was the chair of the Japan Youth Project towards G8. Of course, Megumi with many other young greens were there too. A Seed Japan was the co-host of the program.

I had heard a lot about Japanese time keeping, food, culture among many other things but I was right into it. Every second counts. The international participants were finding themselves to keep up with the time schedule. Very tightly organised and everything needed to fit in. Some didn't hesitate to complain as well. Many times I felt the Japanese youths don't sleep and they always put themselves together. Every work they did team work came first. Worked very hard and ensured all the time things were in place.

The program was well organised. Many volunteers, staff and volunteer translators were well prepared to perform their role. Interestingly, all the international participants were followed by one translator each. Everything organised by the youth and for the youths.

Very productive and lively discussions took place; however, Japanese youths seemed quite cautious to debate or disagree. This truly seemed cultural issue. Youth experience sharing, talk on issue of climate change, etc took place. Finally, a statement on climate change and sustainable development was agreed upon and submitted to the G8 meeting through the vice Minister for Environment.

The program included press conference, interactions with government officials and Ministry for Environment.

The Sapporo visit was all about actions and demonstration. Japanese looked very cautious in any form of pubic demonstration or protest. We practiced several times for the actions. The security was too tight.

We also attended the alternative summit and NGO programs on various issues but the participants seemed far too less than expected. As it was in the isolated island many international participants could not make it to the venue and most of the Japanese needed yet more push for such things. The peace march was a good one.

I learnt a lot about Japanese culture, way of life and especially about youths on how they perceive things and interact. They are really helpful and sincere.

Japanese are very emotional too. They really care for what they do. And if things didn't go the way they want, it could be clearly observed on them. Not just an individual but on the entire team.

During our stay we also had meeting with the member of Japan young Greens and older green members. They really seemed to be interested in global Young Greens. We have also invited them to next Global Young Greens congress to be held in Europe.

The food was just amazing, very fresh and tasty. Want to keep eating and eating. Sushi...Ramen...Japanese white noodles....fish and rice....Shakya.... And chopsticks, did it the Japanese way finally learnt it.

I will write some of the interesting parts in my next blog. This is just an overview.

Spread the GREEN news.

Raju Pandit Chhetri

rajupc80@yahoo.com
GYG Steering Committee Member

Article of the week - Recycling of Mercury Bulbs

2008-06-29T16:17:00.000-07:00
Contamination by Mercury is a growing problem around the world
By Pompeu

In 2001 the collapse of the system of supply of electricity throughout Brazil (the so-called "Apagão"), led the Brazilians to develop new habits of consumption relative to electricity. These habits that were designed to reduce the effect of the crisis and ensure the national supply of energy. In this period there was an increase in sales of fluorescent lamps. This type of lamp, to illuminate more and, spent an amount of electricity lower than for conventional incandescent lamps.
Despite the economic advantages, fluorescent lamps have several ecological problems. At the time the black out was not told the people what should be done when one of these bulbs break or queimasse. Unlike the common bulbs, which have products with low toxicity in its composition, fluorescent lamps are composed of a series of heavy substances such as mercury. This is an extremely toxic material that, if improperly expelled in the environment, can cause serious problems for man and nature.
The doctor and assistant professor of social medicine department of the Universty of Medical Sciences of Santa Casa de Sao Paulo(Universidade de Medicina Santa Casa de São Paulo), Luiz Carlos Morrone, explains that the most common form of contamination of mercury is through inhalation in his state of hot steam. Exactly the state where the mercury is stored in fluorescent lamps. "A person contaminated by mercury through the airways can present serious psychological problems, besides of possible injury to the nervous system that can lead to paralysis of certain areas of the body," said Morrone.
Although there is no effective treatment for cases of contamination of mercury. The infection mercury can take years to manifest itself, everything depends on the amount and the time that the individual was exposed to the material. "A fluorescent lamp is not sufficient to generate a table of chronic poisoning, but a person who works with mercury constantly without proper protection can develop some kind of contamination," concludes Morrone.
The director of the Industrial Apliquim Environmental Technology(Tecnologia Ambiental), Fernando Rodrigues da Silva, explains that while intact the lamp is not liable. However, when broken release of mercury vapor that can be snorted by whom the handling. " In contact with broken lamps is necessary the use of apron, gloves and plastic boots.

The pieces should be collected so as not to injure anyone who handles the packaging and placed in waterproof and can be sealed to prevent the continued evaporation of mercury released. "Under no circumstances should discard the broken fluorescent lamps with garbage common. "While the impact on the environment caused by a single lamp be negligible, the sum of lamps discarded annually (about 70 million only in Brazil) will have an appreciable effect on the places where they are ready," tells us Rodrigues.
The correct procedure to be followed when a fluorescent lamp if fall is to contact the city of his city to learn about the places and companies that carry out the work of collection of such lamps.

Oil Crimes in the Amazon by Luisa jackson

2008-06-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

"One of the problems with modern society is that it places more importance on things that have a price than on things that have a value. Breathing clean air, for instance, or having clean water in the rivers, or having legal rights - these are things that don't have a price but have a huge value. Oil does have a price, but its value is much less. And sometimes we make the mistake” - Pablo Fajardo

Historically infamous for cocaine production and guerilla warfare, the Northern-Oriente of Ecuador has been suffering a much more insidious and debilitating form of crime now for decades. Its perpetrators sit in sterile offices thousands of miles away and we assist their atrocities every time we visit the petrol pump and fatten their pockets with perpetually escalating profits. It is a complicity that we cannot escape from, no matter how hard we attempt, but we can at least be conscious of the crimes and demand a different future.
This dense jungle region that skirts the Colombian border is an area previously solely virgin rainforest in one of the most biodiverse parts of the Amazon, inhabited solely by indigenous tribes who lived sustainably governed by one God: the Jungle. Unfortunately however, this God harboured a dark secret deep within his folds - oil. And a lot of it.....

Read more here.

2008-06-04T04:21:00.001-07:00

5^ème Stage de formation Europe Afrique pour les organisations de Jeune
Deuxième Jour (français)
English at the end!!!

C’est toujours plus simple de commencer le second jour.

Après un réveil difficile – faut avouer que je n’ai pas beaucoup dormir – nous regagnons la fondation qui abrite les travaux du 5^ème Stage.

Le programme est le suivant pour la journée :

ü Rappel des conclusions de la veille

ü Energize game

ü Africa Europe youth Cooporation

ü Me, my organisation, the group

ü Global dimension

ü Sharing and conclusion

ü Reference group

Andrada Marcos du Centre nord Sud passera en revue les activités de la veille et introduira le programme de la journée.

Il ressort de son divertissement de redynamisation que la conception du temps n’est pas différente au Nord comme au sud En effet, dans un jeu de rôle où il tient le chronomètre, il demande aux participants de fermer les yeux et de s’asseoir après 1 minute. La remarque à la fin de l’exercice est que le premier participant va s’asseoir 49 minutes après et que le dernier prendra place 15 minutes après le temps indiqué.

La leçon de cet exercice est la perception du temps qui ne varie pas selon que nous soyons au Nord ou au Sud.

L’occasion sera donnée aux différents participants de partager sur leur organisation. Une présentation certes sommaire mais consistante du GYG sera faite !

L’exercice suivant va fait référence à un voyage dans le passé et dans le présent. Il s’agit pour les participants en 30 minutes de répondre aux questionnaires d’un document imprimé. Voici es exemples de question qui y son posé :

ü Faire une image de soit ;

ü Quand avons-nous pensé pour la première fois rejoindre une organisation ?

ü Pour quelle raison avons-nous rejoins l’organisation dans laquelle nous nous trouvons ?

ü Quels sont mes valeurs ?

ü Pourquoi je suis dans mon organisation ?

ü Quels sont mes motivations pour suivre ce stage Europe Afrique ?

ü Dans quels domaines je pense être un acteur de la coopération Europe Afrique ?

ü Chaque participant écrit un message dans la bouteille.

ü Ma relation avec l’Afrique

ü Ma relation avec l’Europe

ü Ma relation dans la coopération Europe Afrique.

ü Ma relation avec le monde

A la fin de l’exercice, les participants ont échangé sur leur le message qui veulent transmettre à la génération futur. Pour ma part : « Demain ne sera jamais come aujourd’hui. Main dan la main, la jeunesse d’Afrique et d’Europe devront se battre pour faire tomber les –rideaux- de l’injustice, de la misère, … contribuant de ce fait à la construction d’un monde plus juste, équitable et débarrassé de toute les souffrance inutiles ».

Mais je retiens des autres participants quelques messages : Je dois être le changement que j’aimerais voir dans le monde. La fin du monde dépend d’où se trouve le début. Notre différence est notre richesse.

A la suite de cette réflexion, un exercice semblable au tout premier sera animé par Nicole. Il s’agit cette fois ci de faire asseoir les participants sur leur chaise 1minute et 15 secondes, les yeux fermé alors que l’on joue de la music.

Au finale, nous retenons que la perception du temps change en fonction des facteurs extérieurs.

A propos de me, my organisation an group :

Il a s’agit dans un premier temps d’identifier sur une proposition d’environ 10 priorités celles qui sont les nôtres. Ensuite, au sein des mêmes priorités, nous avons identifiés celles qui concernent notre organisation. Enfin, nous avons identifiés parmi toutes les priorités celles qui sont pour le groupe.

Il se dégage de l’exercice que la jeunesse fait face à de nombreux challenges mais elle ne peut les réaliser en même temps ; il faut choisir ! Un consensus final entre tous les participants a été fait entre la participation active et les droits humains entre la pléthore de sujet prioritaires qui se proposait à nous. Dans ce cas là de façons spécifique, il s’agira pour les jeunes et les organisations de jeune de se spécialiser sur une thématique qui fera leur particularité.

C’est ces exercices qui nous conduirons à la pause déjeuné à la cantine du collège Bissaria.

Pour le reste de l’après midi dans le point intitulé : Global dimension, un autre jeu a été proposé.

5th Europ African internship for the youth organisation

Day two!

It is always easier to begin the second day.
After a difficult revival - must confess that I did not sleep much - we go to the foundation, which hold the work of the 5th Stage.
The programme for the day is as follows:

ü Recall the conclusions of the day

ü Energize Game

ü Africa Europe Youth Cooperation

ü Me, my organisation, the group

ü Global Dimension

ü Sharing and conclusion

ü Reference Group

Andrada Marcos of the North South Centre will review the activities of the last day and introduce the planning activities for today.

It emerges from its entertainment revitalization that the concept of time is no different in the north and in the south indeed, in a role play where he holds the stopwatch, he asked participants to close their eyes and sit down after 1 minute. The remark at the end of the exercise is that the first participant will sit down after 49 minutes and the last will take place 15 minutes after the time indicated.

The lesson of this exercise is the perception of time which does not fluctuate depending on whether we are in the North or in the South.

The next step was the opportunity will be given to the various participants to share their organization. A brief but consistent presentation of GYG has been made!

The following exercise will refers to a journey into the past and the present. It is for participants to 30 minutes to respond to questionnaires from a printed document. Here are examples of questions that asked her:

Make an image of either;

ü When we first thought of joining an organization?

ü For what reason do we agree with the organization in which we find ourselves?

ü What are my values?

ü Why am I in my organization?

ü What are my motivations for this stage Europe Africa?

ü In what areas I believe to be an actor in the cooperation between Europe Africa?

ü Each participant wrote a message in the bottle.

ü My relationship with Africa

ü My relationship with Europe

ü My relationship Europe cooperation in Africa.

ü My relationship with the world

At the end of that point, the participants exchanged their message that they want to transmit to the next generation. For my part: "Tomorrow will never look like today. Hand inside hand, the youth of Africa and Europe will fight to bring down the curtain-of injustice, misery,… thus contributing to building a world more just, fair and rid of all unnecessary suffering ".

But I retain some of the other participant’s messages: I must be the change that I like to see in the world. The end of the world depends on where the outset. Our difference is our wealth.

As a result of this process, a similar exercise will be the first ever hosted by Nicole. It is this time to sit participants on their chairs 1minute and 15 seconds, eyes closed, although it plays the music.
In the final, we accept that the perception of time changes depending on external factors.

About me, my organization year group:

The first step is to identify on a proposal of approximately 10 priorities that are ours. Then, within the same priorities, we identified those relating to our organization. Finally, we have identified among all those priorities for the group.
It emerges from the exercise that youth is facing many challenges but it can not achieve at the same time they must choose! A final consensus among all participants was made between the active participation and human rights among the plethora of priority topic proposed to us. In this case specific ways, it is for youth and youth organizations to specialize on a theme that will feature them.

It is these exercises that we will lead the lunch break in the canteen of the college Bissaria.
For the rest of the afternoon in the item entitled: Global dimension, another game has been proposed.

The coins are placed at the centre of a concentric circle of participants. At the signal, the faster it appropriate. A world of rich and poor has been created!

The richest make donations to the poorest. Three groups created: Very rich, the moderately rich and poor.
It is by following the 3 group to propose solutions for the severance of inequality. For the rich it will distribute their property for the moderately poor, it is a question of finding strategies for resource mobilization for a fairer world and for the poor, the idea was to define priority programs for its development.
The discussions revealed that young people are capable of critical but low in equities. It is suggested walked in these last to propose concrete actions.
In the final, the reference group allows me as others to make some assessment of the day and make a few suggestions for tomorrow.
In the evening, the centre, we share a hearty dinner! It's good to be Coimbra.

2008-06-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

5^ème Stage Europe Afrique

Le 5^ème Stage Europe Afrique est la continuité logique du dernier sommet Europe – Afrique de la jeunesse. L’objectif général de ce stage est le renforcement des capacités des membres des organisations du Sud et du nord dans les domaines de la coopération Nord-Sud.

Il se tiendra à Coimbra au Portugal du 31 mai au 7 juin 2008.

Eric DOMBOU, membre du comité Directeur des Jeunes Verts Mondiaux est participant à cette rencontre.

Le présentent rapport qui a pour but de rendre disponible à temps réel les informations sur le stage se propose de recueillir les inputs des membres du GYG dans le cadre de cette rencontre afin d’en faire participer les jeunes verts de part le monde.

Jour 1 : Samedi 31 juin 2008

Arrivé à Coimbra

Rencontre avec les autres jeunes

Installation

Connexion internet,

Jour 1 : Dimanche 1 juin 2008

Le programme du jour propose :

L’introduction au stage

La connaissance mutuelle des participants

La définition par les participants des attentes, des motivations et des inputs

L’ouverture officielle

A présentation du programme générale

La carte des différentes organisations

La journée commence plutôt bien, avec un petit déjeuné copieux !

Plusieurs participants nous ont rejoignent plus tard dans la nuit et le nombre devient plus consistant. C’est autant de belles filles et de beaux garçons des pays d’Afrique et d’Europe, 28 au total qui échangerons jusqu’au 7 juin prochain.

Nous regagnons le bus pour la Fondation Bissaya BARRETO qui abrite les travaux, à environ 15 minutes des lieux de notre résidence.

Dans ces locaux majestueux, nous disposons de trois grandes salles pour nos travaux. C’est dans l’une d’elle que nous nous sommes donnés avec joie à des exercices permettant de se connaître mutuellement.

Il s’agissait dans un premier de se présenter individuellement et ensuite par des jeux inter actifs de faire la connaissance des uns et des autres.

Sur un modèle original, les participants ont donnée leurs motivations (sur des teeshirts), leur attente (sur des pantalons ou des jupes) et l’apport qu’il pouvait apporter sur des chaussettes. Je retiens de cet exercice que tous les participants sont motivés, désireux d’apprendre des autres mais aussi de partager leur expérience et prêt à apporter leur concours à la réussite du stage.

Dans l’amphithéâtre de la fondation, la cérémonie d’ouverture à lieu en présence du :

ü Président du Conseil Européen de la jeunesse

ü Le Directeur du centre Nord Sud

ü Le Président de la région de Coimbra

ü Le secrétaire de la fondation Bissaya BARRETO

La cérémonie était présidé par Nicole, une engagée dans le processus de la coopération

Je retiens de ces deux heures que :

Le centre Nord Sud est le centre du future qui a permis la réalisation d’un processus que beaucoup n’auraient pensé. L’actuel stage est l’émanation du dernier sommet Europe Afrique.

Les jeunes d’Europe et d’Afrique doivent travailler dure pour ne pas léguer à la génération à venir un monde aussi injuste et inéquitable que ce que nos parents son en train de nous léguer.

Le directeur du Centre Nord Sud dit tout l’espoir qui met sur le projet de coopération entre l’Europe et l’Afrique. Les moyens le permettant, des projets un peu plus grands se réaliserons.

Le prochain point à notre agenda après un déjeuner copieux et des séances de relaxation était la présentation de l’agenda global du stage de la formation et l’explication des différents axes du programme.

Un exercice intéressant nous permettra de faire un mapping de nos relations. Il s’agira pour les participants divisé en 3 groupes de découper les presses. Les participants ont eux même apporté ces journaux.

Le premier groupe constitué de 10 africains ont fait le décryptage de l’Europe vue de l’Afrique.

Le second groupe constitué d’Européen ont fait le décryptage de l’Afrique vue par les Européens

Le troisième groupe était constitué à la fois des Européens et des Africains. Ils ont fait une vision transversale de la coopération Europe Afrique.

Nous retenons au final que des deux sens existe de nombreux stéréotype relayé par les médias.

La soirée se termine par une évaluation en groupe restreint sur la journée.

Au final, c’est à la résidence que nous prendrons notre diner à notre résidence.

2008-05-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Revisiting Sao Paulo, Brazil

I had this wonderful opportunity of discovering myself in one of the beautiful cities of Brazil. I wonder how many Nepalese have been to the amazing land that lies thousands of miles away requiring almost two days of travel and more than 9 hours of time difference. Undoubtedly, this was an exciting visit for me. However, I had a cause to be there. My sincere thanks to the Australian Greens (especially Margaret Blakers) for their warm support.

Global Greens (GG) organised their 2nd congress from 1-4 May 2008 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event was attended by over 80 countries from all over the world, truly making an international and multifaceted event. The congress was led with a strong theme on climate change. Thanks to the organising committee who worked hard to give this event a success.

This congress was special to Global Young Greens (GYG) as it incorporated young people from different regions. Over 60 young representatives got involved in the congress many of them being official delegate. GYG strongly lobbied with the GG that they include young greens as well. And we strongly made our presence in the congress by making speeches, presentation, moderating sessions, etc. Special thanks to Janna Schonfeld who put lots of effort to make this happen. Janna also represented GYG in the organising steering committee of GG congress.

Though the main congress started from 1st May, the young greens had the opportunity to organise two-day workshops and sharing on 29-30 May. Various issues including indigenous people's rights, Post Kyoto, carbon trading among others were covered under climate change debate. Young Greens not only discourse on the topics but also shared local experiences, examples, green campaigns and importantly got to know each other. Taiwanese Young Greens made noticeable presence. Hopefully this is how Greens grow and mature.

Thanks to the Brazilian Young Greens who hosted the young greens workshop. Even with limited resources, I think they had a good intention of giving their best to make it happen everything successful for us. I appreciate the mixture they put into the program with bags, T-shirt, varieties food, and of all entertainment. Willingness to help is what I adored the most for Brazilians.

I organised a workshop on climate change (Kyoto, UNFCCC) during youth program and was a panel speaker in one of the sessions. Interestingly, I moderated a session during senior greens panel session as well. This was an opportunity to prove that youths could equally get involved with GG. I believe this time GYG made a good presence in the congress by having many youth speakers in the panel (Janna, Eric, Douglas) and forwarding resolution. Youths actively participated in various workshops too.
After the first founding GYG congress in Nairobi, this was also the opportunity for the steering committee to meet in person for the first time. We met several times to reflect back and come out with action plan. Personal commitments have been made. In case of non fulfilment of these plans, we have agreed to step down to let other people take on the job, which I feel is appreciable.

Since, I was also involved in organising the youth events I realise that distance management is not an easy job. Thank you George (German Young Greens) for you support and involvement. We had to struggle to get things in place, which obliviously did not work for many cases. In the GG congress, to my surprise, I realised that it was heavily dominated by Europeans and the Australians, could be because of their good base at home. Even with good delegation from Africa, Americas and Asia their say in the panel and discussion was very low. I think young greens need to learn from this and start working on empowering and involving youths from all regions. After all we are the ones who feed into the GG finally.

In early 2010, when we have the second GYG congress (in Europe) we will look back to the learning of GG congress in Sao Paulo. We will strive for wider participation, involvement, regional balance and democratic exercise to expand the presence of the Greens. I look forward to a successful GYG congress in Europe.

We face many challenges ahead including lack of financial resources but I am optimistic we can deal them with further commitment. GYG will work in close cooperation with the regional federation and we have FYEG (Federation of Young European Greens) that is 20 years old. Hopefully we can tie up better.

Spread the GREENS news.

Raju Pandit Chhetri
rajupc80@yahoo.com
GYG Steering Committee Member

2008-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00
ENVIRONMENT
From water planet we have nothing else. He is turning into a huge desert ...

Thulio Pompeu

Planet sand
Desertification is the environmental the time they silently and slowly spread throughout the world

The scarcity of water and earth creates a kind of flow of exile, so that people become environmental refugees migrating to neighbouring regions. This phenomenon may be spreading around the planet. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), more than 100 million people worldwide are at risk of forced migration because of desertification.
In a quick tour the globe is possible to see that in Africa the situation is more serious. Around 20 to 50% of all areas are already degraded, damaging more than 200 million people. In Asia, northern India presents vast areas affected by the phenomenon. Approximately 1 / 4 of the territory of Latin America and the Caribbean is composed of deserts and drylands, the largest range extends from southern Ecuador to northern Chile (de Atacama desert).
The lush forests of Brazil also has many steps to expand the areas desertificadas, today present in about nine states. The highest concentrations are in the Northeast region, and in the vicinity of the city of Juazeiro, Bahia, which has more than 500 miles of desert. Another worrying feature of Brazil is that it has the areas susceptible to this phenomenon more populated the planet. They are 1,492 municipalities and correspond to 15.7% of the national territory, home to approximately 32 million people.
Desertification concern to the United Nations (UN) for a long time. In June 1994 was held in Paris a convention to combat desertification that elevated the issue to the level of global challenge, bringing together partners and trying to warn the international community to the seriousness of the problem. However, little attention being given to the phenomenon continued in the years that followed, leading the United Nations to declare 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The fenônemo became the villain of the environmental time, but spent more than half a year, the campaign has gained little visibility in the media and the practical actions in 2006 were very timid.
The main objective of the UN is aware government agencies and civil society about the risks of desertification to humanity, but there is hope that some countries announce measures to counteract this process later this year.
Brazil participates in this campaign by the National Programme of Action to Combat Desertification and Mitigation of the Effects of Drought (NAP). So far only a few meetings were held to set the guidelines and the main actions and prevention.
One of the main causes of desertification which already occurs in more than 1 / 3 of the planet are the techniques that stimulate agricultural production on a large scale. The problem is difficult solution whereas the world population is around six billion people, and continues to grow the average of 2% per year. With the population explosion is necessary to produce a series of products, mainly food, ever on a larger scale.
Joseph Conti, Professor of the department of geography at the University of Sao Paulo and author of the thesis Desertification in tropical areas, says that this fight goes mainly by streamlining the operation of the soil and by efficient and effective measures to prevent the predatory deforestation, which until today Brazil has failed to implement.
Corrective measures such as irrigation of areas already desertification seeking to recover soil productivity can not provide the expected result, in addition to require, in most cases, large resources. But not everything is pessimism in the vision of Conti. "The areas can be retrieved through the correct investment."
He cites the example of Israel, which had a large part of its territory covered by vast deserts, but after a heavy investment managed to recover the soil productivity. Israel currently produces and exports citrus fruit for the whole of Europe.

2008-05-05T18:00:00.001-07:00

Samedi
Le samedi, c’est Alain Lipietz qui intervient sur la bio-diversité, mais j’arrive trop tard pour l’entendre, car nous avons dû chercher un endroit pour de l’argent…
Pas mal d’ateliers intéressants, mais je trouve enfin Perline, et nous passons pas mal de temps à discuter des Verts et des logiciels libres, et de deux ensemble.
Au repas du midi, je retrouve les Verts et nous discutons des différentes résolutions, des amendements proposés par la France et… de formations que Perline pourraient proposer aux journées d’été.
Après le repas, la pleinière parle du futur des Verts et de l’organisation que cela pourrait prendre. Encore deux Jeunes Verts au panel : Jannah (Allemagne) et Douglas (Kenya).
Ils en profitent pour parler des Jeunes et de la nécessité de notre existence (tout en conservant notre indépendance !). À la fin, Tom (Australie) qui était déjà là à la conférence fondatrice de Nairobi et moi-même montons sur la scène pour annoncer que nous sommes là et disponibles pour les jeunes.
Cela nous vaut une vingtaine de jeunes qui viennent pour s’inscrire sur la liste de discussion et avoir plus d’informations. Autant de personnes motivées qui rejoignent le réseau !
La dernière session est sur les villes durables. Comme j’avais déjà vu ça le premier jour, on rentre avec quelques jeunes un peu plus tôt, avec pour objectif d’aller faire un tour en ville. Finalement, nous n’avons pas vraiment le temps ; une fois à l’hotêl, nous n’avons qu’une heure avant le repas, puis la soirée prévue pour les GYG.
Nous essayons de trouver quelque chose à manger, mais avec des végétariennes, ce n’est pas très facile ! Les menus ici sont très carnés (au fait, viande se dit carne en portugais), et même pour les non-végétariens qui essayent de ne pas manger trop de viande (en réalité, la majorité des personnes, au moins celles qui viennent d’Europe), on n’a pas trop de choix.

Enfin, nous allons à la soirée : on va dans une boite (avec de la capahnera gratuite !) avec de la musique … de boite pas trop top mais quand même mieux que les boîtes des journées d’été des Verts (spéciale dédicace aux français qui ont expérimenté ça)

2008-05-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

Vendredi

La journée commence par un hommage à Ingrid Bétancourt.
Une chaise avec son nom est sur la scène, et le soutien est unanime dans la salle, non seulement humainement, mais aussi politiquement.

L’atelier prinicipal de la journée est sur les conséquences du réchauffement climatique. En fait, ce sont des choses que l’on sait déjà, sauf que c’est dit par des personnes qui sont concerné en premier lieu.
Ce qui est positif, c’est que ce sont deux personnes du comité d’organisation qui participent au panel : Raju (Népal) est modérateur et Éric (Sénégal) intervenant.

Puis le programme est annoncé : présentation des 21 points, futur des Verts, après-Kyoto, biodiversité et villes soutenables.

Je vais à l’atelier sur le texte qui doit être un texte fort des Global Greens : “21 points pour le 21e siècle”.
Je trouve les débats un peu court, mais il est vrai que nous n’avons que 2 heures pour discuter une centaine d’amendements !
D’autant que la première demi-heure s’est passée à débattre si nous devions travailler sur ce texte, ou sur une autre version proposée par les Verts Australiens, beaucoup plus condensée. Tellement condensée, en fait, que le sens en est perdu. Les généralités sont énoncées sans approfondissement, et les Verts français s’y opposent fortement. Nous finissons par discuter du texte intégral, mais avec difficulté (une sorte de vote à presque égalité, alors qu’on ne sait pas qui peut voter !)

2008-05-03T05:40:00.001-07:00

2e jour et c'est déjà fini
Ou presque ! Pour le steering committtee, il nous reste encore quelques réunions…

Décidement, parler, écouter, travailler en anglais et très fatigant. À 20h30, je sentais déjà la fatigue m’envahir !

Le matin (après avoir lu le mail de catherine qui me demande une traduction pour le lendemain midi, évidemment), nous commençons en retard : nous avons toutes les peines du monde à faire entrer les personnes dans la salle. Il faut dire que le petit déjeuner est servi sur place, et c’est pas mal du tout ! Du bon café (enfin, je suppose, puisque je n’aime pas ça et que je n’en ai pas pris), des fruits frais et des jus de fruits (sans culpabiliser sur le carbone dépensé pour les faire venir) et des petits sandwichs (ça, c’est juste normal). En plus, la personne sensée faire le petit discours de bienvenu n’est pas encore là… Bref, nous commençons par une présentation de chaque région (entendre : continent). Je présente l’Europe : le fait que nous fêtions nos 20 ans la semaine prochaine en jette pas mal ! La fyeg est la structure la plus structurée des jeunes verts mondiaux.

Puis 4 personnes présentent les différents sujets :

les effets du changement climatique sur les différents continents ;
la destruction des grandes forêts au brésil, congo, australie ;
les agro-carburants ;
les éco-villages.

Et là, ça tombe plutôt bien, parce que ça correspond à ce que je veux faire ! Je prend les contacts du réseau des éco-villages au niveau européen et de la personne en charge du réseau français : Jean-Michel Pochat.

Après le déjeuner, nous discutons d’un texte que les Verts Mondiaux nous ont demandé d’écrire, devant faire partie des “21 points pour le 21e siècle” et concernant la jeunesse.
Cela soulève beaucoup de débats, et nous devons faire un groupe de travail pour améliorer la version que j’avais proposé.
Le résultat est plutôt pas mal, je trouve !

Nous finissons la journée avec le bilan du steering committee. J’étais plutôt chargée du côté informatique (comme d’hab), mais j’ai encore l’impression de ne pas en avoir fait assez.
En tout cas, je ne suis pas la pire, ça, c’est sûr !
Mais la championne est Jannah, qui s’est beaucoup investie, et qui malheureusement nous quitte après le congrès des Verts Mondiaux. Une ovation pour elle, et c’est déjà la fin de la journée !
Personnellement, je suis complètement vannée.
Nous prenons le métro pour rentrer (3 changements !), puis on va manger vite fait à côté. Normalement, il y a une soirée avec les jeunes verts mondiaux, mais on est trop fatigué, alors elena raju et moi allons juste à coté manger dans un de ces trucs où on paye au poids…
Puis retour à l’hôtel, je fais la traduction d’une motion sur la biodiversité, puis dodo.

2008-05-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

Premier jour, et c'est pas l'ouverture officielle

Première journée harassante, et encore, il paraît que c’était la plus soft… Il est minuit, et je tombe de fatigue !

Mais je pense à vous, et je vous fais un petit résumé :

Après une petite présentation de la journée, nous commençons les ateliers thématiques, au nombre de 4 :

Rain forest
carbon-trading
ryo, kyoto, bali… How to process ?
indigenous people

Je vous fais pas la traduction, hein, ça ira ?

Personnellement, j’étais à l’atelier carbon-trading, soit le marché carbone. On est tous d’accord pour dire que c’est l’arnaque, une bonne excuse pour les entreprise de continuer à polluer tout en utilisant des outils capitalistes de domination envers les pays les plus pauvres.

Bon, ça, c’est dit

Par ailleurs, nous avons parlé du carbon offset, ces entreprises qui financent des projets pour diminuer les émissions de CO2
grâce à l’argent donné par les personnes qui prennent l’avion.

À mon sens, c’est un peu pareil que la marché carbone, mais pour les individus et pas pour les entreprises, mais bon, il y a des convaincus…

Après le déjeuner, nous recommençons avec une heure de retard (forcément), et du coup nous devons diminuer le temps des ateliers méthodologiques (déjà réduits de 2 à 1h pour laisser le temps au comité de coordination de faire notre réunion) à 3/4 d’heure.

Je fais un atelier sur les logiciels libres, avec peu de participant-e-s, mais tous en sont enchantés, et j’en suis pas peu fière

Du coup, je vais mettre sur le site des liens vers la FSF, des distributions linux et les logiciels libres les plus utilisés (open office, firefox, drupal et spip, etc.).

Evidemment, les ateliers durent plus longtemps que prévus, et nous n’avons qu’une demi-heure pour nous parler (et je vous passe les détails).

Finalement, nous finissons par une présentation de tous les ateliers du matin, puis nous rentrons à l’hotel sous la pluie battante. Un peu comme en Bretagne, mais en chaud

Ensuite, après nous être séché (quand même), le steering committee a le privilège de continuer sa réunion tout en mangeant.

Et c’est la que la journée se finit, à presque minuit, à écrire ce petit compte-rendu.

Entre temps, j’ai encore croisé Catherine qui décidemment est débordée, mais vraiment, genre moi, à coté, c’est la vie peinard (j’ai quand même eu le temps de dormir…). Du coup, j’accepte de l’aider à traduire des documents en français qu’elle doit m’envoyer (peut-être et sans doute au dernier moment).

Bon, quelques photos et dodo, mais je vous préviens, au bout de 3 photos, j’avais plus de piles…

2008-05-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Sao Paulo 2008: meeting of steering committee (in french!)
Je voulais installer des machines linux pour le congrès des Verts Mondiaux et la rencontre des Jeunes Verts Mondiaux.
Mon souhait est exaucé au-delà de toute espérance : il n’y aura aucun ordinateur sous windows !
Bon, le mauvais côté, c’est qu’il n’y a pas d’ordinateurs du tout…
Pour ce qui est d’informatique, soit nous avons nos portables, soit rien du tout ; ça tombe bien, je suis la seule à en avoir un, et il est sous Xubuntu (gniark) !

Du coup, ça me fait une journée de libre en plus, moi qui pensait la passer dans une salle informatique.
Alors avec les premiers jeunes verts du monde entier qui sont arrivé, nous décidons d’un commun accord (mais après moultes discussions et séparation en deux groupes) d’aller à la plage. Ne connaissant pas trop le coin et laissant notre guide brésilien à l’autre groupe (composé de ceux et celles qui avaient perdu leurs bagages et qui devaient aller acheter des affaires de première nécessité), nous prenons métro puis car pour faire 70km… Et arriver à un décors de carte postale.
Vous imaginez la plage de sable fin avec les palmiers et tout ? Ben c’est là (sauf qu’après informations prises auprès de nos amis brésiliens, il parait qu’elle n’est pas terrible).
~~Une~~ Quelques photos pour vous faire rager :

Quand même, c’est l’occasion de discuter politique, notamment avec Éric du Sénégal, par exemple sur l’engagement en politique, ou avec Zao du Viet-Nam, sur l’organisation en parti unique de son pays (et le fait que la population préfère cela, comme étant un élément de paix sociale !)

Le retour est plus sportif : 1h30 de marche pour attraper le bus retour, et nous arrivons en retard pour notre première réunion d’organisation, à 20h à l’auberge de jeunesse.
C’est alors l’occasion de se rendre compte du bazard que c’est.
L’hôtel est normalement prévu pour accueillir tous les verts africains, mais il semblerait qu’il n’y ait pas assez de place, dixit Catherine Grèze que nous croisons rapidement à l’accueil.
Nous, nous rejoignons les autres jeunes verts. Enfin, une partie, parce qu’il y a un sacré paquet de monde !
D’une réunion du comité d’organisation élargie, nous arrivons à une rencontre de 60 jeunes verts, et encore nous ne savons pas exactement combien nous serons !
Après tout, tant mieux, si nous pouvons avoir les avis d’un maximum de personnes afin d’améliorer encore le fonctionnement des GYG.
Mais l’organisation est légèrement improvisée (au bas mot)…

Après les détails techniques (finalement j’interviens seule sur un atelier méthodologique ayant pour thème les logiciels libres, ou mieux, les outils numériques), nous sortons manger un morceau et boire un verre.
L’occasion d’échanger notamment avec Mariana, brésilienne et jeune verte convaincue. Apparemment, c’est de famille, chez elle (tiens, elle aussi).
Les sujets abordés sont divers : consommation de viande, protection de la forêt amazonienne, élections américaines… Et j’en oublie.

On n’a pas encore vraiment commencé, mais les échanges sont déjà très riches et conviviaux. Espérons que cela débouche concrètement sur plus de personnes engagées chez les Jeunes Verts Mondiaux !

2008-03-30T13:59:00.001-07:00

The Same World

In popular lore the people say one image is worth more than a thousand words. And perhaps this is a truth. An image can raise awareness, make us sad, or happy with just one look a picture can wake a series of memories and the show us, which should be changed. The project The Same World was created for shows according to the perspective of young green how they see the world.

To participate in the project have to submit a photo showing a little of the culture and environment of his country. We want to show that as a youth sees his own country.

The picture must be taken by the Young Green end send to gyg.brasil@gmail.com

In the email the photo must contain a small text with the name of the participant who took the photo, country of origin and name of the place where the photo was taken. The photos should be sent in minimum quality of 200dpi

Check the pictures in the site: www.greens.pvsp.org

2008-03-16T13:39:00.000-07:00
Global Young Greens meeting in Sao Paulo

Check out the website - http://www.greens.pvsp.org.br/

2007-12-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

GYG Newsletter number 8 out

What's in this newsletter?

• Steering Committee section:
- news
- quarterly reports
• Young Green News
• Technical section

STEERING COMMITTEE SECTION

News

GYG Steering Committee is sorry to inform you that Caroline Ayling,
one of the founders of GYG and SC representative from Asia Pacific,
has decided to stand down. Now it is the task of the Asia Pacific
Young Green Network, APYGN, to find someone to replace Caroline in the
Steering Committee.

If you are:
- under 35 years old
- a female
- from Asia Pacific (preferably from Australia or New Zealand)
- interested in Global Young Greens and want to contribute to its development,

you are welcome to apply for SC membership. Send your motivation
letter, which should include info on your age, background, interests
and why you want to be a part of GYG Steering Committee) to
apygn@googlegroups.com or ezakirova@gmail.com (I'll forward all
applications to the APYGN list).

Quarterly reports (August-October 2007)

Asia Pacific

Raju Pandit Chhetri:

In the last three months (August – October 2007), efforts have been
made to coordinate the upcoming meeting/conference of GG/GYG in
Brazil. I have also taken the responsibility of coordinating this
work. Though very basic, the outcomes are in progress. People have
slowly started getting into the discussions and meetings have been
conducted at different regional gatherings. I have made continuous
motivations to conduct and coordinate these meetings. A prep-group has
been created where about 20 people from different parts of the world
are members. The basic discussions are taking place through this email
group. I hope to take this initiative into a full-fledged discussion
and make a work division soon.

Networking and information dissemination about the Global Young Greens
nationally and regionally has been a regular work. I recently called a
meeting of organizations working in the field of environment in Nepal
and discussed about the green vision and work.

Regular support in the decision making process of GYG has been made.

I hope to contribute with much dedication and commitment in the days
to come especially, for the upcoming GG/GYG gathering in Brazil.

Americas

Juan Manuel Zorraquin:

During these last months I have send several mails to NGO´s and other
green parties of the Americas to get in contact with young people and
tell them about the activities and philosophy of the GYG.

Between the 6 -12 of November the annual conference of the Federation
of the Greens Parties of the Americas took place in Venezuela.

Parallel to this meeting, young greens from Bolivia, Brazil, Canada,
Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina had agreed to set up the Federation
of American Young Greens. Now we are working in a network together,
to establish how to make this and to involve all the young greens of
the Americas.
From here up to May, for the meeting of the Global Greens, I will work
hard to reach this objective.

Europe

Janna Schönfeld:

My focus has been on the preparation of the Second Global Greens
Congress which is going to take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 01.
to 4. May 2008 (www.globalgreens.org/br) I have been working on the
event itself as member of the Global Greens Steering Group (organising
phone conferences, fundraising, hiring a facilitator, administrative
preparation, forms, selection criteria, programme etc) as well as the
young green participation (ensuring the participation of young greens,
the possibility of holding young green side events in Sao Paulo etc).
I have as well worked in the GYG pre team for our side events.

Apart from that, I have been working on the following issues:

- GYG finances and NGO status, annual tax declaration
- EU-Africa Youth Summit preparation
- preparing Raju´s internship in the Green group in the European Parliament
- presentation of GYG at the European Green Party (EGP) Council in
Vienna together with Eric
- maintenance of contacts with the European Young Greens (fyeg)
- exploring young green contacts in China as member of a delegation
visit of German young greens to China

YOUNG GREEN NEWS

The Federation of Young Greens of the Americas was set up in November.
25 young Greens from different countries of the Americas gathered in
Venezuela during an annual meeting of the Federation of Green Parties
of the Americas. They have used the opportunity to create their own
organization, work out its principles and objectives and improve links
among young Greens from all over the continent.

GYG SC congratulates the newly born Federation and hopes for fruitful
cooperation in the future!!!

TECHNICAL SECTION
www.globalyoungreens.org GYG website

http://www.globalyounggreens.blogspot.com GYG blog

http://www.globalyounggreens.org/forum GYG forum

There is also Global Young Greens group on the facebook. If you are
not there yet, register at www.facebook.com and then join the group!

To improve GYG newsletter, we need your feedback. If you have
comments, suggestions, ideas on newsletters, please send them to
gygnewsletter@gmail.com
If you have information for the next newsletter, send it to
gygnewsletter@gmail.com

2007-12-03T13:32:00.000-08:00
Will Bali meeting see action on climate change?

Bali, Indonesia, known locally as the “island of the gods”, plays host this week to an event of planetary significance. A United Nations conference is bringing together representatives of nations, businesses, intergovernmental organisations and NGOs to debate and negotiate a new global agreement on climate change to take effect after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. More extensive reductions in global emissions – and unprecedented international cooperation – are necessary to tackle climate change, but expectations are tempered by the history of UN-backed negotiations, which has been marked by profound disagreement.

To read more of Young Green Tan Copsey's article

2007-12-03T13:05:00.000-08:00
New Global Greens

Visit here for the global greens virtual community.

2007-11-27T19:28:00.000-08:00
Keep it Cool!
Visit the Federation of Young European Greens’ “Keep it cool! Stop the climate change!” climate campaign website! It will help you take the first steps to stop climate change and improve your own life.

2007-11-15T12:45:00.000-08:00
FYEG is looking for an intern!

Are you young and do you feel like contributing to a Greener Europe? Do you have to do an intern ship for your Bachelor or Master? Are you between study and work or looking for working experience in an international setting? Are you interested in politics and youth issues at the European level? Do you want to discover the European Green world?
Does any of the above apply to you? Then an internship at the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) is what you've been looking for!
If you are interested in this position, to find out more information email to Judith Verweijen, email: office@fyeg.org

2007-10-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

2007-10-13T10:34:00.000-07:00
Competing Green visions for the economy

Also the second day of the European Green Congress was devoted to Green economic visions. In a penal debate, party representatives from across Europe discussed their competing ideas. While all speakers seemed to agree that external costs need to be internalised into the price of a product or service using for instance consumer taxes, other issues were more contested.

Martin Bursik, Green Minister of Environment in the Czech Republic and Ralf Fücks from the German Böll Foundation advocated a market-based approach. Philippe Defeyt from Belgium caused a fierce debate when he proposed to consider the concept of flat taxes as means of equal taxing and preventing richer people from taking advantage of loopholes in tax legislation, a possibility people with less income often dont have.

Two women, Miriam Kennet from the Green Economic Institute in the UK and Tarja Cronberg, Green Minister of Labour of Finland underlined the importance of not only focusing on economic growth measured in GDP. Instead, happiness and quality of life should be the main preoccupation of the government. In the UK for instance, the 5th largest economy of the world, the young people rank lowest when it comes to their personal perception of happiness with their circumstances of life. Tarja Cronberg counts a secure basic income, decent work conditions and more quality time as important factors to achieve more happiness. A complete re-conceptualisation of the economy including rewarding work in households, for the community the society.

Janna from Vienna

2007-10-13T05:32:00.000-07:00
GYG in Empirial Vienna

The European Green Party is holding its bi-annual Council meeting and GYG are of course present. After having fought so hard for speaking times, it seems we have now a standing arrangement to get 5min at each Council. Eric from Senegal is also in town, participating in an NGO event (PANAFEST) where he is talking about his fights against the the Economic Partnership Agreements. So hopefully, he will join me tomorrow in our speech in the impressive Congress hall of the parliament of Austria, richly decorated reflecting Austria´s past as Empire. Andi and Ogy from our board are also present, as well as several other young greens.

After a day full of fringe meetings, the Congress starts off with a debate called: " For a thriving economy, combat climate change". Vandana Shiva holds a very stimulating programmatic debate. She criticizes the narrowing down of the current climate change debate on Carbon emissions and the CO2 trading schemes as induced by the Stern report. The dangerous conclusions are, according to her, that ecological sustainable ways of doing business and living which do not create emissions are not rewarded and even endangered by off-setting projects which do not fit to local circumstances. In addition, nuclear energy becomes popular again as it is supposed to be "carbon free". But: " Nuclear winter is no alternative to greenhouse summer" as she rightly emphasizes. So-called "biofuels" are promoted as alternatives, not taking into account their often negative impact on the ozon layer and other environmental and social risks caused by them. Some of them need for instance fertilizers which are up to 300 times more dangerous to the ozon layer than Co2, not to talk about the dangers to food security caused when "biofuel" plants consume the arable land. The question is also pertinent in Brazil as Marco Antonio and José Paulo Toffano from the Brazilian Greens confirm and should definitely be debated at our Global Greens and Young Greens Congress in Sao Paulo.

Ralf Fücks from the German Greens strongly disagreed with Vandana Shiva as far as the carbons trading scheme is concerned, calling the potentially most powerful tool for combatting climate change, if adapted.

Another interesting debate unfolded around the issue of life-style change. Do we need to change our life-styles. Alexander van der Bellen from the Austrian Greens seemed not very confirmed of life-style changes and asserted he liked to work more than 6h a day. Carl Schlyter, Swedish Member of the European Parliament on the other hand advocated to focus more on quality of life. He was accompanied by Vandana Shiva who demanded to "power down in fossil fuels and power up in good life."

A special guest to the discussion was Christian Jourquin, CEO of the Chemicals company Solvay. He was arguing that the chemical industry, and in particular his company, played a crucial role in finding technical solutions to challenges such as climate change and pollution. Vandana Shiva provided a clear-cut reply in which she expanded on the debts crisis caused by industrialization and use of chemicals in agriculture, which has led 200, 000 Indian farmers to commit suicide. Comparing the "free seeds movement" of exploited farmers to the free software movement, she stressed the link between social human rights and climate change.

2007-08-05T01:24:00.000-07:00
Return from Marly-le-Roi

tim.rauschan@googlemail.com

I have now finally reached my home in Berlin again. Looking back at the Meeting in Marly-le-Roi it has been better than it seemed to be, when i was there.
Beside all the problems of structure and content, it has been my first conference with African participants at all, although they "only" have been part of the African Diasporra living in Europe. Therefore I am grateful, that I have been a part of it. And I hope the other regional consultation meetings in Africa will be better prepared and organised. I encourage all of our green fellows in Africa to try to be a part of this process, I think the idea of an african-european partnership on youth level is necessary. And I think regarding Europe's responsibility towards climate change and towards Africa, the colonial history and the ongoing abuse of ressources, there has been a broad consensus in my working groups. Intercultural exchange and mutual understanding has brought the European youth together, and therefore should be able to bring our both continents together.

In the Steering Comittee and in our own countries it is our responsibility as young green politicians to support this development and to put our topics on the agenda.

Back to Berlin I will try to do so within our German National Youth Council and maybe use my new contacts within African diasporra in Germany to create a cooperation between them and the Green Youth in Germany.

To see so many young greens in Marly-le-Roi made me believe that we are the political force which is at the most international, not only are our topics nearly without exception globally also our understanding as persons. To feel as a European or African instead of only national identities is a first step towards a world citizen.

2007-07-31T14:34:00.000-07:00
Go Ryuhei! - Global Young Green activist wins election in Japan

TOKYO, July 30 KYODO

Activist Kawada set to win seat in upper house. Ryuhei Kawada, an
activist known for his fight against the state and a pharmaceutical
comp...

Ryuhei Kawada, an activist known for launching a lawsuit against the
state and a pharmaceutical company over tainted blood products given to

hemophiliacs like himself, won a seat in the House of Councillors in
Sunday's election, final returns showed Monday.

Kawada, 31, was infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, through a blood
product approved by the health ministry and given to him during
treatment when he was a child.

''Many individuals took action,'' Kawada said after his victory was
projected. ''I would like to work on issues related to the Ministry of
Health, Labor and Welfare.''

Best wishes to Ryuhei and his whole campaign team.

2007-07-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Marie, janna, christine and sarah

sarah, janna, tim, rogier and rit

sarah and janna

Impressions from Paris

As it is often the case, the talks at the sidelines of the conferenceare the most interesting. Most striking were the discussions withAfrican participants over the question raised by many of them whetherWestern democracy works in Africa and whether it would not be betterto return/incorporate traditional ways of ruling. After a heateddebate fuelled by a delicious cup of ice cream (on my side) and somewine (on the side of my African interlocutors), I was given a copy ofKenyattas famous book "Mount Kenya" describing traditional ways ofliving in one of Kenyas tribe. While the reading was interesting froma antroprological point of view, I'm wondering whether the majority ofKenians really wants to return to a way of life which very strictlydefines everybodies role and leaves very few individual freedoms.
Another interesting debate unfold with a representative of thePan-African Youthforum. While not yet completely grey as otherrepresentatives of this organisation, it became clear that he seeshimself rather as government servant then servant of youthorganisations. Declaring that he does not believe in civil society, heset out to explain that the president of his country of origine,Senegal, while being more than 80 years old, would have excellentplans for the development of youth in his country. At the same time,the brave man had never heard the term "Economic PartnershipAgreements", free trade agreements currently negotiated which willmost probably have an enourmous impact on the future economicdevelopment and thus prospects of youth in Africa.
I was most impressed by talks with representatives of the Africandisaspora and some - mostly female - young Africans. Many Africansliving in Europe for a long time know both realities very well and arebetter than others equipped to analyse the problems of Africa and findinnovative approaches for solutions. After having talked with some ofthem, I'm convinced they could play a vital role as bridge andmediator between both continents. However, their potential seems to mestill underexploited by politicians and NGOs of both sides.
These are some first impressions from the conference. We will soonsend a more detailed report and most important the draft conclusionsorginiating from the consultations to the mailing list. I'm very muchlooking forward to your comments on them.
Janna

2007-07-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The Asia-Europe Foundation and the Danish Youth Council are pleased to invite your organisation to propose candidates to participate in the 2^nd Conference for Young Political Leaders, to be held in Denmark from 24-28 October 2007. The Conference will gather up to 85 representatives from each of the 45 ASEM partners and the organisers will select the participants so as to ensure political and geographical balance.
For more info email p2p.projects2@asef.org

2007-07-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

GYG blog from Paris Youth Consultations of European and Diaspora on the EU-Africa Summit

Dear Greenies,

Here is our second live-blog from an international event the GYG are participating in. Sarah from France, Tim from Germany and Christine from Kenya (Douglas will hopefully join us soon when if he gets his visa) are currently in Paris to discuss with youth representatives from all over Europe the future of EU-Africa relations. Apart from some criticism about the process and organisation of this conference; interesting debates have started during but even more at the sidelines of the conference. You will hear more from us tomorrow as I need to termine my work as rapporteur for good governance and democracy before the computers are closed down at 1am :))

2007-06-15T06:09:00.000-07:00
Hi everybody, i´m Thiago from Brazil, especificly from Amazonas.
I went for the G8 seminar anti summit haveing no idea of what i will find there, because i just knew about this meeting two weeks before the travel, so when i got in berlin and find the GYG group and all the organization and ideology that they develop it makes me feel more alive and more absorded about the globals problems. What really touch me was the huge group of young people of all the world together to fight, to try to change and show that we care about the ways that the world is going.
So this expirience for me was not just a seminar but in fact a awake of my concious, my spirit, and my knowleged about the world concerns.
Other thing that i admired of the some participants is that they makes of the Green Party a ideology and a way of life.
So folks, I am watting for evebody here in Brazil for the next Global meeting.

2007-06-10T22:54:00.000-07:00
11 June, Back in Sri-Lanka, after a wonderful time in Europe. The flight got delayed by 2 long hours to take off from Frankfurt and feel really tired. Tried to type the report and briefing of the seminar but too tired for that. Any way the submission will be seen in the blog in few days. From 30th of May to 10th of June, I as a GYG member gained a huge experience with European greens, especially with the German greens. How the European greens think and react is wonderful. The camping experience in Rostock with thousands of other activist on Alter G8 was really a privilege which I enjoyed very much as the time in wonderful Berlin City with other young greens from all over the world. Especially in the time spend in the “Flag Room”.

From Sanka

2007-06-10T15:47:00.000-07:00
Young Greens climb fence at G8! - BREAKING NEWS!

2007-06-07T15:33:00.000-07:00
G8 Update from Ann

FIFTH DAY- Had heavy, heavy, heavy breakfast at theGerman greens office, after which we moved to theprogramme. Our first item was the Stimulation game wherewe were give a position to represent the delegation, wehad diplomats from, Kenya, Brazil, Portugal,Germany, the United States ,Uruguay, India, China and Sudan.

The USA proposed the signing of Kyoto, to thedeveloping countries while Germany talked ofreduction of subsidies, in order to attract moredeveloping countries, after a long struggle with thethe two great powers, the developing countries atfirst dismissed the USA for taking advantage of thesituations in Africa and opt to do away with such kindof dictatorship.
We took a break where we had to do some media briefingand we assembled back for our second session whichincluded voting.

Ann and Sanka: "Time for action!"
The USA proposal was singed and all the developingcountries agreed to partner with the USA onissue of Kyoto. The afternoon session was preparation for the Blockade,where we printed our t-shirts and then went for dinner.

SIXTH DAY- arrived in Rostock where the alternative G8summit is going on. Things are a bit wrong becausethere is a commotion between The Police and the groups. We managed to attend a number of workshops, including Dr FrithjofSchmidt, who sponsored the seminar. We had theprivilege to discuss him a number of issuesconcerning Africa and THE EU.

Have a great day we will try keep you postedas things unfold. Regards Ann (GYG/KYG)

2007-06-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

Our GYG members at the G8 - Ann, Janna, Eric and Sanka

2007-06-05T16:37:00.000-07:00
GYG prostests against the G8 in Germany:International Green youth seminar in Berlin and Rostok

A delegation of GYG from Africa, Asia and Latin America has arrived in Berlin to join German and European Young Greens in a seminar about globalisation and the G8. History of the G8 and the protests against this exclusive, undemocratic Club of Rich Nations, Free Trade versus Fair Trade, Climate change, are some of the topics the participants have discussed so far. Dancing, discussing, singing: the participants are getting to know each other before they are off to join hundreds of thousands of protestors in Rostok, where the Alternative G8 Summit takes place. While our participants are preparing in Berlin, the protests in Rostok got out of hand. 80 000 peaceful protestors were celebrating with popular German bands at the final rally meanwhile the violent black block caused 430 injured police men, thus violating the rule of peaceful protests. We hope this will be the only violent incident. Read more here during the coming days about how Ann from Kenya, Sanka from Sri Lanka, Eric from Senegal and Thiago from Argentine are getting along in the Wilde German East....

2007-06-03T21:12:00.000-07:00
GYG at the G8 Alternative Summit:

4 GYG are joining German and European Young Greens in protests againstthe G8 and debates about Green globalisation

Ann from Kenya, Sanka from Sri Lanka, Thiago from Brazil and Eric from Senegal from the GYG are participating in a 9-days international seminar on globalisation and the G8 which the German Young are organising on the occassion of the Heiligendamm Summit of 8 of the most influential nations in Northern Germany.

Having arrived at the end of May in Berlin, our participants have already taken part in workshops about free trade versus fair trade, climate change and the EU as a global actor, they simulated the WTO and visited the German Bundestag (parliament).

Singing, dancing, chatting: while our participants prepare to leave for the Alternative G8 Summit in Rostok, close to Heiligendamm, rallies in Rostok got out of hand over the week-end. More than 1000 people, amongst them 430 police men were injured during clashes with violent protestors. We are disappointed by the apparent breach of the promised non-violence principle by some of the demonstrators from the black bloc.

Nevertheless, we are going to Rostok to show that greening globalisation is possible and violent protests are the exception, not the rule.

Read more here during the next days about how Eric, Thiago, Sanka, Annand me (Janna) are surviving in Rostok.

G8 Diary from Eric Dombou

Bonjour BERLIN!!!
La journée devait a peine commencer que nous étions déjà debout, prêt pour le grand rassemblement.
Un copieux petit déjeuner a été pris à notre charmant hôtel, quelque kilomètre de route et nous voici au siège du partie écologiste Allemagne, site de nos travaux.
Le séminaire du G8, organise par les jeunes Vert Allemand débute finalement. Dans une ambiance détendue. Anna CAVAZANI, responsable du comité d'organisation prendra la parole pour souhaiter la bienvenue aux participants avant de présenter brièvement le programme du séminaire et les objectifs de la rencontre. Pour elle, l'émotion est grande. C'est en effet la première fois qu'elle organise un événement d'envergure international. Elle salut particulièrement les délégués du GYG venus des quatre coins du monde.
Elle terminera ses propos en manifestant, le souhait de voir les uns et les autres se connaître davantage à travers les échanges. C'est dans cette voie qu'elle a ouvert le bal des exercices de groupes permettant aux uns et aux autres de faire connaissance. Très amusant, l'exercice a permis de comprendre l'importance d'être ensemble, mais aussi nous a aussi aidé à mieux connaître les participants par leur nom.
Les travaux proprement dits commenceront également par un exercice que conduira Wictor de la Pologne. Apres avoir dessiner le Monde, les participants ont identifié pour chaque région les problèmes qui l'affectent, de même que des éléments jugés positifs dans les différentes régions. A la fin de l'exercice, le constat est sans appel! Le monde se porte mal. La jolie carte du monde porte plus de sticker rouge (négatif) que de bleu (positif). Sur ces sticker, les séminaristes n'ont pas manqué de marquer ce qui est soit positif ou négatif. C'est ainsi qu'on peu lire: APE, Trafic d'arme, Pollution, corruption, déforestation, mauvaise gouvernance pour ne citer que ceux-ci ; dans les négatif et début de paix, début de démocratie, protection de la foret amazonienne pour ce qui a été identifié comme positif.
Wictor terminera son exercice en recueillant les attentes et les souhaits de chaque participant qui est ensuite affiche dans la salle des travaux.
La pause de midi qui suivra permettra au participant d'aller se régaler dans un restaurant a 7 minutes de marche de la place des travaux.
C'est le ventre plein que nous avons continué avec le programme de la journée qui se voulait la suite logique des travaux de Wictor. Emma d'Allemagne présentera dans un exposé très suivi l'historique du G8. Elle ira de sa création jusqu'a nos jours en passant par les différentes étapes et ses remaniements.
Pour Juan qui nous entretenait sur le thème du séminaire,
La répartition des participants en différents ateliers permettra de discuter des thématiques diverses notamment: les Nations Unies avec ses forces et faiblesses et les propositions pour une reforme, l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce, le Fond Monétaire International, la Banque Mondiale et enfin l'Union Européenne. Sur ce dernier thème, les délégués d'Afrique ont apporté une contribution originale. Ils ont souligné la nécessité pour l'Union Européenne de s'intégrer, s'élargir et connaître un devenir meilleur avec une constitution qui apporte une satisfaction aux attentes des pays membres. Mais ils ont souligné l'urgence pour cette Europe qui partage avec l'Afrique un destin commun de se préoccuper véritablement de son développement. En effet, pour eux, l'Afrique n'a pas besoin d'une assistance palliative ^¹ (aide financière), mais plutôt de voir son accès au marché s'agrandir, ses productions protégées et ses biens équitablement partagés. En outre, certain pays de l'Union devrait cesser tout soutien aux régimes de dictateurs qu'on rencontre dans plusieurs pays du continent.
Pour finir, les délégués africains souhaiteraient voir l'Europe participer concrètement la chasse à ses commerçants d'armes avides de conflits, qui se font des fortunes en multipliants de manière exponentielle le nombre de cimetière en Afrique.
Un échange culturel clôturera la journée, ce moment permettra aux différents participants de partager avec les autres les mets. Les originalités des lieux d'origine.
C'est dans une boite de nuit de la place, située à deux stations de métro du site des travaux que se terminera dans une ambiance électrique les travaux de la première journée. A l'hôtel, nous sommes bien seul, mais c'est un choix!

1 Assistance palliative : une assistance apparente qui au fond ne résous pas le problème de l'Afrique

2007-05-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Federation of Nigeria Youth Greens (FNYG) is an affiliate of the Federation of Young African Greens (FYAG), formally agreed to and ratified at Cotonou, Benin Republic August, 21st – 25th 2006.

The main task and objective of the Federation of Nigeria Youth Greens is to promote active participation of the citizenry in political and grass root democracy, gender and women rights to participate in socio-economic and political violence that deny them major roles in public policy and decision making process; and taking actions that threaten the environment. The environment suffers undue exploitation due to human activity and technological development.

Check out their new wensite here

2007-04-02T03:31:00.000-07:00

Ecotopia is an international gathering of young people from all over Europe involved or interested in environmental and social justice issues. Ecotopia takes place every summer since 1989, each year in a different country. It is organised by EYFA (European Youth For Action) and by a local grassroots environmental organisation as host organisation. This year, the 19th edition will take place in Portugal.

Ecotopia is a place for learning, exchanging experiences and spreading information about environmental, social, political and other issues. Around 200 - 600 people attends Ecotopia each year, to share skills and discuss about a wide range of themes related to environmental problems: climate change, transport and mobility, GMOs, organic food, eco-building and sustainable infrastructure, global politics and global economic system, strategies for actions, experiences of campaigns, alternative media, migration, racism and xenophobia, cultural issues, influence on and of people...

Ecotopia is also a functional model of self-sustainable community that puts into practice the principles of an environmentally friendly life-style: waste recycling, vegetarian kitchen, consensus decision-making, the use of alternative energy...Where possible, Ecotopians participate in regional actions and clean ups, try to get local people interested in ecological problems and empower local organizations.

Ecotopia is horizontally and self- organised; everyone is asked to take part in runnig the camp, solving problems and decision-making. And everybody is responsible for creating the programme!

Ecotopia operates on the ecorates system - an alternative economic system based on living standards and income of people rather than financial markets, which means that you pay for food at Ecotopia the same amount as you would pay for it in your own country.

GAIA
- Grupo de Acção e Intervenção AmbientalFaculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia2829-516 CaparicaPortugalPhone/Fax: (+351) 212949650E-mail: gaia@gaia.org.pthttp://gaia.org.pt
EYFA
- European Youth For ActionMinahassastraat 1PO Box 941151094 GC AmsterdamThe NetherlandsPhone: +31 [0]20 665 7743Fax +31 [0]20 692 8757E-mail: eyfa@eyfa.orgwww.eyfa.org

2007-03-27T23:47:00.000-07:00
YouPEC - European Youth Perspective on Energy and Climate

Dear friends and fellow concerned individuals,Young Friends of the Earth Germany, together with other Germanenvironmental organizations, is organizing a major European youthconference on energy and climate, which will take place in Berlin, fromJune 22-27, 2007.We are inviting active young people between the agesof 18 and 27 from all 27 member countries of the EU, Norway, Switzerlandand Turkey to attend the conference.After an application procedure, five applicants from each country willbe selected and invited to the conference.All of the participants' expenses (including travel, food and lodging)will be covered by the organizers!Attached please find our conference announcement. Interested individualscan apply for the conference online (more info. and applicationonline at www.youpec.eu).It would be great if you could forward word of this conferencethroughout your FYEG Network and to other active young people that mightbe interested in attending YouPEC!We look forward to your participation!Best wishes,Rachel

Note: The application deadline is April 6th; please please don't waituntil the last minute to apply!

YouPEC - European Youth Perspective on Energy and Climate. From June 22-27, 2007, the Youth Alliance for Future Energy, a publicnetwork of individuals and youth organizations, will hold YouPEC, aEuropean conference on climate and energy, in Berlin.Conference participants will be young people between the ages of 18 and27 from all 27 member countries of the European Union. After anapplication procedure, five active young people from each country willbe selected and invited to attend the conference.The conference offers a unique opportunity for participants to forgeinternational contacts and deepen their knowledge, exchange ideas andexplore courses of action in the field of energy and climate protection.Therefore the various consequences of climate change (in terms ofbiodiversity, weather, living conditions etc.) and energy use andpolitics will be the central educational themes of the conference.The goals of YouPEC are the development of a strategy to combat climatechange from the point of view of young people, the drafting of adeclaration and a personal commitment to protect the climate, as well asthe planning of one or more European projects to reduce CO2 emissions.BUNDjugend is responsible for the administration and organization of theconference. All of the conference participants' expenses, includingtravel, room and board will be fully covered by the organizers.YouPEC is being sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for theEnvironment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.The conference language is English.

For further information contact: Julia Balz www.youpec.eu

2007-03-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

Electro Man calls for electric transport in Auckland, New Zealand.

Kiwi Young Green, Gareth Hughes, was out yesterday visitng railway stations around Auckland city calling on commuters to support the Green Party's push for the urgent electrification of the rail network that would see cleaner, faster, cheaper and better-for-the-climate trains carrying commuters in New Zealands biggest city.

Old Coal - The Greens New South Wales AU

2007-03-06T12:00:00.001-08:00

2007-03-03T21:40:00.000-08:00
Tree Nation

"Desertification is potentially the most threatening ecosystem change impacting livelihoods of the poor" (UNCCD). It is about land degradationcaused by CLIMATE CHANGE and human-induced factors.By planting a tree you will make a difference by helping to create a giantheart in Niger, the poorest country in the world, and one of the mostaffected by desertification.You can use the interactive map to navigate the park and choose an exactspot to plant your tree or trees. With GPS coordinates your virtual tree corresponds to a real tree planted in the eco-park in Niger, so you and thewhole world can always find it.

Check it out at Treenation

1958 - Global Warming - It's NOT newly known

2007-03-03T00:16:00.001-08:00

Mr. Scientist: Even now, Man may be unwittingly changing the world's climate through the waste products of his civilization. Due to our release through factories and automobiles every year of more than six billion tons of carbon dioxide, which helps air absorb heat from the sun, our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer!

2007-03-01T19:14:00.000-08:00
Climate Changes Action -

Serbian Green Youth Serbian Green Youth had an action on 16th of February against Climate Changes. Action was held in Main Street in Belgrade - Knez Mihailova, and main aim of it was to introduce citizens of urgent necessity to start a fight against Climate Changes on every level of society. We also wanted to put a bigger pressure on Government authorities for urgent reaction on ratification and implementation of Kyoto protocol. SGY activists were offering written "warranties" which are valid next 100.000 years for planet Earth if they agree on and follow 10 main rules of environmental protection, stamped and signed by our Organization. For citizens which were not in favor to put a signature on Terms of Use we offered free service of future weather prognosis which were, of course, very pessimistic. Activist also made 10 EARTH COMMANDS brochure which are, by short line and with adequate graphics, explaining 10 basic rules how individual can help fight against Climate Changes. In order to support EGP Climate Changes campaign, a lot of material from Serbian Greens was spread together with basic effort of European Greens effort to stop these phenomena. Acceptance of action by citizens was on excellent level, and we managed to issues more than 300 warranties for our Planet, together with great amount of other info material.

2007-03-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

Download the Federation of Young European Greens Tell Me What I Eat Campaign Reader

2007-03-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

NSW radio campaign
The Greens are airing a series of radio ads in NSW. The ads look at the Greens' perspective on big issues of the past year.
Check them out here