The Best and Worst of Human Beings

Inspirational neon... Laura Bonn, 2005,
L.A. State Historic Park via Art Works For Change

If you've seen any kind of news in the last day, then you will have heard about the bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon just before 3pm EST on Monday 15th April. The time since has been particularly emotional as my partner is from just outside of that city. I think we've both been in shock. The site where the bombs went off is just a few hundred yards from where we got engaged at the end of December.

I don't like to repost images of the violence - I think the media's endless repetition of such footage just desensitises us to atrocious events. So I'm sharing some pieces that I hope will help people understand, cope and get through this time.

Boston sits on the horizon, to the left of the headland.

This article is a great snapshot of some of the amazing acts of human kindness that have occured in response to yesterday's events - and I know there's plenty more out there.

There's nothing like a crisis from bringing out the innate goodness in human beings.

All family and friends I made in the US have been accounted for and weren't near the marathon finish line. My thoughts are with those who were and the people who know them. 

If you are in the area, donate blood. Otherwise the Mayor has set up One Fund Boston to collect resources for the injured and their families. You can find it here.

Driving the Sustainability Agenda

I'm learning to drive. I've not done it before for many reasons - cost, time, where I was living, not having a need, saving the environment from unnecessary emissions, fear... But with the amount of jobs I'm seeing requiring 'A Full Clean UK Driving License' I decided to bite the bullet for employment's sake.

I've been practicing in my Mum's car, Daisy, up till now, getting a bit of road experience. Today I went out with a driving instructor for the first time and learnt a lot. It was really interesting to be told why I should and shouldn't do things, rather than just telling me what to do. For instance, don't cross your arms whilst turning because if the airbag deploys you'll have 2 broken arms and a nose pushed back into your brain. I won't forget that in a hurry.

As well as driving to pass my test, it's good to feel like I'm learning to drive well - and with the least possible impact on the environment. Choice of car is a big consideration where emissions are concerned, but my instructor was keen to point out driving style is a significant component too. Braking and accelerating harshly create a lot more emissions and reduce fuel efficiency (costing more money too). Anticipating hazards and responding ahead of time is good for the atmosphere, as well as for the safety of those around you.

If I cant avoid the need to drive completely, at least I might be able to minimise my impact - with a bit of practise!

No More Page 3!

Role models, not topless models, should get media coverage!

A few weeks ago I got an email asking me to vote on whether I thought Girlguiding should support the No More Page 3 campaign - a petition started during Summer 2012 asking the Sun newspaper to remove topless models from their daily pages. It's catalyst was the fact the Page 3 image was the largest piece of coverage of a woman in the paper, on the day that Jessica Ennis had won her gold medal.

The way I and the majority of my peers voted is clearly evident in the outcome of the vote announced on the Girlguiding website today. Leaders not included in the vote (the poll was of the 16-25 year old members) would have voted the same way if their sharing of the news on my Twitter and Facebook feeds this morning is anything to go by!

The motion of support was instigated by a number of members who sit on Girlguiding's Advocate Panel - a group of young women who ensure the voice of girls and young women is being heard. The open letter highlights how seeing women treated as objects on a daily basis undermines the self confidence of girls and young women and calls for the paper to promote more positive female role models.

Their fantastic work has already be covered by the BBC, the Telegraph, Huffington Post, the Express and the Guardian. I wonder if it'll get a write up in the Sun...

If you want to support the campaign, then take at look at the campaign's website and sign the petition today!

What's Going On Post-2015?

Have you heard of the Millennium Development Goals? A series of 8 international development targets set at a UN gathering at the turn of the 21st Century. Friday (5th April) marks 1000 days until these goals expire in 2015. The question of what will happen after these goals has been a hot topic for a couple of years now, and consultations are in full swing.

What's happening?

A WAGGGS representative adressing the Bali Meeting

Last week was the final meeting of the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and it took place in Bali, Indonesia. They'll report back to the Secretary General on the UN, and that will feed into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit due to take place in September 2013 during the General Assembly. All of this consultation and discussion is leading up to the decision on what the international development framework will look like after the MDGs expire in 2015. I've been following this process from a youth perspective and Katie, who was in Bali as a Plan UK Youth Ambassador, has given a lowdown on the Bali event in her blog.

There was also an International NGO Conference in Bonn, which WAGGGS attended and have described in their summary of the Bonn and Bali events.

Read 'The Global Conversation Begins' online!

What's top of the agenda?

So there was some feeding back last week too with a 2nd Summary Report from the My World platform and a report called "The Global Conversation Begins" which is a snapshot of initial findings from all the Post-2015 consultations so far.

In the My World survey: education, healthcare, honest governments and clean water are the top 4 priorities globally for both men and women. Men place more importance on jobs, whereas women rate gender equality higher (but still only 8th). There is an interesting discussion of the case for gender equality and why deciding the goals through a purely democratic survey might not be the way to get the best end result:

"The number of women that have participated in MY World is slightly higher than the number of men (51% women). Although the ranking of “Equality between men and women” is higher for women (8th) than for men (15th), overall it features very low as a priority. The result is largely age neutral, but there are some slight differences depending on education level (a greater priority for both men and women with higherlevels of education) and Human Development Index (men and women in high and very high HDI countries give greater priority to gender equality). In the first offline representative survey conducted in Liberia, gender equality ranked higher for women in urban rather than rural areas.

There is a huge literature - backed up by practical experience – that shows how vital gender equality is for development not just in and of itself, but also its instrumental nature in reaching other goals. This serves to highlight one of the limitations of a survey of this nature; there is a riskborne out in this case – that critical development objectives can be underemphasized. This can be so partly because of the characteristics of the respondent, and also because the full multipliers are not well understood by all participants. Given the prevalence of men at policy decision - making levels, this tends to support the case for a standalone goal that looks at all aspects of women’s empowerment: access to services, economy and jobs, political representation."

What's next?

This timeline from the Guardian gives you a rough overview of where this process has been, and where it aims to go in the next 6 months. It'll all culminate in a summit at the General Assembly in September this year.

How can I get involved?

I'm now a Post-2015 volunteer for the World Association Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) so I may well have some exciting things for you to get involved with that will be shared through this blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts. In the meantime, you can vote on what your top priorities are on the My World Platform. Is simple to do, takes less than 5 minutes, and you could help shape the course of the world's future development agenda.