2 iunie 2009

Connecting Youth Movements

Most of you maybe already know that i spend some nice time in Thailand (a small part of the pictures i took are available here) but not many of you know what was my main purpose going there.

Of course besides visiting Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, playing with tigers, riding elephants and visiting long neck village there was a mission which i hope i carried out with dignity, and this was: representing Moldova at Thailand World Youth Round-table.

Background of the meeting

Within the period May, 20th - 23rd in Chaing Mai, Thailand, the 2nd World Youth Round-table took place. This meeting was a follow up activity of the Istanbul Initiative: Connecting Youth Movements.

The themes of the 1st Round-table, which was held in Istanbul in December 2008, revolved around “alternative media as a tool for change”, and “use of pop culture in democracy activism”.

During this meeting the participants learned from each other by discussing their different experiences and sharing of knowledge and strategies to enhance their leadership capacity.

The conclusion on which the participants of the Istanbul meeting agreed were: to foster international solidarity amongst the meeting participants, to develop a list of journalists in each country, to provide others with technical assistance and to organize activities on the World Youth Day for Democracy, which is on October, 18.

In particular considerations about the limited resources with which youth movements have to operate with, challenges in building relationships with other groups and building regional and international solidarity were agreed.
Also during the Istanbul meeting it was proposed to meet again in Thailand, where would be possible to have some dialogue and exchange with young Burmese in exile.

In this way the goal of the Thailand Meeting was to consolidate the follow up activities of the Istanbul initiative, especially in considering how linkages can be developed with young people in rural areas, and how the participants as youth leaders can develop the working capacity in youth from such regions.

As a concrete outcome of the Istanbul meeting in building regional and international solidarity with young people from countries with a tough regime was the idea implemented by the Belarussian participant, Christina Karchevskaya. The third issue of the Belorusian Multimedia Magazine 34, a DVD entitled "Life Hacker" included two interviews whith particpants from the First Youth Round-table in Istanbul.

Below you can watch the interviews with Aung Maw Zin from Burma and John from Cuba who shared with us some interesting fact about the educational system in their countries and about student life in general.

Life in Cuba for students


Life in Burma for students



Country presentation

The Thailand Round-table was attended by 16 participants from 9 countries: Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Czech Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Moldova and Thailand.

During the first day of the meeting the report of the previous Round-table was revised and country presentation by all of the participants were made. During the country presentation the participants discussed the latest developments in their countries regarding political environment, youth movements and social issues. Because most participants were coming from countries where democracy is in danger or does not prosper, the presentations were mostly angled at highlighting the human rights violation and youth or community efforts to change the existing situation.

Use of alternative media

Significant attention was payed to review of use of alternative media. The participants shared their achievements in using IT media in their work. The use of social networks such as: facebook, myspace, yahoo/google groups, twitter and other networks were highly appreciated as to bring good results in the mobilizing of young people. Besides that, some other means of launching a message via pop culture attributes were mentioned, for example involving famous bands or artist to promote a social message. In this way a song of a famous Cuban band Porno para Ricardo “A mi no me gusta la politica” (I am not interested in politics), was mentioned which stressed the excessive involvement of the regime in people's life.

Partially based on the previous meeting in Istanbul in December, a participant from Egypt has developed a project, called “Spreading it: Received by Everyone” and during the meeting it was discussed how this project could serve as a basis for the meeting participants to build international solidarity, share information and news.

Building Strategic Relationships with Other Groups

This session was focused on the relationship between youth movements and other groups. Participants shared their experiences and explored the importance and limitations in some of these relations. The relationship with the government was evaluated as the weakest of all other relations. During this session the participants agree on using any of the alternative media tools in order to strengthen the relationship with other organisations and the relation within the meeting group.

Alternative Media and Youth in Rural Areas

Because rural areas are often excluded from mainstream media, and usually do not have as much access to modern tools of communication, the participants tried to identify what kind of tools of alternative media can be used effectively to mobilize youth in rural areas.

Thus such issues as: unemployment, education, access to health, access to information, electoral rights, sexual education, lack of alternatives for a bright future were identified by participants as key issues that can attract and mobilize youngsters. Along with these issues were pointed out the tools which can mobilize the young people to consolidate their efforts in solving a certain problem. Musical performances, art workshops and exhibitions, sport competitions, street theater, role play activities and flash mobilization were identified as convenient and efficient tools which can easily engage youth people from rural areas in various activities.

Mobilizing for Democracy in Burma

A presentation about the current situation in Burma, human right violations, political prisoners and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi was made by Debbie Stothard Coordinator of ALTSEAN Organization in Burma.
Also were organized meetings and dialogues with some Burmese activists in exile. I personally visited the headquarter of DVB TV (Democratic Voice of Burma) and Mezzima office and discussed with Burmese media representatives. The participants tried to identify various means for building an international solidarity with Burmese people and gave interviews with support messages for DVB TV.


Moving Forward

By the end of the three days meeting the participants drafted some conclusions and ideas for future initiatives.
All participants agree on further actions and activities to be developed within the existing group:
- Elaborate with common efforts on documentary movies or stories with human aspect about young people facing different obstacles in their fight for democracy;
- Elaborate DVDs with useful information for young people in villages or areas with low access to alternative source of media and Internet;
- Organize various activities to put pressure on government in case they act to the determent of the people. For example: write letters and petitions to the decisions taking bodies or to international community, organize advocacy campaigns to raise local or international awareness pertaining some vital issues;
- Organize simultaneous events or street actions on a certain topic in the same time in the all participating countries;
- Come up with future project ideas;
- Get involved in the organization of the Global Youth Democracy Day in their county or even at international level;
- Each participant will have to produce a 10 minutes length video about the country background, youth concerns, personal motivation to act, group achievements and personal vision about the future of the country which will be broadcast at the Global Youth Democracy Day Celebration at October 18, in New York;

Hopefully we will respect our engagements and we'll contribute together to make the youth voice much stronger in the world.

This initiative was launched by the World Movement for Democracy, a global network of democracy and human rights activists, and practitioners, and is being supported by the U.S-based Hurford Foundation and the U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor.

Ps: In case some of you would like to get involved in producing the 10 minutes video about moldovan youth, let me know by dropping a comment to this post, and i will get back to you.

Listen to the Cuban Song "A mi no mi gusta la Politica" i mentioned in the post (thanks to John)



Natalia Gligor,
Moldovan representative at the Thailand Meeting