Two cheers for the power of individuality over genetic determinism!!!

Researchers at Texas A&M have been studying their cloned cat since it was born last year. At one year old, the two genetically identical cats act and look very different from each other.

You can't duplicate an individual. Genetics are not everything in life.

Ok... this is not as random as it may sound... does anyone in YCDO or TIG know the Queen of Jordan?

She's one of the world's biggest supporters of youth and ICTs. I know Jen Correiro met her last year at WEF and had her picture taken with her, but is anyone in more regular contact with her office???

I've been a little frustrated over the last few months with the lack of response we've had from some other donors and intl organizations in terms of accessing funding and staff resources able to play a leadership role in involving young people in the Middle East in the WSIS and the YCDO community overall.

I think it's time to contact Queen Rania directly to see if she would be able to lend support to these initiatives. I think that would probably get things moving far more quickly than Nick and I jumping up and down waving our arms from Canada.

As military tensions rise higher and higher in the Middle East, I think it is absolutely critical that we use the technological and human networks available to us to make sure that young people in that region have a chance to speak for themselves in any/all major international policy discussions. All of us need to make an effort to support their right to dream of the future and to access the ICT tools to make it a reality. The WSIS will not succeed until all young people have the opportunity to dream and plan together how they intend to create a better world.

Let me know if you have any leads/ideas on how to make this a reality....

For those of you in Canada, watch "A View From the Summit" a "Nature of Things" documentary starring Severn Cullis-Suzuki and produced by Hadley Obodiac. The documentary tells a story of the World Summit from Severn and her friends point of view.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Severn... In 1992, when she was just 12 years old, Canadian environmental activist Severn Suzuki gave an electrifying speech at the the Rio Earth Summit. She challenged world leaders to "make their actions reflect their words." Now 22, she recently graduated from Yale University and went to Johannesburg in September as part of Kofi Annan's World Summit Advisory Panel. The Global Youth Reporters did an interview with Severn there as well.

The WSSD special airs on CBC Television, Thursday, January 16 at 9:00 p.m.and on Sunday, January 19 at 3:00 p.m.

I was reading a story online today about a friend of mine from grad school, Rachel Maddow, who is now a morning radio show host in a small town in the USA. It got me thinking (again) about how amazing and powerful community radio can be in ANY part of the world.

Over the last couple of years, AMARC has done a great job in raising the profile of radio within the ICTs and digital opportunities field. Over and over, they have repeated the mantra, "In most countries of the world, people don't have access to the Internet. Radio is how they get their information." Got that. And I understand the part about how radio can reach a larger number of people with a more relevant local content since it is produced locally.

But, what I think we all sometimes forget is how MUCH of that radio content is produced by people under the age of 30 and to what degree their global perspective can open up other people's eyes at the local level. I'm really hoping that the YCDO can start to work more closely with AMARC over the next year to look specifically at the needs/issues of youth-led community and campus radio stations. It's something that's long overdue.

I received a copy of the annual Christmas letter sent out by my former boss (Paul Mundy) from when I was an intern in the Philippines for a year. It was lovely to hear that SBS Radio, an Australian public broadcasting station, aired an interview with him in November 2002.

The interview focused on his hobby - collecting air sickness bags. Yep. You read that right, air sickness bags. When Paul is not busy being a brilliant development communications consultant, he is grabbing barfbags off airplanes, scanning them, putting their photos online and trading them with other enthusiasts around the world.

If you're looking for a new hobby, please feel free to drop by his site at http://www.bagophily.com/