I had a great time on Wednesday morning, hosting a visit to IISD by Regina dos Santos and a group of her colleagues from the Sociedade de Cultura Dombali.

Dombali was founded 12 years ago, and it is a non-governmental organization with its actions geared towards Human Rights, Education, Plastic Arts, Audiovisual, Communication and Broadcast. In Brazil, it has been carrying out social actions and social projects aiming at contributing to strengthen Democracy in the Communication Means, particularly on TV.

For three years, these actions have led to the communitarian production of a program called TV AFIRMAÇÃO ( AFFIRMATION TV). This program is regularly shown, weekly, in five different states of the country, in Communitarian TVs, reaching an audience of 1,600.000 spectators per week. They train young people in the community for production skills (cameramen, script writers, photographers, actors/actresses and others) and shoot in video and take pictures of all the cultural and social events that take place within the population that is excluded (particularly due to racism) from the Mass Communication Media and from the Cultural Industry. They edit this material and then exhibit these registers and stories through this TV program. This project also encompasses some actions and political lobbies, in Brazil and abroad, with the purpose of contributing to Democracy in the Communication Media.

They were very happy to learn more about YCDO and the WSIS Youth Caucus. I need to follow up next week with them re: the video for WSIS as well as involving more of their young people directly in activities.

.... when you need a break from reading IT policy documents and decide to go visit the Vatican. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Rome. I was supposed to meet up with Pearl this morning to go wandering around, but I think I missed her call (or a stack of GKP folders has fallen on top of her, trapping her in the secretariat office in the basement of the Sheraton). So, I spent the morning/afternoon reading in my room. By 4 PM though, I was going sitr-crazy, so I took the free shuttle bus downtown.

I ended up walking from Piramide to the Vatican through some gorgeous twisty streets. St. Peter's Square was really impressive. But, I didn't expect going inside the basilica to impact me as much as it did. I just kind of hung out in the back with tears running down my face. I don't know why. I don't remember ever explicitly getting angry at the Catholic church. But, I think there's still a bit of me that always thought I'd be a damn fine Jesuit or Pope some day. Not a bad life - contemplation, helping people, teaching, pontificating... I've got a few too many strikes against me according to their rules though.

Anyway... I decided to pass the time by climbing up to the cupola to look down over the city. After the elevator ride up, there are 320 fabulous stairs to climb. You can always identify a Catholic b/c we're big fans of stairs... it's kind of like you have to earn the view ;-)

Somewhere along the way, I was still thinking about wanting to be "Pope Terri the Perky I" and I starting thinking about TIG. And blogging. And the Pope blogging. Then I just started laughing (which kind of comes out as a muffled wheeze after 270 stairs). Seriously, though.... why doesn't the Pope blog??? Do you know how many people would read that?!?!?! If I were Pope, I'd still write TIG Updates :-)

Which leads me to the simple fact that everyone in the world wants to be special. I think it's natural. Because everyone is. But, it's not usually as dramatic as it is in the movies and Biography shows. I was standing in the back of St. Peter's waiting to be struck by lightning or something. But no. Many years of trying to deal with religion and strongly disagreeing with Catholic officials doesn't get you thunderbolts. It just gets you tears on a beautiful afternoon while tourists wander around you taking photos.

Strange strange world....

Slowly but surely things are coming together around Youth Creating Digital Opportunities. The first offical in person YCDO Steering Committee and Coordination Team meetings will be on Wednesday in Rome. And plans and funding are coming together for the WSIS Youth Caucus.

The next big step (one which will be addressed shortly on the WSIS Youth list) is to outline a 2 year plan for YCDO related activities around the world for 2004 to 2006. This plan would touch on ALL aspects of what kinds of programmes and activities we think would be necessary to realize the potential of young people as leaders in using ICTs to achieve more sustainable development in their communities and around the world. Ultimately, I would like to see YCDO specifically referenced in the WSIS Action Plan as a mechanism for implementing the commitment to youth made in the WSIS declaration of principles.

This sort of action coalition is increasingly becoming common as the result of UN or other international summits. For example, the Open Knowledge Network grew out of the G8 Dotforce.

But, achieving that kind of status and financial commitment from donors is going to take a lot of coordinated effort over the next few months. Most necessary are concrete plans (with budgets) and people who are willing to talk with their governments to secure their support for language regarding YCDO to be included in the Action Plan.

Nick, Maja, Pearl, Alberto and I are going to start pulling ideas and strategies together this week and would HUGELY appreciate your ideas.

Best wishes from Rome!

According to a new World Health Organization report, traffic accidents cause more than four times as many deaths as war. Traffic accidents are the biggest cause of death due to injury, accounting for 1.26 million in 2000. The WHO report says twice as many males die of injuries as females. It says nearly 90 per cent of deaths due to injuries take place in poorer countries.

How long is it going to take before people start to deal with cars as the real health hazards that they are???!!!!? Automobile use isn't just an environmental hazard (e.g. pollution, GHG, cause of Sprawl), it's a serious health issue as well (e.g. injury-related deaths, lack of exercise).

Think 2 or 3 or 4 times before you decide to hop in a car to go somewhere.... Is the trip really necessary? Is there another way to get there (e.g. biking, walking, roller blading)??? Can you combine errands so you can do more in a single trip, rather than multiple trips???

It could just save your life... in the short or the long run.

This is one of those things I get very passionate about - having lost my mother-in-law in Canada, and two friends in Costa Rica to car accidents is more than enough for one lifetime.

Over the last few years, more and more organizations have started doing research into the connections between corruption and UNsustainable development. Some have looked at it from a business perspective, others from a government perspective.

But, some times the topic seems too big and too far away. That's why it's nice to see stories occassionally that bring it down to earth a bit more. Like stories about Ugandan Justice Julie Sebutinde. According to the article, "Ms. Sebutinde... is the Ugandan government's weapon of choice against corruption. Her investigations of the police department, the military, and most recently, the tax authority, have exposed graft that has managed to shock a country where public skimming rarely surprises anyone."

Woohoo... go Judge Julie!!!

I think one of the things that people are starting to notice is that fighting corruption and scams FEELS GOOD (although, depending on your context, it can be quite dangerous).

I had way too much fun on Monday turning over a batch of emails to the fraud and security division of a Canadian Bank. Since February, a number of grassroots NGOs in India and the Philippines had gotten in touch with me to ask for advice regarding a conference invitation they had received. A group pretending to be in Vancouver, Canada seemed to be offering them 85% travel scholarships to attend a conference. All they had to do was send the remaining fees ($300-500 US) and register. The first version I saw was VERY fishy (an invitation from Canada to a conference in Australia, with $ to be wire transferred to Uganda); but, the later versions have become much more professional.

I'm still waiting to hear from the bank as to whether the bank account in the more recent invitation exists (making it a scam) or if the whole thing is just a bizarre hoax... but it felt good to be able to do something.

My general feeling is that the more people who have access to the Internet, the less anyone anywhere in the world is going to tolerate corruption. And the more tools and relationships we'll all have to fight it.