It's been way too long since I updated this blog! So many things have been changing in my life lately. For the past few years I have been working as the Coordinator of the TRIP! Project, a youth-led harm reduction initiative that serves Toronto's diverse dance music communities. It has been such an amazing opportunity to work with TRIP!, especially since I've been with the program as a volunteer since 1999. Through being in the coordinator role I've had the opportunity to work on some super cool projects, from being apart of the Youth RISE International Working Group, to collaborating with our sister project DanceSafe in the USA. I have learned so much about what youth-led harm reduction programs can look like, and why it's imperative that youth are involved at every step in creating, shaping and maintaining them. Over the past few years we have sprouted so many new initiatives and projects that work to improve the health and lives of young people who use drugs. Many workshops, conferences and trainings later, I am so inspired by the work we've done, and excited about next steps.
In the last month I have taken a leave of absence from TRIP! to Coordinate the Queen West Harm Reduction Program at Central Toronto Community Health Centre. I am hoping to bring the same innovation to our broader harm reduction services, including better kits, as well as finding better ways to get the word out about our harm reduction services to our target populations. Every day I learn something new, from how to say crack and heroin in Chinese, to how to pack a pipe! I am finding ways to integrate my media and research skills into the job already, and we are already looking to experiment with collecting data on mobile phones. We are currently piloting a new software called NEO to log our needle exchange statistics for OCHART. Before NEO we logged everything on paper, so we are saving ourselves hours of work already! The outreach workers still use paper stats, so I'm hoping that if we introduce mobile phones we may be able to save them some time too. Being in this new role is a great challenge, but already I miss working directly with youth! Still keeping my eyes on the horizon for new opportunities for the future.
I feel like these next steps in my career will really shape the direction I decide to go in. I've always been passionate about harm reduction, youth and new media, but the question is what is next? How do I channel my passions in a direction that will put me where I want to be in the future? Before working with TRIP! I always thought that in order to make change we had to rally on the outside to transform power. Now I am all about working from the inside, and collaborating with agencies, governments and international bodies that have the power to make change. In the future I would love to work for the World Health Organization or UNAIDS in actually shaping some of these polcies that effect service delivery. I want to use my grassroots experience as fuel for transforming the system itself, advocating for young people who use drugs and their human right to health.
Adrenaline rush among players is nothing unheard of but to live the experience from the stands while cheering one’s throats dry is definitely something out of this world. It is simply magic to catch a good game live and unfold in front of your eyes. Every point scored, every sigh let out, every leap of joy, cry of pain, and each and every shout for cheer is passion personified. I wonder why the stands are not brimming at every game, since there is nothing compared to experiencing the sporting passion which goes deep into the sinews of every young player .
Well, I was fortunate enough to witness such a game this week at the _____Basketball tournament “The ___Big Guns Vs the _____Young Ones”. Blood and Sweat literally laced the game, where the score tally went up and down like a rollercoaster till it decided to stop at 35 – 27 in the favour of sheer experience and poise under pressure. The match confirmed that between a battle of stamina, fitness, grit, passion, and level-headedness under pressure, the latter counts more than anything else. Both teams aced their games and produced awe-inspiring baskets and passes throughout. There never was a dull moment. The expressions in the stand and on the sides ranged from wide-eyed amazement to screaming fits! It was an absolute joy and pleasure to watch our gentleman heroes on the sporting field. I for one am not going to miss any more of such action if I can help it!
People gossip ! Yes, that's not a big revelation. Humans have been gossiping since time immemorial. Though, the phenomenon is nothing new, the verb 'to gossip' was first used by our dear Shakespeare.
It helps to form or strengthen bonds of acquaintance or friendship, especially in a situation where people hardly know each other and are subject to transferable jobs and lives. Gossip, then, becomes a great conversation starter. It can be an idle chat between friends , but in an extreme form, can take shape of treason against one's institution or even one's country, depending , of course, on the contents of the gossip.
During one of these idle chit-chats, I happen to compare the nature of people to that of subatomic particles :). Well, people could be like protons and electrons. Some like protons , do not get attracted by magnetic fields of gossip and remain stable. They receive information and choose to just sit on it. Whereas , there are others who are always charged up like electrons and ready to jump at the slightest hint of magnetic gossip fields. They make bonds and break bonds with others like them ( other electrons) depending on the nature of the gossip. They even generate magnetic gossip fields , simply by moving here and there with their idle chit chat/dirt/misinformation/scandals, etc.
Having said the above, it is imperative to mention that these so called electrons are very essential to our society. Just as the exchange or sharing of the electrons between two or more atoms is the main cause of chemical bonding, No community, society, or group can bond without the presence and exchange of these electrons. It is a human need to interact with others as without the social bond, survival is scary. However, there is a fine line between idle chit chat and malicious rumour and people should respect the line and live in peace with their neighbours.
A long long time ago
which I can't even remember....
there used to be a girl
who could never do without writing
or reading for that matter
But now the music is fading
and she hardly scribbles or doodles
and neither does she read...
................Meh....
Ex Nihilo "creation out of nothing" or chaoskampf "struggle against Chaos"???
Either way I need to move around the space and think , so that I am what I can be!
Je pense, donc je suis
You think,therefore you are...
I think and therefore, I am not what you think I am....Logically it's not possible to think of all the think(g)s possible and...
Hence, I am in toto what you can never think of :PPPP
Check out how social media is transforming the way that we organize! last year I have worked as a consultant for GetInvolved.ca on the first season of Digital U, a new TVOntario television series that explores how digital media is transforming our society. Digital U is going into its second season, and we're looking for ways to expand in new directions.
Working on Digital U with GetInvolved.ca is a dream come true, as I get to help create and share inspirational stories of how people are taking action locally and globally. Stories like those of OneChild, Bilaal Rajan, Nazanin Afshin-Jam and TakingITGlobal- youth activists from across Canada who are changing the world!
It's so cool to be able to continue to use social media as a tool for change, even as I transition from youth to adulthood. Oftentimes it feels that as youth activists we inevitably face aging out and moving on. I feel so blessed to be able to continue to do the work that I do.
TakingITMobile is a community-based research study conducted in partnership with the social network TakingITGlobal that examines how youth leaders across the globe use mobile communications to create social change within their local communities and internationally. As an e-PAR study, youth participants were encouraged to take the reigns as researchers through the online TakingITMobile Working Group, which comprised of 39 youth representing 20 different countries. TakingITMobile participants (n = 565) paint a picture of the diversity of mobile youth activism around the world.
It was found that the majority of youth reported using their mobile phones to generate Citizen Media to share their message globally, mobilize protests, fundraise, educate their peers and spread solidarity. TakingITMobile participants were passionate about a number of global issues, including the Environment (39%), Human Rights (36%), Poverty (28%), Health (24%), Peace (23.8%), HIV/AIDS (22.4%) and Violence (11.6%). While the most common mobile feature was Voice Calls (75%), TakingITMobile participants used a variety of mobile phone features, including Text Messages (46%), Web Browsing (38%), Social Media (27%), News (26%) and Photography (22%).
It was also discovered that youth who own smart phones are more likely to use their phones for activism (81%) than youth who don’t (71%). As well, females are much less likely (70%) to use their phones for activism than males. Youth ages 25-29 show higher levels of activism (84%) than youth in their teens (67%), early 20s (75%) and 30s (75%). GDP per capita was an influencing factor on both monthly costs, monthly average number of minutes used, number of SMS used and internet data used. Overall it was found that participants from countries with high GDP per capita received cheaper services, with the exception of very high income nations such as Canada and the United States. A number of barriers were identified for mobile youth activists, including cost of services (32%) cost of mobile phones (10%) as well as network coverage (9%) were the biggest barriers to accessing mobile phones.
If you are interested in further exploring how youth activists are using their mobile phones for social change you can download the full report here. As a participatory action research study, TakingITMobile aims to disseminate the results back to the community in order to share best practices in mobile activism and inspire others to take action. In conjunction with TakingITGlobal, we are hoping to produce a Mobile Guide to Action that can serve as a compass for youth activists interested in using their mobile phone for social change. For those looking to help in developing this resource the TakingITMobile Working Group is always open to new volunteers! As well, we are hoping to partner with influential blogs in order to spread the results far and wide. If you are interested in blogging about the TakingITMobile results feel free to contact lisa [@] mobilerevolutions.org for more information.
My Master of Environmental Studies is finally coming to a close. It's been awhile since I've been able to write for the sake of pleasure. It's hard to find time for blogging sometimes. I am craving reflexivity and the medium of the blog offers that with grace. I'm not talking about blogging for hits, which is what I used to embrace and track with glee. One of the reasons that blogs are so political is because they are so personal. To be able to step back from life and reflect and feel heard by your peers. Lately my reflections are taking me to a crossroads. After researching mobile communications for two years I feel drawn to get out of the books and create. A thousand ideas buzz around my head, yet the tools that I've learned to implement are rusty. Academia sometimes means that instead of practicing ideas you're simply recording them. Praxis is calling to create something big. A movement, a new frontier, a network, a mashup, a revolution; the next big thing. My inner digital producer is calling, cajoling, reminding me of why I do the work that I do. August will be a telling month depending on what direction calls. Yet part of me digs into my roots. Working directly with youth is one of my passions. Does creating the next big thing require working with a mothership; merging existing infrastructure, creating partnerships, building in conjunction with multiple teams of developers, or does it mean starting something new? I think these are questions that we all face at one point or another in our lives. Many of us decide to settle for big pay checks with big agencies. Others say no to bosses and create new collective visions. Sometimes working within larger systems means that you have to work slower, jumping hoop by hoop to implementation. There is value to learn from order, but sometimes it's small startups that really hit the ground running.
I would like to thank World Wide Nepalese Students Organisation, which is run by a group of enthusiastic young people, for organising essay competition and providing a platform for me to make committments of the activities that I will be doing in my life to combat Climate Change from my side.
Guess, for the first time in my life I have achieved a bicycle for being one of the prize winners. I think, this is one of the rear prizes, that is given and of course, it has marked the awareness that we should use human muscles at individual level to prevent emission :). The other top essayists were provided with CFL bulbs and jute bag including bicycles.
The context behind the essay contest was that the world leaders, then December 18 in Copenhagen, did not come up with some agreement to deal with the climate change.
Whatever, the leaders do, it doesnt affect me including the individuals of the world to fight against global warming and climate change.
My essay was as follows:
As of 18 December 2009, the Earth's population estimated by the US Census Bureau is 6.804 billion. I cover 1.46X 10-10 part of the total population. I am a unit to produce carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases as I use fuels in different forms, produce solid waste, use pesticides and herbicides for growing plants, use refrigerators that produce chlorofluorocarbons.
Greenhouse gases in atmosphere absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. Production of such green houses has destroyed ozone layer and has increased the temperature of earth; without them, Earth's surface would be on average about 33 °C colder than at present. The consequent rise in temperature of earth has lead to environmental, socio-economic and health problems. The gradual rise in sea level, gene mutation in microbes, variations in seasons, probability of outbursting of glaciers and fall of weak mountains has threatened humanity and enhanced hostility population.
What I do has direct impact in environment. Before thinking about global change, I should be the change. So from today onwards, I am to use eco-friendly things which have less impact in climate and environment. Use of CFL bulbs, use of bicycles or hybrid cars, turning off the computer monitor when it is not in use, use of paper or cloth bag, less use of clothes and meat are some of things I am to apply in my daily life to protect earth.
With the new year on the horizon and my Master of Environmental Studies wrapping up it's time to set goals and to focus on laying down the foundation for my future. I feel like I'm at a crossroads in my career with interests flying in a million directions: mobile phones, social media, youth, social change, HIV/AIDS, health prevention, the list goes on. I feel like my identity is split into different areas which require different vocabularies that never meet.
When I think of what a thesis is I often imagine it as taking two strands of thought that usually never touch and combining them to examine an issue in a new light. For me my thesis work does that through examining the ways that youth activists are using mobile technology for social change. I'm in the midst of gathering data in eight different languages on how you the TakingITGlobal users are creating new innovative ways to use mobile phones, whether it's through text message crisis reporting or for facilitating communication for an environmental youth group. Already the data is showing trends, the most interesting being what issues the youth were interested in according to country. While Human Rights issues are popular among Latin American youth, European youth are very concerned about the environment. It will be interesting to aggregate all of the data into one document and run statistical tests and potentially look at the data private v.s. public. What effect will private v.s. public have on the connectivity and needs of the users around the globe?
In the Economist recently they slammed Ethiopia for having a public phone system claiming that it's stiffing growth. The opposite is true in Costa Rica where their system which is on the brink of being privatized has provided high connectivity rates when compared to the other countries in Central America with one of the lowest price baskets. Only the next few months of analysis will tell and the results should shed light globally on the current popular practices of youth activists. The results should serve as telecommunications policy recommendations for governments across the globe. There are countless examples of mobile phones adding to development across the globe and policies that stifle this like censorship, high price baskets, will be forced to open up free speech.
Worldwide Nepalese Students' Organisation - Nepal (WNSO-Nepal) is calling Nepalese Youth (ages 17 - 28) to submit their commitment essays on the topic : "I'm not emitting anymore".
The context behind the essay contest is that the world leaders, this December 18 in Copenhagen, may or may not come up with some agreement to deal with the climate change. After 5 days from that day in Kathmandu, we are giving away 15 bicycles plus other things as prizes to the top 15 essayists. The December 18 is the commencing day of UNFCCC COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Interested youth (ages 17-28, until 23 December 2009) are called to submit the handwritten-scanned essay (max. 240 words in English language) along with scanned citizenship and campus ID card (if applicable) to iycm-essays@wnso.org. The last date of submission is December 20, 2009.
Please don't forget to include your contact number on e-mail.
Conditions:
1) The selected top 15 essays along with the names of respective essayists will be published on the websites.
Prizes:
The distribution of such prizes is an iconic to exhibit that Nepalese youth have begun to stop the emissions of green house gases.
The top 15 essayists will get prizes as:
1) Top 5 : a bicycle and a CFL pack each
2) Next 5: a bicycle and a Jute bag each
3) Next 5: a bicycle
Venue of December 23 event will be made public very shortly.
For further details:
A soluble fibre supplement should be the first line of attack in treating irritable bowel syndrome, experts say.
Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands compared adding bran, a soluble supplement called psyllium and a dummy supplement to sufferers' diets.
They found psyllium was the most effective, warning that bran may even worsen the symptoms of the condition, the British Medical Journal reported.
As many as one in 10 people is estimated to have the condition.
It is characterised by abdominal pain and an irregular bowel habit.
Its exact cause is unknown and recommendations for treatment include dietary advice, antidepressants and drug treatments.
Many relying on dietary adjustments still turn to bran in a bid to help improve the way the intestines work.
But the Dutch study of 275 patients questions the wisdom of this approach.
The team gave patients 10g of either psyllium, bran or rice flour twice a day for 12 weeks.
Symptom severity
At the end of the study, those on psyllium, a naturally occurring vegetable fibre, reported symptom severity had been reduced by 90 points using a standard scale of rating problems.
For bran it was 58 points and for the placebo group, 49.
The report also showed that patients seemed less tolerant of bran, with more than half of the group dropping out during the trial, mostly because their symptoms worsened.
Soluble fibre can also be found in fruit such as apples and strawberries, as well as barley and oats.
But Dr Niek de Wit, one of the researchers, said: "It is unlikely that people with IBS would get enough from fruit and other foods to help them.
"I think adding psyllium to the diet is the best treatment option to start with. In the study, people did this by adding it to things such as yoghurt and it had a real effect."
Dr Anton Emmanuel, medical director of Core, the charity for diseases of the gut, said bran was being over-used.
He said the study was "helpful" and "reasonably robust", adding: "Putting it all together, patients should tolerate this form of fibre well and it may help some, especially those with a tendency to constipation."
