by Citizens for Global Solutions | May 8, 2007 | Global Cooperation, World Citizen
It’s that time again folks! The last week has seen the conclusion of the much anticipated third installment of the GlobalSolutions.org Flash Movie Contest . Once again this acclaimed initiative demonstrated its value in educating youth about the key global issues and concerns of the day, and gained some exciting and sophisticated movies that are arguably some of the best we’ve ever had. As the contest continues to go from strength to strength, it’s rewarding to find ourselves as inspired by what our young audience is creating as they are by the work that we do as an organization.
This year saw over 5,600 registrants from across the globe, including Pakistan, Mexico and the Ukraine. We saw the greatest age range in our contest participants than ever before – from ages 11 to 60 and for the first time brought in a five member panel to judge the submissions. The winners ranged in age from 15 to 24, with the first place movie focusing on energy and thus tying in perfectly with our key organizational campaign of 2007.
Tellingly, the winning submissions this year all focused on issues relating to energy and the environment, demonstrating how strongly young people feel about the need to combat pollution, develop alternative energy sources and focus far more on sustainable development.
The animator of the winning movie, 24-year-old Jeffrey Knight from Savannah, Georgia, pointedly commented that, “Be they small or large, our decisions and demands will shape the future of our world and make it a future worth saving.”
Flash technology is an exciting medium for bringing complex foreign policy issues to a broader audience, especially youth. Communicating key concerns in the space of a couple of minutes is phenomenally challenging, especially when many people that we engage are new to the subjects and have to start from scratch. This reflects not only that youth understand the issues at hand far more intricately than they are given credit for, but also demonstrates their astounding ability to communicate two minute animations that retain many of the nuances of what are complicated global problems.
Ensuring that GlobalSolutions.org stays high on the top of the technology wave is a crucial goal of the flash contest, but lets not lose sight of the bigger picture of what this initiative is all about education and engagement.
Flash has constructed both an echo chamber in which peoples’ own voices can resound, and a channel by which their opinions may flow into the foreign policy debate. And in accordance with our organization’s vision and mission, these engaged young people have adopted our policy areas as the vehicles through which they can both join the conversation and offer their own personal solutions to the intricate threats and challenges of the 21st century.
by Citizens for Global Solutions | May 3, 2007 | Global Justice, World Citizen
I have been a news junkie extraordinaire for far too many years. I admit my addiction, but there is no way I can break it. Even as a kid, I would run to the door each morning to grab The Detroit Free Press and begin to devour the news. At that early stage, I went right to the sports section. I had to check every columnist, carefully ingest each and every box score and memorize the top 10 leaders in home runs, goals scored, or scoring in the NBA depending upon the season.
As I grew older, the sports section has become my dessert. The main course for me is the front page, followed by the editorial and op-ed pages. With the internet, I can even get a handle on the daily news coverage around the world before 6 AM each morning (I am cursed, as I can’t sleep past 5 AM most mornings).
Over the past few years, logging onto the internet to check the news from papers all across our interconnected world has become quite depressing. With the daily death tolls in Iraq on the rise to disease and poverty ravaging our brothers and sisters in developing nations, I often find myself in a funk before my first cup of coffee is even finished.
This morning, E.J. Dionne, who writes a column for the Washington Post and is a scholar at The Brookings Institute, had a piece entitled “Democrats’ Foreign Policy Primary.” The headline caught my interest, but frankly, as I read E.J.’s column and normally I love his wit and insight there was a complete disconnect between the headline and what E.J. was articulating.
What Dionne focuses on is solely the Democratic positioning in regards to Iraq. He devotes less that one paragraph to Senator Obama’s “detailed foreign policy speech last week“
In fact, many candidates on both sides of the aisle have delivered big-picture foreign policy speeches: Obama, Hilary Clinton, John McCain , “America’s Mayor” and Bill Richardson . Yet, while the media clamors for depth and substance from the candidates, the press falls short when it comes to actually covering and analyzing the views of the people who are running for president.
So, I guess this morning’s “funk” was given a moment of hope, only to be dashed by the Post’s misleading headline on Dionne’s column.
by Citizens for Global Solutions | Mar 2, 2005 | Climate Justice, News, World Citizen
Washington DC – John Cooney, a student at University of California – Davis, has won the first ever Citizens for Global Solution’s National Flash contest. In beating out the final ten competitors Cooney received 1,409 of a total 8,784 number of points, meaning that his movie will become Citizens for Global Solutions promotional clip for 2005 and that he will receive a $1,000 cash prize.
“I was thrilled and shocked all at the same time when I received a call from Citizens from Global Solutions, announcing that I won the contest,” remarked Cooney. “Citizens for Global Solutions should expect another entry from me next year. This contest is too good to pass up. “
Cooney’s entry, which focused on the threats of global warming and the need for greater environmental standards, was done with an imaginative craftiness that belied his age. In tracing the ordeals of a penguin, who with the help of a little black stripe lobbies for Kyoto to save his Antarctic home, Cooney underscored the idea that ambition and courage can change politics and the world. Both educational and inspirational, Cooney’s work is the ideal clip to represent the vision and mission of Citizens for Global Solutions. In addition, Cooney’s movie has been gathering national attention, as it has been picked up by Media Rights for their annual movie contest.
Citizens for Global Solutions launched its national Flash contest with the aim of bringing complex international issues to the youth of today, encouraging them to use their own media and voice to communicate on these topics of concern. The competition asked entrants to present a global problem and illustrate a global solution in the form of a short Flash movie.
Response to the contest was overwhelming; Citizens for Global Solutions received over 3,000 registrations and entries from all over the world. It was the first of its kind held by Citizens for Global Solutions, a grassroots membership organization based in Washington, DC. The organization was seeking a new medium through which to engage the minds of youth in the U.S. and bring creativity to a normally traditional competition requiring essay entries.
Val Schrock, Citizens for Global Solutions E-Advocacy Program manager and contest creator said, “The contest was been a great success, with entries coming in from all over the world on a whole number of international issues ranging from global warming to globalization issues.
“We are constantly hearing in the media that today’s youth are apathetic about international issues. This perception is wrong and the Flash competition has really proved this. There are a lot of young people out there awake, paying attention, and willing to engage if given the opportunity to use their voice in their style.”
John Cooney’s movie can be seen by clicking on the following link
+ See Flash
by Citizens for Global Solutions | Feb 25, 2005 | Global Justice, News, World Citizen
Washington, DC – What do a budding rock star, a penguin-lobbyist and a hungry couch-potato have in common? They are all among the myriad creative characters who competed in the first ever Global Solutions Flash Movie Contest.
In the past, Citizens for Global Solutions had held essay competitions to challenge students to think and write about pertinent international issues. This year, however, we added a revitalizing, modernizing twist. Instead of putting ideas to words, entrants were asked to use Flash – a popular website movie-maker – to produce clips that dealt with global problems and solutions.
The movies produced expressed the entrant’s opinions and passions and were all reflective of their boundless creativity. None more so than the clip of this year’s contest winner, John Cooney, who told the story of a penguin whose iceberg home is melted by global warming and who successfully lobbies the President to support the Kyoto Protocols.
Cooney’s entry was emblematic of the contest in general. Young people from around the country showed unique insight in tackling a wide range of international issues, from global aids, deforestation and genocide, to child labor, poverty and world hunger. The top ten entries were viewed and judged by Citizens for Global Solution’s on-line community, with viewers able to log-on, watch and cast votes for their three favorite clips.
Engaging students on important global issues was only one or the goals of the Global Solutions Flash Movie Contest. Building a greater activist community was another. Since the launch of the contest in October over 3,000 people under the age of 30 have become a part of Citizens for Global Solution’s on-line activist community. That’s 3,000 young people that have shown a marked interest in the world around them and are looking for ways to make a difference.
Students that submitted entries said they learned a lot though the contest about some of the toughest issues facing the global community. They also described the Global Solutions competition as a rare but important forum for students, like themselves, to formulate and express opinions. “The contest was a great experience for me, not just as an artist, but as a voice for myself,” remarked first-place winner Cooney. “It gave me the opportunity to speak out and reach many more people, through a medium that is cross-cultural and understood by all languages. Animation has always been fun and entertaining for me to produce. But when it can be put towards a good cause, it is much more rewarding. If there is a contest next year, expect me to enter, because this contest has been wonderful.”
Valerie Schrock, Citizens for Global Solutions E-Advocacy Program Manager and contest organizer, agreed with Cooney’s assessment that this fall’s experiment is well worth repeating. “The organization is always looking for ways to encourage and activate younger audiences to get involved. This latest approach hit on something big. Young people are not asleep and they’re not apathetic. The trick is finding creative and interesting ways for them to relate to global issues. We nailed it when we simply gave them a chance to express themselves in a way that they are used to communicating. We issued the challenge and put up the dough. They did all the work. This contest won’t be the last of its kind.”
