http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/268687
well once again, it's been quite a while since I've updated this blog! There have been many interesting things happening around the world- I think that sometimes it is very difficult to keep up with it all!

If there's one thing that I think is exciting and important, it is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty which will be held this Wednesday. Once again this year many different organisations have joined froces to co-ordinate a global event know as STAND UP SPEAK OUT. As I'm sure many of you will be aware, over 23.5 million people stood up and spoke out against poverty, setting a new world record. It was a huge show of support and solidarity from the worlds' many different people and this year they are running the event again, hoping to break last years record.

There are events happening all over the globe and if you check out the international website at www.standagainstpoverty.org you can find out what's happening at an area near you, or you can register to hold your own event. Whether it be 10 or 1000 people, they need as many people as possible to take this simple but symbolic action in a cry out for action. For those in Sydney, Australia, the main event will be held at Martin Place in the city with entertainment from about 5pm and standing up by about 5.30 pm. It should be a fantastic evening!

As well, the federeal election has finally been called in Australia for the 24th of November so if you are eligible to vote please make sure that you have enrolled with the electoral commission and that you consider the policies from all of the major parties so that you make an informed vote!

At the moment, I've been lucky enough to take on the role as a social justice captain in my school and as I'm planning the year ahead I'm very much looking out for new ideas and ways to engage the school. If anyone has any really creative/successful suggestions, please just get in contact with me, I'd love to hear from you!

As always, pleanty of Peace Love,

Hilary]]> Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:42:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/268687 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/216243
it's been a while since I've dropped a line. year 11 has been ridiculously busy. I hope everyone's had a great year.

exciting stuff happening in Australia as the world approaches the halfway point for delivering the MDG's. The Make Poverty History Campaign, the Oaktree Foundation and Reach are organising a huge roadtrip from the 1/7/07 to the 07/07/07 that will hopefully help start a little more action, and I'm going! I'm soooo excited, it should be fantastic. They'll be supported by many of Australians finest musicians and we'll spend the week travelling around and raising some awareness!

I'd love to know what other people from around the world will be doing to mark the 07/07/07, )apart from the Live Earth Concerts, of course), so drop me line and let me know!

peace and love
Hilary]]> Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:17:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/216243 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/163185
One thing i did stumble across two weekends or so ago was an article reporting the announcement of the live earth campaign by al gore and the concerts to be accompanying it on the 07/07/07. I had been meaning to see an inconvenient truth but, as is always the case, hadn't gotten around to it but with my interest piqued rented it out and watched it that very night. I was impressed and shocked all at once. Impressed at how the documentary had actually been made interesting to watch, they were able to get across all the damning information and included the personal bits about his life in a non-complicated form and shocked at just how bad the problem is, i was left cursing myself about not understanding more, earlier.

My school is now going to be showing parts of the DVD during a lunch break which is fantastic, but one of the main questions I suppose I still have is, is it going to be really effective? While their is no doub that the spread of awareness should be huge but will it really cause as great a change? I look at the Live 8 concerts and while it was a fantastic movement that not only united most of the world and increased the spread of awareness about the true scale of poverty around the world, it just seems in the aftermath that there is still so much out there to be done that the impact almost seems to gently fade into the background, and I worry that this might happen with these concerts. I really hope that it doesn't and I think that a lot of work will have to be done so that there is a huge change made in response tothe concerts!

With peace and love always
hil]]> Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:20:00 EST http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/163185 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/85265
I hope that everyone has had a fantastic New Year! (Buon Anno Nuovo, in Italian!) I also thought I'd take the time to say that I hope that everyone is proud of everything that was achieved in the last year. Although I know that we are still a long way way from achieving all of the Millennium goals, and as we approach the halfway mark for the target of 2015 it seems that we have to be even more energetic in our effort to mobilise governments to come through on the promises they made in 2000. But after receiving a Millennium Campaign e-mail for the start of the new year, it stressed the importance of being proud of the achievements made so far and using them as our inspiration for doing even more.

I hope that everyone has a safe and fruitful 2007, may it be a year for even bigger and better things!

Peace/ Pace

Hilary]]> Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:38:00 EST http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/85265 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/71523
We spent the day under the care of the St. Cancie parish. Attached to the beautiful old church is a house that is the home for four jesuits, a soup kitchen, a house for refugees as well as an ecumencial dialogue centre.

Apprehensive at first, the area comes with a very negative reputation, we were spoken to by Fr. Steve and an Aboriginal woman named Sue. Sue was a user of the drug ice (methamphetamine) and was also homeless. Contrary to expectations (and I know we shouldn't have had any to begin with, but it is difficult to shake off your upbringing) she was incredibly articulate and open and one of the first things she said was that she would never let anything happen to us when we were in the Cross and we all found that incredibly tounching. A member of the stolen generation she was lucky in that she was adopted to a white family who loved her very much and educated her and treated her like she was their own. She met her original family when quite young. Her natural mother was and remains an alcoholic, while her natural father is a good man. While still at school her older sister died in a car accident on the way to pick her up from a park and her people refused to accept her as one of their own becuase she was raised like a white person- so that she felt like she was missing a part of her.

Eventually she turned to ice to ease her guilt and suffering and although she managed to hold down several jobs the drug eventually took over and she has since been on the street. Her story was incredible and we were all inspired by her incredible strength. I just hope we'll be able to do more work in the area again next year.

It just reminds you to never judge a book by it's cover! ]]> Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:53:00 EST http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/71523 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/58079 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sheik Alhilali outraged Muslim community leaders and politicians across the political spectrum with his comments, made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month.

Excerpts from a recording of the 17-minute sermon appeared in The Australian newspaper.

The Sheik alluded to rapes in 2000 in which four women were separately gang-raped by young Muslim men, including Bilal Skaf, who received a 55-year jail sentence, later reduced.

He said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and inappropriate clothes, "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years," The Australian reported.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat," the sheik asked.

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (head scarf), no problem would have occurred."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although the Sheik and many of his spokespeople have defended the comments, saying that they have been taken out of context, they stil annoy me to a large degree. It's effect and the appearance of intolerance is similar, although to a smaller degree, with the comments made by the Pope earlier in the year.

I get angry when leaders, any type although religious will apply in the context of this blog, who are considered by followers of a certain belief to be able to represent them confidently and looking out for the interests of them make comments that stir up prejudices and cause outrage. When a large proportion of the Australian population still do not have even a basic understanding of the Islamic religion, especially the diversity in which it is practised an followed in Australia, comment made like that only make it easier for people to strenghten ignorant prejudices.

When so many people, of all faiths, are working so hard to try and shake off stereotypical images presented of them and to reach out and make connections and encourage inter-fatih and intercultural dialogue it is distressing to see their work being torn apart. In a coutnry as multi-cultural as Australia all religious leaders, while entitled to make any comment they choose, must be able to represent their religion in the context of our society and ensure that they are not adding unnecessary burdens to the people who look to them for representation and guidance.

Just food for thought.
Peace,
Hilary]]> Fri, 27 Oct 2006 04:40:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/58079 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/51693 For those of you who don't know (and I doubt there would be many on this website who don't) STAND UP was an even organised for the 15th and 16th of October. It was an attempt to break the Guiness World Record for the number of people to stand up for a cause and I am overjoyed to report that over 23 MILLION people stood up worldwide.

I think that that is phenomenal. We smashed the record and we did it in style! When you think about it, it was so easy to do and I think that those are the kind of ideas that are going to help bring the major issues into the spotlight. I think that if people realise that they can make a difference just by standing up and by doing this are bringing the MDG's to the attention of their governments, then more people are going to be encouraged to find out more and get involved.

I was on the millennium campaign website looking at a few of the photos and you can't help, and this definetley counds corny, but feel a real sense of unification with people. If people in a school in Australia who are surrounded by an abundance of resources can stand up alongside hcildren in a school with just one computer and a totally different lifestyle, for the same cause, then you can't help but feel that we stand a damn good fighting chance.

Peace
Hilary ]]> Thu, 19 Oct 2006 04:15:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/51693 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/50973
For anybody a lot of this information is nothing new. However the one thing I can't understand is how anybody could not suddenly feel the instant need to do something or at the very least, find out more about the situation. Throughout the millennia it has no doubt been seen that man has the potential to be and often has been, incredibly selfish. When push comes to shove, it's every man (or woman etc. etc.) for themselves and it's not hard to blame them for it when you know that's exactly what you would do yourself. However, situations like these incite question when you consider that it would not adversely affect anyone to take out five minutes of their day to write to their local member or for a government to commit more money and food to causes suah as the WFP when we have a surplus of such resources anyway.

Often for younger people, the thought it "Oh, how sad, I could never live like that" and bingo! there is the problem. Many young people are unable to empathise with the situation of these children or they cannot really understand the scope of numbers involved because 400 million of anything is often difficult to comprehend. Fortunately, almost no child in this country will have to suffer from malnutrition and while this is a blessing for those it is also a curse in that it is difficult to rally others to a cause that is so incredibly alien and when sitting in the movies, with a coke and a popcorn is that much easier and much more in reach of our comfort zone.]]> Thu, 12 Oct 2006 06:16:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/50973 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/45183
Oh well. At least I get to go to school, right?]]> Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:30:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/45183 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/42911
Another reaction which I noticed at school was that although many people were quite shocked I heard some girls laughing. Not maliciously but I realised that they were only laughing at the death of the image, rather than that of the man himself. Interestingly enough when those girls were told that Steve Irwins niece attended our school, they suddenly stopped laughing. Coming to the realisation that it was in fact a tragic event in which a wife and two children had lost their husband/father at a ridiculously young age.

I think this situation can easily be applied to the issues experienced in trying to get young people, the ones with the most power, involved in making change. Because, thankfully, the majority of us have never expereienced anything like extreme poverty it is hard for many to simply feel motivated when it is very hard to know where to start and becuase it is much easier to simply pass it off as something that we can't change.

If people can't directly relate to a situation- if all they ever receive is numbers and statistics- then many can't feel directly attached to it or it seems like an outcome that cannot possibly be achieved. Because although the numbers are often shocking, many people do not really appreciate the scale of these numbers as they are often very hard to imagine. I think this is what everyone has to work on getting over in trying to get young people involved in making poverty history.

Returning to the original topic I think that although he had his controversial moments Steve Irwin was a positive marketer for Australia and that he was a genuine, dedicated man and I also think that it is important to consider everything before, if it's necessary at all, passing judgement.]]> Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:10:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/42911 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667 http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/42659
Our year at school at a talk from Sr. Libbie, a sister who works with the IBVM, about Community Service. At one point she asked about the MDG's and without thinking I put my hand up and when she pointed at me I just gave the 8 MDG's and how they were formed off the top of my head without really seriously thinking about it. When I had finished I finally became aware that the 150 other girls in the room were looking at me like I had 2 heads. "How did you know that?", "Where did you find that out from?" they kept asking.

I honestly could not believe it. Our school is really involved in social justice and yet here I was, surrounded by 150 of the people who are supposed to be apart of the generation to "Make poverty history" and who are fortunate to have more resources at their finger tips than most people and they were looking at me like I had 2 heads, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, there are some really involved girls at our school and even they didn't know what the MDG's were and even if they had heard of them they didn't know what the 8 of them actually were or how significant they were.

It really opened my eyes and I am positive when I say I won't be making the mistake of assuming things like that anymore. Further more it has definetly shown me what has to be done next, lol.

Peace,
Hil

"YOU must be the change you want to see in the world"- Mahatma Gandhi

"Millions of people in the worlds poorest countries are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free" -Nelson Mandela.]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:42:00 EDT http://hilaryv.tigblog.org/post/42659 -33.8833333 151.2166667-33.8833333151.2166667