GOING GLOBAL VIDEOS SEASON THREE

A “Must See”
Season Three – Schedule and Content
October 2007 through March 2008
produced by the United Nations Association of the USA Westchester Chapter.
For further information: e-mail: unausa@stratdev.com or visit: www.stratdev.com/UNA-USA/
Or www.unawestchester (after October 1) or call: 914-478-3450.

2006 STATE OF THE UN, AND VIDEOS FROM GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Week 1 - Episode 53: The first half of this episode reviews United Nations progress, successes as well as issues that were addressed in 2006. The second half focuses on four different stories: (a) highlighting issues Bahraini women face in seeking political positions; (b) China Population Report 2007, with a focus on urbanization; (c) how the impact of global warming in polar regions affects the rest of the world; and (d) how the Alliance of Civilizations came about and its goals and strategies for reducing tensions among different societies.

The next five videos in this season of Going Global with the UN are interviews conducted by Bill Miller from the United Nations Association of Kentucky, on the series "Global Connections," which is filmed at the United Nations in cooperation with UN TV.

Week 2 - Episode 54: Global Connections host Bill Miller speaks with the Executive Director of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation, Dr. David Stillman and Ambassador Francis Lorenzo from the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations about the United Nation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), highlighting the examples of progress made in the Dominican Republic. Ambassador Lorenzo and Dr. Stillman speak to the importance of cooperation between the UN and host countries. Stillman speaks on the work of the Public-Private Alliance in encouraging partnerships for development and its focus countries of Madagascar and the Dominican Republic.

Week 3 - Episode 55: In an interview with Global Connections host Bill Miller, Dr. David Nabarro, the UN System Senior Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza addresses issues surrounding the possibility of an avian influenza outbreak both in a local and global contexts, and the relationships with human influenza. Dr. Nabarro speaks about the potential for an outbreak to occur, and what sort of precautionary plans the UN has for dealing with such an occurrence, such as with issues of livestock and animal rearing. He also talks about how the UN plans to get control of the situation if an outbreak were to transpire.

Week 4 - Episode 56: Dr. Lucia Rodriguez, the Vice President for Education at the United Nations Association – USA, and Elizabeth Scarinci, intern at UNA – USA speak with Global Connections host Bill Miller about the Model UN and Global Classroom program from an organizational and a student perspective. Dr. Rodriguez discusses the Model UN program and how it helps students become more aware of world issues and become global citizens. Ms. Scarinci speaks about what it is like to participate in such a program, what she has learned, and how it has helped give her a clear focus for her college and career goals.

Week 5 - Episode 57: Global Connections host Bill Miller interviews Dr. Djibril Diallo, the Director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace about this unique approach the UN is taking to help combat issues of illiteracy, poverty and hunger. Dr. Diallo comments on the role sports have in development and how communities can use sports and physical education to help further their economic development and to tackle issues of gender inequality. In addition, Dr. Diallo speaks about how important partnerships between the UN, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector are to the success of this innovative approach to development.

Week 6 - Episode 58: Amir Dossal, the Executive Director of the UN Fund for International Partnerships speaks with Global Connections host Bill Miller about his work in promoting partnerships in development work between the public and private sector. Mr. Dossal stresses the importance of these relationships and how it positively benefits countries as well as how collaboration between groups focuses attention on dealing with issues affecting US citizens and others around the world.

Week 7 - Episode 59: This episode profiles the UNICEF Report on the State of the World’s Children in ten different countries; Iran, Romania, Chad, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Brazil, USA. Djibouti and Madagascar. It gives viewers snapshots from each country into how the health of children is inextricably linked to that of their mothers and others in the community, thereby showing how important it is to consider these issues in development.

Week 8 - Episode 60: The program analyzes the key countries with nuclear weapons and focuses on how we can reach a global disarmament without repeating any past atrocities.


THE UN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) -- INTRODUCTION

Week 9 - Introduction: The MDGs: Dream or Reality? Also: UNDP MDGs. (Episode 31)

Week 10: MDGs: – Albania: Roadmap to 2015. Also: Too Brief a Child: Voices of Married Adolescents (Episode 32)

MDG Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Week 11: Helping Ourselves. The program looks at two projects that are helping Indian communities move out of poverty. Also: Feeding Schoolchildren in Rwanda. (Episode 33)

Week 12: Yemeni Futures. The program asks what is being done to address the fundamental needs of the Yemeni people, and achievements since the unification in 1990 to raise the quality of their lives. Also: Millennium Village in Malawi (Episode 34)

Week 13: Central African Republic: Silent Crisis. The country is on the verge of complete collapse. It is one of the least developed countries in the world and one of the poorest. 13 per cent of children die in infancy and only a third of the population has access to safe drinking water. (Episode 35)

Week 14: The Angle of Hunger. The documentary features FAO’s field work in the Peruvian Andes and the Ethiopian Highlands and explores why a disproportionate number of mountain dwellers experience periods of hunger and food insecurity. (Episode 36)

MDG Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Week 15: Achieve Universal Primary Education. Two approaches to improving the lives of poor people -- one through education, as in the Shilmundi project in Bangladesh, the other through "community-driven development" in Indonesia. Also: Colombia - Medellin Girls; and Nepal - Welcome to School. (Episode 37)

Week 16: Educating Yaprak. Education for children, especially girls, in Turkey. Also: 10 Ways to change the world with children. (Episode 38)

MDG Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Week 17: Las Borregeras. An IFAD-supported project in Mexico helps a women’s group set up a sheep farm. Also: Agents of change 2005: The 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference and progress until now; and Fighting Poverty with Roses in Rwanda. (Episode 39)

Week 18: Women on the Run. The famous Kenyan marathon runner Tegla Loroupe starts a peace race to help end armed conflicts in her poverty-stricken home area. The Kenyan politician Linah Kilimo, who herself ran from the knife, strives for the goal of putting an end to female genital mutilation. (Episode 40)

MDG Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

Week 19: Fight for Life: Making Pregnancy Safer. This episode describes the attempt to improve maternal health in Moldova. (Episode 41)

Week 20: Fight for Life: Making Pregnancy Safer. This episode describes the attempt to improve maternal health in Bolivia. (Episode 42)


MDG Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

Week 21: Malaria, Killer Number One. Africa’s Malaria Crisis. Ethiopia is among the places hardest hit by the disease. New cures, preventive action and massive intervention by the international community bring a glimmer of hope. Also: Fistula Advocacy Video. UNFPA brings awareness to this childbirth problem. (Episode 43)

Week 22: Research Capacity and Self-reliance in Developing Countries. The video explores needs and solutions to public health problems caused by neglected infectious diseases. Also: The Road Towards Universal Access. Reaching the MDG on HIV/AIDS requires far greater access to prevention, treatment, care and support than is currently available. Also: AIDS: For a Social Vaccine (ILO). (Episode 44)

MDG Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Stability

Week 23: Global Focus: The New Environmentalists. Features intimate portraits of seven dedicated individuals who have put themselves between government powers, corporate interests and other rivals on behalf of the Earth's well-being. Each compelling story takes place on a different continent. (Episode 45)

Week 24: Weather, Climate, Water in the Information Age About the World Meteorological Organization
Also: The other side of Paradise. About the December 2004 Tsunami and its impact; Grenada hurricane and impact; Sea Turtles in Barbados; Environmental Changes and impacts on islands. (Episode 46)

Week 25: Tomorrow's Catch. The video highlights FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries
Also: The First Mile. This IFAD video looks an innovative two-year pilot project underway in Tanzania. Also, Inner Mongolia leads China in Wind Power Generation. (Episode 47)

MDG Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Week 26: Breaking Through. This film gives a glimpse of what microfinance means for millions throughout Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, through the Grameen Foundation. Also: World Community Grid: IBM works with many partners to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Also, ITU backs ICTs to Aid Development. The International Telecommunications Union and information communications technology. (Episode 48)

Going Global with the UN Videos available online

Going Global with the UN

The first season of our Going Global with the UN video series is up on streaming video, thanks to cooperation among UNA Westchester, the UNA Dallas Chapter and Richland Community College, part of the Dallas Community College system. Noeli Biggs (part of UNA Dallas and on staff at Richland Community College) plans to put up the second season starting in October. See http://www.rlc.dcccd.edu/modelun/videos.htm

This effort is made possible in part through a gift from an anonymous donor, which has enabled us to get permission from Smithsonian for use of their music, and from all collaborators who have permitted us to put their work on streaming video.

Going Global currently has 52 videos, with another eight in preparation in time for October's season on cable TV stations Westchester. Of the eight, five are from Bill Miller's excellent Global Connections series. Bill, with the UNA Kentucky Division, films these at the United Nations.

We would welcome your feedback on these videos as an educational and awareness tool. I hope you will take a little time to view some of them.

The videos are can be purchased from UNA Westchester. For information write to jinka.stillman@gmail.com.

Yonkers and Mount Vernon Projects Successful

YONKERS CHILDREN'S PEACE ART PROJECT

The UNA Westchester chapter's Yonkers Children's Peace Art Project this year reached 45 classrooms in 18 schools, and more than 1,200 3rd grade students. After a presentation by Chapter members, working in pairs in each classroom, children used crayons and paper to draw their vision of peace. These drawings were then hung at the Yonkers Riverfront Library, the YMCA of Yonkers, 20 South Broadway, and the Grinton I. Will Library. This was a wonderful experience for the Chapter's volunteers, and we think for the children. Volunteers work from a script, but bring many of their own experiences into the discussion. Children and their parents come from many different countries, and many speak languages other than English at home, so they understand quite well the idea of the need for different countries to come together for peace.

Many teachers and principals commented on how much they like this project, which is now in its third year. Again, the School Board offered its support through a letter from the Superintendent of Schools. Karen Rockwell El Badry coordinated the effort for the chapter.

MT. VERNON GLOBAL AWARENESS PROJECT

For the 2nd year, UNA Westchester has worked with Mt. Vernon Schools to offer a Global Awareness Project. This year 9th grade students learned about the United Nations and about the 8 Millennium Development Goals. Recognizing the potential of the initiative for the City’s students, the Verizon Foundation has provided a generous grant of $5,190 to help support and expand this year’s project.

With the guidance of their teachers, Mr. Demetrios Mihailidis and Mr. Sean Capiello, the students wrote essays exploring three MDGs: gender equality, poverty and HIV and disease, and the very important areas of security and access to higher education. They then embarked on a "Day of Diplomacy," beginning with a ceremony at City Hall with Mayor Ernest Davis and with Superintendent of Schools Brenda Smith. They then traveled to Manhattan for an interactive presentation at UNICEF, to the German consulate for a discussion comparing student experiences in Germany and the U.S., and then to the UN for a guided tour.

Mr. John Butler presented the Verizon Foundation’s grant to the United Nations Association Westchester Chapter at the kick-off event for the project at City Hall on May 8. Ms. Charlene Morisseau, Esq., a UNA-USA Westchester Board member and Mount Vernon native who founded the program, says, “The news tells us that adolescents today around the world confront unique challenges. Our students have taken the lead in proposing concrete solutions.” Students’ ideas for U.S. public schools included providing three school meals a day for peers with undernourished families, financial aid programs at the high school level similar to universities, and specialized screening, training and technology for school security guards.

The local community has embraced the students and their mission. Mr. Lowes L. Moore, Executive Director of the Mt. Vernon Boys and Girl’s Club, one of the cosponsoring organizations, says, “This project will expose our young people to issues in the global community and will help improve their future.” Other community cosponsors include the City’s Superintendent of Schools, Youth Bureau, Mt. Vernon Federation of Teachers, Junior Achievement of the Hudson Valley, Inc., and the African-American Men of Westchester, Inc.

Israel-Palestine - Our View

Israel - Palestine Peace and United Nations Involvement

For the past two years, the Westchester Chapter of UNA has offered to UNA’s Annual Meeting and National Convention a resolution on the Israeli-Palistinian Conflict, which the convention has passed. The following resolution was passed at the annual Convention in March 2007, and was drafted in fall 2006. The operative paragraphs read as follows:

UNA-USA Affirms that the ultimate goal of a comprehensive and peaceful settlement must be the security of the State of Israel within internationally recognized borders, and agreement on a viable, secure, and independent sovereign state for the Palestinian people,

Urges all concerned: 1. To encourage on-going discussions between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership, members of the Quartet, the Arab League, and key countries in the region, aimed at enhancing mutual security and supporting the revival of the Palestinian economy, and 2. To consider the convening of an international conference of all interested parties as soon as feasible, preferably under the auspices of the Quartet.

Expresses its support for the new Secretary General who will assume office in January 2007 at a critical time in the future of the UN and a particular need to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In 2007, 33 countries face hunger crisis

The UN Millennium Development Goals include cutting in half poverty and hunger by the year 2015. Despite projected increases in grain crops, which should help, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 33 countries will not have enough food to feed their people this year. Women, children, the sick and the elderly are most at risk.

From the FAO website, it appears that in 2007 33 countries will require external assistance:

Exceptional shortfall in food production/supplies:
Iraq, Lesotho, Philippines, Swaziland, Zimbabwe

Widespread lack of access to food:
Afghanistan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Mauritania, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone

Severe localized food insecurity:
Bolivia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Madagascar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania

Countries with unfavourable prospects for current crops

Bolivia - Adverse weather conditions (floods in lowlands; drought, hail and frost in highlands)
Iraq - Conflict, displacement
Lesotho - Dry weather
Namibia - Dry spells
South Africa - Dry, hot weather in maize growing areas
Swaziland - Dry weather
Timor-Leste - Drought
Zimbabwe - Dry spells in southern parts of the country

What action is needed: pressing our government to respond to calls for assistance when these are made. The US is a generous donor in food assistance, but it is important for Americans who care to keep this on the front burner among our elected officials.

Shaping Our Future: The U.S. and UN Treaties

Why should the people of Westchester care about the U.S. and international treaties? The simple answer is, U.S. participation in the world affects us all. The U.S. is often in the lead in pressing for international agreements. However, we have also learned that strong differences exist in some matters, as seen in the debate over the past four years over the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War and the UN Convention Against Torture.

International treaties and conventions are essential to the development of an international community based on law and justice. Any “loss of sovereignty” by the United States is more than compensated by the benefits of these treaties, and by the dialogue that is necessary to develop an international community.

The United States Senate has passed, and the President has signed, many many treaties over the years. But the US has NOT ratified a number of important ones, including the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (Only the U.S. and Somalia haven’t ratified the Rights of the Child convention.) Such a failure is inexcusable. Moreover, the United States, as well as other countries that have ratified these conventions, is allowed sign while stating any reservations.

Great global issues are currently the subject of negotiations and treaty-making – nuclear testing, law of the sea, landmines, environment, climate change, and International Criminal Court. The U.S. needs to take a strong, positive role in shaping what remains under discussion and in ratifying the outcome of international consensus. Our country has more to lose than to gain by remaining slow in committing ourselves to the advancement of international norms.

The place of the United States in the twenty-first century will reflect in no small measure our willingness to “internationalize” the democratic values we have developed since 1776 and to engage with other countries to develop a law-based and just, international community.

In 2004, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, under Richard G. Lugar (R – Indiana), voted 19-0 to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, which relates to policies on navigation, commerce and the environment. However, despite wide support for the treaty from many groups—industry, green and other— the majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) declined to bring the treaty to the floor for a vote.

In a recent article “Memo to America: Rejoin the World,” Strobe Talbott calls for ratification by the US Senate of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), re-signing of the Rome Treaty for the International Criminal Court (which President Bush “un-signed”), introducing legislation on greenhouse admissions in line with the Kyoto Treaty and in general rejoining the world in policies that will ensure America’s leadership, not demonstrate its recalcitrance. Talbott is President of the Brooking Institution and US Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001. His full essay appears online at www.theinterdependent.org. The Interdependent is the quarterly magazine of the United Nations Association of the USA.

On April 11, at the New York Judicial Institute in White Plains, the United Nations Association of the USA Westchester Chapter and Pace Law School will co-sponsor “UN Treaties: A Threat to U.S. Sovereignty?” Columbia Law School Professor Jose E. Alvarez, a county resident and authority on international treaties, will speak, and Prof. Gayl S. Westerman of Pace Law School, who specializes on the Law of the Sea Treaty, will moderate. The event will take place at 6 pm and is free and open to the public. This is an opportunity also to learn how citizens can promote action by our lawmakers on issues important to us all. For further information, call 914-478-3450 or email unausa@stratdev.com


Jeanne Betsock Stillman

Allen Weintraub, Esq.

Stillman is the Executive Director of the UN Association Westchester Chapter; Weintraub is a member of its Government Relations and Advocacy Committee.

UNA Convention a Great Success

The UNA-USA convention, held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan from March 1 - 4, was a great success. Hundreds attended -- and close to 1,000 members joined in Members Day at the UN on the afternoon of the 3rd.

In addition to many Westchester board and chapter members, Westchester groups represented included 24 members from Kendal-on-Hudson, in Tarrytown. Peter Davies's organizational skills brought this group together. Many Kendal residents are long-time supporters of the United Nations, but many have just joined UNA since our chapter offered a trip to Hyde Park to hear Gillian Sorensen, Steven Schlesinger and others for UN Day in 2005.

Sleepy Hollow High School in Tarrytown registered eleven students for Members Day -- another great group.

On behalf of the chapter I presented information about our Going Global with the UN series, and about the Peace Makes the World a Better Place supplement published by The Journal News. That's now online, and you can view it at:

http://www.lohud.com/graphics/pdf/nie/unitednations.pdf