Category: Body & Mind

Kids get to interview UN officals

A group of young journalists will get the opportunity to ask UN officials tough questions. The kids will also have the chance to express what it is like to be a child around the world to the delegates to policy makers. I hope that the UN listens.

“The 11 young journalists, from all 4 continents, will be making speeches at the Day of the General Discussion on the Rights of the Child and are expected to interview UN committee members and state representatives. Their reports and observations will be sent back to their countries and communities.

The journalists from Canada, Colombia, El Salvador, Ghana, India, Kenya, Norway, Senegal, Sweden and Zimbabwe, will join 22 youth delegates from other agencies at the UN’s Palais Wilson on September 15th.

“I want the Committee members to know just what Children’s Rights means for me, and millions of young persons like me, and I want to take back everything I learn and accurately inform and educate everyone in my country” said 12-year-old Sibonile, from Zimbabwe.”

Madrid Fashion Week Projects Image of Health & Beauty

Its Fashion week in Madrid, but many of the models will be heading home rather than down the catwalk as organizers say they are too thin.

Although it provoked outrage in the modeling community, regional government organizes and sponsors of this international event say this year they want to portray an image of health and beauty rather than Heroine Chic. Organizers say they have a responsibility to project healthy body images and fear that waif-like models may negatively influence young girls. Said event organizer Concha Guerra: “Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk.”

Models are measured using the Body Mass Index, taking into account height and body type. Organizers of a similar event in Italy have vowed to continue the trend.

Carla also wrote in to tell us the fashion show was also mentioned on the CBC.

Google balancing out?

googleGoogle is not perfect, but sometimes they do things that make them look they are trying to be wonderful to all people. Their motto is “don’t be evil.” Even though they are self-censoring in China, unlike Wikipedia (something that all ThingsAreGood readers already know), Google has released banned books.

Now you can read books that have been censored somewhere, as long as they are free of private censorship and are in the public domain.

“To Kill a Mockingbird. Of Mice and Men. The Great Gatsby. 1984. It’s hard to imagine a world without these extraordinary literary classics, but every year there are hundreds of attempts to remove great books from libraries and schools”

(Via /.)

Wikipedia says no to censoring

wikipedia logoWikipedia, that great resource for all sorts of information, is refusing to censor itself to gain an audience in China. The site was censored by China in October of last year because it has bad things to say about the country according to the Chinese leadership.

The founder of Wikipedia has “challenged other internet companies, including Google, to justify their claim that they could do more good than harm by co-operating with Beijing.”

“We’re really unclear why we would be [banned],’ Wales told The Observer. ‘We have internal rules about neutrality and deleting personal attacks and things like this. We’re far from being a haven for dissidents or a protest site. So our view is that the block is in error and should be removed, but we shall see.'”