Here’s YOUR chance to CHANGE THE WORLD

Finally, after enduring 8 years of Bushisms, a ray of light shines through. A man steps forth, one with lofty ambitions and who promises CHANGE at various levels. Whether he can deliver, no one can say, but one thing’s for certain, i’m darn sure he can at least read a book the right side up and remember to take the cap off the lenses before looking through a pair of binoculars. That man is Barack Hussein Obama II.

Biden, Obama

A fresh start we have here. A chance to make things right. Here are 10 key campaign promises made by Obama that could impact the world, and you can see his full platform here.

• Reduce the US’s carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and play a strong positive role in negotiating a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol
• Withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and keep no permanent bases in the country
• Establish a clear goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons across the globe
• Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center
• Double US aid to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 and accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and Malaria
• Open diplomatic talks with countries like Iran and Syria, to pursue peaceful resolution of tensions
• De-politicize military intelligence to avoid ever repeating the kind of manipulation that led the US into Iraq
• Launch a major diplomatic effort to stop the killings in Darfur
• Only negotiate new trade agreements that contain labor and environmental protections
• Invest $150 billion over ten years to support renewable energy and get 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015

Perhaps you stand by the side of Obama on all these issues. Perhaps you vehemently deny to finding a new (and probably nicer) home for Hambali. Whatever your stand, here’s your chance to be heard. Keep in mind that it’s all due to technology.

From Avaaz.org: The world is seizing this historic and hopeful moment to send a flood of global messages to Obama. Our message and number of signers as well as the personal messages sent are displayed on a large wall in the centre of Washington DC.

Over the last 24 hours, the wall has hit the front pages of the Washington Post, USA Today and other leading newspapers in the US, alongside CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and other global media. A massive global response, this moment is redefining the future relationship between the US and the world — let’s get to a million!

Avaaz is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) They are putting together an online petition of sorts, to present this message to President Obama:

Dear President Obama:

As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, close Guantanamo prison and end torture, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to fight poverty. No one country or leader can meet the world’s most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change.

Besides this mesage, you get to add an optional personal message of your own. If you’ve always felt that a nation-wide ban on paris hilton is prudent, here’s your chance to let President Obama know!  So go sign the petition here NOW! At the point of this post, there are 213,388 signatures thus far. Add on to help hit the million mark! Yes, maybe the odds of him picking up your message is worse than striking the lottery, but what the heck it’s still worth a shot ain’t it? How often does a chance to change the world come along?

I end off with a quote from Obama:

Believe

Thoughts on Podcamp

First of all, would like to say a big word of thanks to everyone who turned up for podcamp! It wouldn’t have been possible without each and every one of you. After all, that’s what podcamp’s all about. It’s not so much the technology out there or the various tools available, but more of the sharing of ideas, debating over issues and coming away with something valuable at the end of the day.

In my opinion, many of the topics discussed can be learnt and debated over the net, so why the need to meet up on a rainy, early saturday morning? I guess there is just something about human interaction that just can’t be replaced. When you get a melding of minds, building on ideas, spontaneous participation and focused interaction, there is a magical alchemy going on that is hard to simply describe in words.

I hope the whole spirit of podcamp is cultivated in the right way in singapore. Wait a min, is there a RIGHT way in the first place? I believe that every podcamp around the world develops its own character, style and culture. Yes, there is an overarching core belief of sharing in a spirit of openess and informality, and you can’t go very wrong following these guidelines. However, every podcamp is unique in its own way as well.. simply because the people who attend are special in their own way.  With podcamp singapore still in relative infancy, it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves. Obviously, we have seen an increase in popularity and interest in podcamp this year, and I believe this trend will continue in future years. Let’s strive to build a podcamp unique to singapore , where anyone is welcome to share their thoughts without fear of being antagonized or alienated, and which would even attract people from other nations to attend. We still have much room for development, and we can take a leaf from the books of other podcamps like boston, montreal etc.

On a separate note, a big thanks to my fellow team mates who helped to put this all together! You guys are a fantastic bunch to work with, and we tackled obstacles that came our way with tenacity and true grit. Cheers guys!

Podcamp Singapore Team!

Podcamp Singapore v2.0

A successful conclusion to a very exciting and enriching event indeed!

I’m so glad that all our effort put into organising this has finally paid off. Will blog more about this event once I gather my thoughts on some issues and grab some photos/podcasts off my teammates. In the meantime, you can find out what happened at the event by checking out the sites of some people who did live blogging at our event! (Boy, am I glad we settled the internet issue… actually we had some last minute problem with getting wireless access for the two rooms.. so so so so relieved that was solved in time and the podcampers could get on the net for live blogging or podcasting)

Some good sites to visit:

Claudia’s Site: http://claudia.sg/ (Simply fantastic coverage of the event by Claudia! Somemore first picture shows me kicking off Podcamp by introducing our first speaker Melvin hehe.)

Kelvin’s Site: http://darkholme.pseudoplace.com/ (Very comprehensive summary of the discussions in a clear, easy-to-read format)

Derrick’s Site: http://derrickkwa.com/archives/liveblog-podcamp-singapore-1/ (Testing out live blogging software, Cover IT Live)

Tech65: http://www.tech65.org/ (Nothing’s up yet, but I believe they’ll put something up on this on their site pretty soon. They were doing podcasting at the event.)

 

Had a great time meeting members of the social media community, and catching up with my fav PR girls sam & denise! At the same time, it’s way cool to see a whole room of people (in SMU) who are really enthusiastic about the topics discussed and participate purely for the sake of learning from one another and building on ideas to really dig deep into subjects. That doesn’t happen often in SMU. What you normally see are students clamouring to say something, anything in order to gain marks and improve their grading. It’s sad.

Cheers to Podcamp and other similar events in Singapore! Now where’s that beercamp that Preetam was talking about hahaha.

Ok it’s back to my other projects now sigh… few more weeks of torture to go.