Be careful about International House in New York. I innocently applied for a housing in this place for 6 months, but I did not know it was actually a SCAM.

I went through a very bureaucratic process. First I had to pay a NOT REFUNDABLE 65 USD fee for the application. Then, there are admission criteria that I really think I was fulfilling, but I then received a letter telling me I was denied the housing.

I then asked why I was denied the place, and after 3 phone call attempts, the person told me that I did not fulfill the criteria in the same extent than other candidate, but could not explain why exactly or specifically.

She told me that it was like a university application!!!
I am really upset against International House, which basically steals international students or young people's money!!!!

I you feel you were in the same case and this is actually a SCAM, please write me a email at: sigar14@gmail.com.
The more we are the more powerful we will be.

Cheers,

Simon

"MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression" is a youth-led magazine and a website dedicated to helping youth become more informed and engaged in society. The co-founders of this project are Yassir and Ilyes El Ouarzadi, two young laureates of the Millenium Excellence Scholarships. These young leaders both participated in the leadership program Shad Valley as well as in the 2008 World Youth Congress and in the Dictée des Amériques and they wish, through this project, to give the opportunity to hundreds, even thousands of young people from Canada and abroad, to live such live-changing experiences. Therefore, MOMENTUM is a by-youth, for-youth network dedicated to social change.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MOMENTUM MAGAZINE ?

We welcome your submissions (on current events (economic crisis) or on any topic related to youth engagement, global issues, and leadership) in the form of articles, interviews, poetry, personal reflections, short stories, photography, etc.

Your written submissions should be no longer than 1000 words in length.
Please email all submissions by July 31st to info.momentum@yahoo.com in Word format.

NEW DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:
July 31st, 2009

Thanks !

------------------------------------------------------------

«MOMENTUM : Mission, Passion, Expression» est un magazine jeunesse accompagné d'un site web qui a pour but d'aider les jeunes à être bien informés et bien impliqués dans la société. Les cofondateurs de ce projet sont Yassir et Ilyes El Ouarzadi, deux jeunes lauréats de la Bourse d'excellence du millénaire. Ces jeunes leaders ont tous les deux participé au programme de leadership Shad Valley ainsi qu'au Congrès Mondial des jeunes 2008 et à la Dictée des Amériques et qui désirent, grâce à ce projet, donner l'opportunité à des centaines, voire des milliers de jeunes du Canada et d'ailleurs, de vivre de telles expériences qui pourront changer leurs vies. MOMENTUM est donc un réseau de changement social, par les jeunes et pour les jeunes.


COMMENT PARTICIPER AU MAGAZINE MOMENTUM ?

Envoyez-nous vos articles, poèmes et textes d'opinion sur le thème: comment les jeunes changent le monde ? et comment vous faites en tant que jeunes la différence dans vos communautés ? Vous pouvez aussi partager votre expérience personnelle pour inspirer d'autres jeunes à s'engager et à réaliser des projets dans leurs communautés. Vous pouvez également traiter de sujets d'actualité (crise économique), de problèmes qui affectent les jeunes ou encore des problématiques mondiales comme les changements climatiques.

Les articles ne devraient pas contenir plus de 1000 mots.
Faites-nous parvenir vos écrits en format Word à info.momentum@yahoo.com

DATE LIMITE D'ENVOI: la date a été prolongée
Le 31 juillet 2009

MERCI !

Yassir et ilyes
Co-Founders of MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression
Join us at: http://momentumweb.ning.com/

"MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression" is a youth-led magazine and a website dedicated to helping youth become more informed and engaged in society. The co-founders of this project are Yassir and Ilyes El Ouarzadi, two young laureates of the Millenium Excellence Scholarships. These young leaders both participated in the leadership program Shad Valley as well as in the 2008 World Youth Congress and in the Dictée des Amériques and they wish, through this project, to give the opportunity to hundreds, even thousands of young people from Canada and abroad, to live such live-changing experiences. Therefore, MOMENTUM is a by-youth, for-youth network dedicated to social change.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MOMENTUM MAGAZINE ?

We welcome your submissions (on current events (economic crisis) or on any topic related to youth engagement, global issues, and leadership) in the form of articles, interviews, poetry, personal reflections, short stories, photography, etc.

Your written submissions should be no longer than 1000 words in length.
Please email all submissions by July 31st to info.momentum@yahoo.com in Word format.

NEW DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:
July 31st, 2009

Thanks !

------------------------------------------------------------
«MOMENTUM : Mission, Passion, Expression» est un magazine jeunesse accompagné d'un site web qui a pour but d'aider les jeunes à être bien informés et bien impliqués dans la société. Les cofondateurs de ce projet sont Yassir et Ilyes El Ouarzadi, deux jeunes lauréats de la Bourse d'excellence du millénaire. Ces jeunes leaders ont tous les deux participé au programme de leadership Shad Valley ainsi qu'au Congrès Mondial des jeunes 2008 et à la Dictée des Amériques et qui désirent, grâce à ce projet, donner l'opportunité à des centaines, voire des milliers de jeunes du Canada et d'ailleurs, de vivre de telles expériences qui pourront changer leurs vies. MOMENTUM est donc un réseau de changement social, par les jeunes et pour les jeunes.

COMMENT PARTICIPER AU MAGAZINE MOMENTUM ?

Envoyez-nous vos articles, poèmes et textes d'opinion sur le thème: comment les jeunes changent le monde ? et comment vous faites en tant que jeunes la différence dans vos communautés ? Vous pouvez aussi partager votre expérience personnelle pour inspirer d'autres jeunes à s'engager et à réaliser des projets dans leurs communautés. Vous pouvez également traiter de sujets d'actualité (crise économique), de problèmes qui affectent les jeunes ou encore des problématiques mondiales comme les changements climatiques.

Les articles ne devraient pas contenir plus de 1000 mots.
Faites-nous parvenir vos écrits en format Word à info.momentum@yahoo.com

DATE LIMITE D'ENVOI: la date a été prolongée
Le 31 juillet 2009

MERCI !

Veille Environnement, CC, Biodiversité en Afrique

http://climatechange.new.fr/

Hi everyone !

I wanted to post a blog about the Obama's Speech in Cairo (Egypt) since it was an important event for the Muslim world, the USA and the world in general.

For those who have not had the chance to read the full text of the speech or listen to it, here are some useful links:

To read the full text of the speech, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html

For a complete video, visit: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/full-video-of-obamas-cairo-speech/

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1234919.html

“Less than six months ago, Arabs threw shoes at George Bush. Today, in a address bound to go down in history, President Obama was unexpectedly greeted by a standing ovation in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world.

In a towering speech before 4,000 Egyptians in the Grand Hall of Cairo University, and to another 1.4 billion Muslims world-wide, the President was interrupted 30 times by applause and people shouting, “we love you”.

President Obama also noted Islam's historical relationship with the United States:

"I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President, John Adams, wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims."

***

"That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

Source of the picture and text:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/4/738719/-Masterpiece

I think that if we, as citizens of the world and youth activitists, want to ensure a better future for ourselves and the future generations, we have to cooperate and to help each other in order to solve the global problems and issues that we face: climate change, poverty, HIV, ...

«When there is a will, there is a way». Let this be the credo for the 21st Century.

All the best,
Yassir El Ouarzadi
Montreal Youth Engagement Coordinator
CLC Canada- TIG
Founder of MOMENTUM: http://momentumweb.ning.com/

I wouldn’t exactly call myself an environmentalist but when some hotshot private corporation or any government entitites try to manipulate any food supply in liue of  higher monetary gain, then I have a problem with that.  I previously blogged about the “adding” of the chemical “melamine” in milk in China in my blog entitled “The Food Crisis: Adding Insult to Injury.”  Now here comes another one - it’s in rice.  I have encountered the term GMO (Genetically-Modified Organism) used in corn after a rough campaign by the school where I used to teach.  The provincial government in Negros Occidental, Philippines, assured the public back in 2006 that no GM corn are shipped in the province.  But last year, I read a news about it that some GM corn were said to have been found in one warehouse.  It’s not hard to believe how something like that can pass through the government’s lenses, especially when graft and corruption is a major trade in some parts of the world.  Really sad. Money over conviction. Money over Public Good.

Here comes another one - GM rice.  I love rice and even my husband loved it.  We have it in every meal.  Heck, we even got ourselves a rice cooker here! Back home, “rice” was regular white long grained rice that was Php24.00 per kilo.  Here, we get a 5 lb Jasmine rice called “Mahatma Jasmine” (Thai rice) at Food Lion for less than $7 and the 25 lb at Sam’s Club for like $17. The first few attempts we had of getting affordable rice was a disaster- low grade rice that never seemed to grow soft after 10 minutes of boiling. Now that we found the kind of rice we wanted (and smells good, too!), we are sticking to a kind we want. So basically, everybody can assume that I am very particular about my rice.

Greenpeace has been in the forefront about campaigning against GM (um..not General Motors).   According to a Greenpeace report, Bayer (try to remember bug spray), a German company, has  genetically-manipulated rice in order to withstand toxic doses of a pesticide called glufosinate.  Well it’s toxic so it means that it’s harmful to living organisms.  Since Bayer is based in Germany, naturally the European Union has a say whether they would agree to the import of GM rice. If they import GM rice, then farmers will plant GM rice. This means, in the near future, we would be eating GM rice, as they would now be available for sale in supermarkets everywhere.

So now you know why it’s very frustrating to make people understand that “better invention” doesn’t necessarily mean “better for humankind.”  Okay, so Bible classes would tell us “go feed the poor” and the next thing we know we are doign a lot worse by feeding them GM rice.  What is safe to eat then? And heck! What’s next?!?

You may go to this link for more information from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering/hands-off-our-rice/hands-off-our-rice

Below is a concrete explanation of GM rice:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsxFZ0rUCoM[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: genetically modified, genetically modified rice, GM Rice, greenpeace, rice

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I wouldn’t exactly call myself an environmentalist but when some hotshot private corporation or any government entitites try to manipulate any food supply in liue of  higher monetary gain, then I have a problem with that.  I previously blogged about the “adding” of the chemical “melamine” in milk in China in my blog entitled “The Food Crisis: Adding Insult to Injury.”  Now here comes another one – it’s in rice.  I have encountered the term GMO (Genetically-Modified Organism) used in corn after a rough campaign by the school where I used to teach.  The provincial government in Negros Occidental, Philippines, assured the public back in 2006 that no GM corn are shipped in the province.  But last year, I read a news about it that some GM corn were said to have been found in one warehouse.  It’s not hard to believe how something like that can pass through the government’s lenses, especially when graft and corruption is a major trade in some parts of the world.  Really sad. Money over conviction. Money over Public Good.

Here comes another one – GM rice.  I love rice and even my husband loved it.  We have it in every meal.  Heck, we even got ourselves a rice cooker here! Back home, “rice” was regular white long grained rice that was Php24.00 per kilo.  Here, we get a 5 lb Jasmine rice called “Mahatma Jasmine” (Thai rice) at Food Lion for less than $7 and the 25 lb at Sam’s Club for like $17. The first few attempts we had of getting affordable rice was a disaster- low grade rice that never seemed to grow soft after 10 minutes of boiling. Now that we found the kind of rice we wanted (and smells good, too!), we are sticking to a kind we want. So basically, everybody can assume that I am very particular about my rice.

Greenpeace has been in the forefront about campaigning against GM (um..not General Motors).   According to a Greenpeace report, Bayer (try to remember bug spray), a German company, has  genetically-manipulated rice in order to withstand toxic doses of a pesticide called glufosinate.  Well it’s toxic so it means that it’s harmful to living organisms.  Since Bayer is based in Germany, naturally the European Union has a say whether they would agree to the import of GM rice. If they import GM rice, then farmers will plant GM rice. This means, in the near future, we would be eating GM rice, as they would now be available for sale in supermarkets everywhere.

So now you know why it’s very frustrating to make people understand that “better invention” doesn’t necessarily mean “better for humankind.”  Okay, so Bible classes would tell us “go feed the poor” and the next thing we know we are doign a lot worse by feeding them GM rice.  What is safe to eat then? And heck! What’s next?!?

You may go to this link for more information from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering/hands-off-our-rice/hands-off-our-rice

Below is a concrete explanation of GM rice:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsxFZ0rUCoM[/youtube]

---

© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: genetically modified, genetically modified rice, GM Rice, greenpeace, rice

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My favorite part in the “Sound of Music” has always been “How do you solve the problem like Maria?”  It’s a part of a song that seems to have buried itself in memory.  Two years ago, I met this wonderful friend named Maria from Romania. So that sort of triggered a memory of that song and I eventually told Maria about this.  Even when I was in high school, Music class started with “doe a deer a female deer...” or “when you know the notes to sing…” I actually could hum the latter and play the piano (without learning it) by just listening to myself hum. Then during a trip to North Carolina with my husband to meet some wonderful folks, we got into this topic about Sound of Music and Julie Andrews‘ career - from Mary Poppins to Sound of Music.  We were basically talking about Julie Andrews‘ accent and how prim and proper she was when she talks.  But when the guys blurted out that she has a “potty-mouth” I was like “what?!?”  I don’t exactly know how that topic came up but that was coming from a Scottish friend.  Between grasping that tidbit and the guffaw after that, I forgot to ask how our friend knew.

Anyhow, I am mentioning Sound of Music because I got this email from my friend Maria and she sent me a video of  how 200 dancers went to the train station in Antwerp, Belgium and basically “rocked the house” with the tunes in “Sound of Music.”  Thought I’d share these little “coincidences” and it might just trigger some good ole memory (and why I am blogging about it now).  I wonder how many out there have watched the Sound of Music over and over again? Well here I am - guilty!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k[/youtube]

You can also watch it from this link: http://www.flixxy.com/antwerp-central-station-sound-of-music.htm

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: julie andrews, sound of music

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msbeeee posts what has to be some of the creepiest adverts ever seen. Ew.

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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I have heard about this rendition that Jon Schmidt did with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” from the movie “Romeo + Juliet” (well starring Clare Danes and Leonardo di Caprio) and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.  It was a superb rendition! It relaxes you - sort of calming.  I remembered attending my nephew’s piano recital last May 2 at Texas Tech University and remembering how I learned to play the piano by myself  years back- learning to read notes from Music class at school and then listening to the rhythm of a song intently.   I would always combine one piece with another and just be silly and play it.  So listening to Jon Schmidt rendition made me thoughtful as it is a unique ability to combine two pieces and make it sound so fun. Well, I’m a fan now!
I actually wanted to download the music format of this and hoping to upload in my ipod (without resorting to P2P sites). It seems like the free download was temporarily postponed due to some legal matters, according to the site.  Copyright issues, I assume. The rendition/combination of two songs can be genuinely unique for the artist as the artist who combined and created something new. But the other means to come up with that genuine, artistic piece was not wholly owned by the artist. I think obviously that is where the legal aspect come in. I’d say personally, both Taylor Swift and Coldplay may even get more recognition for their songs due to this special rendition.  Wouldn’t this rendition by Jon Schmidt then be categorized as a “remake” - where some artist would sing an old song and record it again under a new label/artist?

I await the mp3 download. So watch out at http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/index.php

The YouTube video is below. You may also watch it at Tangle: http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4c06065c76d3284dc3dc

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Coldplay, Jon Schmidt, Love Story, Romeo+Juliet, Taylor Swift

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I have heard about this rendition that Jon Schmidt did with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” from the movie “Romeo + Juliet” (well starring Clare Danes and Leonardo di Caprio) and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.  It was a superb rendition! It relaxes you – sort of calming.  I remembered attending my nephew’s piano recital last May 2 at Texas Tech University and remembering how I learned to play the piano by myself  years back- learning to read notes from Music class at school and then listening to the rhythm of a song intently.   I would always combine one piece with another and just be silly and play it.  So listening to Jon Schmidt rendition made me thoughtful as it is a unique ability to combine two pieces and make it sound so fun. Well, I’m a fan now!

I actually wanted to download the music format of this and hoping to upload in my ipod (without resorting to P2P sites). It seems like the free download was temporarily postponed due to some legal matters, according to the site.  Copyright issues, I assume. The rendition/combination of two songs can be genuinely unique for the artist as the artist who combined and created something new. But the other means to come up with that genuine, artistic piece was not wholly owned by the artist. I think obviously that is where the legal aspect come in. I’d say personally, both Taylor Swift and Coldplay may even get more recognition for their songs due to this special rendition.  Wouldn’t this rendition by Jon Schmidt then be categorized as a “remake” – where some artist would sing an old song and record it again under a new label/artist?

I await the mp3 download. So watch out at http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/index.php

The YouTube video is below. You may also watch it at Tangle: http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4c06065c76d3284dc3dc

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Coldplay, Jon Schmidt, Love Story, Romeo+Juliet, Taylor Swift

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I  sent a posting recently to the ISOC PH mailing list - just sort of an observation I had while trying out Wolfram Alpha.I tried it and just spontaneously typed weather information in my city. To my surprise, it gave me a “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input..“  According to the BBC article I read about Wolfram, it should return annotated pages rather than list of sites. Instead I got a “…isn’t-sure-what-to-do-with-your-input.”

So I did another search and key in “value of pi,” after Gonz, an ISOC PH member, told me that Wolfram is quite good with computational information.  I actually got the answers to my query and not just links to sites. I got the value of “pi” in decimal, fraction and in other representations. That was cool for me since I didn’t have to browse through several sites just to find answers.  I was even thinking that if only we had Wolfram during college days, I wouldn’t have to dig into my notes, decipher my handwriting (and get some answer or formula wrong with my own handwriting that I couldn’t understand!) and just use the Internet instead.

My husband told me that if we need some information, we can “wolf” it now instead of “google” it.

Here’s the BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8052798.stm
Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: wolfram alpha

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GENEVE (AFP) — Le groupe pharmaceutique suisse Novartis a reçu le nouveau virus A(H1N1) de la grippe porcine et attend le feu vert de l'OMS...

And they have the nerve to put a picture of soup being served?!  There goes my appetite…

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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As a busy traveler and a history and culture buff, I’ve prided myself on making deep preparations for trips overseas, and it has paid handsome dividends.  Zach Dunkin at Indystar.com writes on how one can avoid some of the faux-pauses that less-experiences travelers endure.

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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