OneVoice launched imagine 2018 to inspire Israelis and Palestinians to visualize what the region would look like in 10 years if a peace agreement were to be signed in 2008. The objective is to challenge people to regain hope and discard the assumption that the conflict is intractable, by enabling them to picture some of the tangible, everyday benefits of a peace agreement.

An event honoring the israeli winners held in September 26th 2008 . All 50 winning essays were published in a booklet, to be presented to the Israeli governmental leadership.  Additionally, the winners’ essays will be entered into the pool of applicants for the imagine: 2018 Director’s Cut.

http://www.imagine2018.org/

http://www.onevoicemovement.org/

We have already heard from Rahool on just how different Brussels is from his city of Kolkata in India. Here is a video made by Rahool and friends which shows Rahool’s neighbourhood and some of his friends who also participated in the Neighbourhood Diaries program. Rahool is also a very talented poet - here is his poem, The Lazy Afternoon Tale:

Till yesterday, my afternoons were not as lazy.
It’s be the regular routine of college or work
Or adda or the collage of dust on the street.
Busy life - it never stopped, not for a moment,
But today …
The afternoon is endless;
After a long time, I am alone in my room today,
On a lonely afternoon.

Nupur, the neighbour’s daughter,
Comes to the veranda to pick up clothes she’d hung up to dry.
On seeing me she bursts into an innocent smile:
‘Oh Rana-da, you’re home? At this hour?’
Before I could respond,
Nupur’s mother calls her into her house:
She scrambles trying to arrange the dried clothes as she runs.

A slice of the veranda appears beyond the door curtain:
A few little birds twitter, fly around and settle in my vision;
I lie down on the bed,
And I remember how I would lay my sleeping head on my
father’s hands.

In the house opposite ours, Aunt Mitali abuses a customer:
I guess, the man’s done what he wanted to do, but doesn’t want
to pay up …
I’ve heard this so many times since childhood that I feel nothing now.
Earlier, when neighbours cussed around,
Father would say,
‘Don’t listen to all that - just keep yourself busy’
I remember those words a lot,
Today.

Similar to Crayola, Pati also decided to tackle environmental issues affecting the city where she lives, Antananarivo, Madagascar. This video takes a look at the pollution of Lake Ankarihary near the Behoririka neighborhood in downtown Antananarivo, which is popular for shopping. Pati submitted this video to MySpace’s Film Your Issue contest. It was also featured on the Youth Media Exchange. Pati also keeps a blog in French and English.

Here is a picture of Pati with Rahool:

So. I should be packing but instead I’ve been looking at the pictures and video here online and reading your messages in my book that so many of you wrote in at dinner tonight(Book given as a gift from Michele and Michael - thank you!). This is a souvenir of IDAY 2008 that I will keep with me always. I thought it a good time to write a note back to express how much it meant to have you here this week. 

All week I have heard from the IDAY participants about their wonderful conversations with you, and how your energy, optimism, ideas and experiences have enriched their own experience of IDAY and will not be forgotten. They told me about meeting you in line waiting for food, conversations at the dinner table and the walks through molenbeek. People came up to tell me how happy they were to have you there or explained to me how what you said was profound if not life changing. You may not have known it then, but trust me, you have deeply touched the participants of IDAY both veterans and newcomers alike. And you certainly have touched me - I will not forget this week even in my addled old age (and with a few more IDAYs that may be sooner than I’d like!)

I wish I had been able to spend more time with you and had the opportunity to speak with you all more but you know how to reach me (edameron@demos.org or find me on facebook - look for the global interdependence youth summit group). I look forward to continuing conversations left unfinished, starting new ones, and continuing down this path we’ve started to building a better future for all of us (interdependently of course). 

I owe many thank yous - but i admit I’m too tired to eloquently write them now and so instead I wish you all safe travels home, and can’t wait to see your photos! 

Much love to you all, see you in Istanbul 2009 (if not before)!

Elizabeth

Brussels and Kolkata are two very different cities. Here is Rahool Goswami describing the differences during his participation in the first ever Interdependence Day Youth Summit.

Here is the video that Crayola produced with the help of Remedee about the environmental problems facing New Orleans in the United States.

Here is a slideshow of all the Youth Summit participants. You can see their individual photos on Flickr.

Black people have suffered from the rasism and they were judge for their color and of MLK’s dreams was to be judge by his character and not his color and that’s the same as me and my people as Palestinians, are known and judged around the world as terrorists and bad people and my dream is that we will be judged for our personalities and our character.

On the second day of the first ever Interdependence Day Youth Summit we joined local tour guides to get an insider’s look of Brussel’s Molenbeek neighbourhood. It is a mostly immigrant community. In 2005 major riots took place in Molenbeek. In fact, the Brussels Journal, a conservative website, even called Molenbeek one of Europe’s “no-go areas.”

Rahool, a young poet and citizen journalist from Kolkata, India took the following photographs on the walk. You can learn more about Rahool on the Kalam website. Kalam is a literary arts organization in Kolkata that Rahool participates in.