- Issues
- AIDS
- Conflict
- Corruption
- Debt Relief
- Development
- Disabilities
- Education
- Employment
- Environment
- Gender
- Globalization
- Health
- Infrastructure
- MDGs
- Trade
- Urbanization »
 |
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
- Chinese and US Students Place Spotlight on Urban Development
- Radio Waves of Change
- 20/20 Vision: Two Glocal Forum Youth Write About Their Hopes for 2020
Joanna Gin, who lives in San Francisco, is Chinese-American, one of five daughters to two Chinese immigrants. She will continue her volunteer work because she believes in the strength of unity and the need for change. Joanna is currently the Government Affairs Officer on the San Francisco Youth Commission. She especially cares about reaching out to diverse communities and to youth in order to improve education, health, work, civil rights, and justice on local and global levels.
20/20 Vision: Two Glocal Forum Youth Write About Their Hopes for 2020
Glocal Forum's Youth Parliamentarians illustrated their hope for the future of their cities in essays, Vision for 2020. Here we read the essays of two youth, Joanna Gin and Kamal Massoud Wasiq.
In 2020, my city will know what it means to achieve peace. Modernization does not equal exploitation.
Education will be a priority. No more overcrowded classrooms. No more dilapidated books from the nineteenth century, unless it's a museum piece. We pay teachers what they are worth and not for new cars for those who can afford to pay for it themselves. We have male kindergarten teachers and secretaries who do very well, thank you. We are proud to say that we do not sell expired food in our cafeterias or contamination in our bathrooms. We offer vegetarian and vegan options daily (and we don't mean peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with variation in jam flavors). We don't sell our students to Kaplan or the military. Student health records are confidential and the Condom Man is now known by his first name. HIV tests are available during lunch hours (needle-free!) when students are running the cafeteria, co-op style for an economics class, and yes, they are paid a living wage with leftover salads and pizza slices as benefits. We now offer shop and auto classes for credit in our high schools and our arts and ethnic studies are thriving—they are not top of the list items to be cut in times of economic crisis and our local school budgets are not cut disproportionately, but that issue has never come up.
The amount of community resources available and the fair practices in business has resulted in an extremely low crime rate. Spending more funds on education has played a major role in this. We don't even have a "jail" for youth. Community organizations have been used as an alternative to incarceration. The lack of law enforcement presence has created a friendlier learning environment and a diversion of ill-used funds for better pay for school counsellors and social workers.
Health care will have been reformed, for "profit over health" made "healthcare" an oxymoron. Your doctor will know your name when you walk through the clinic door because HMOs have been banned. Insurance companies will have realized that it is wrong to advocate that prescription drugs be converted to over-the-counter drugs just to shirk the responsibility of paying an extra two cents per client while the costs of medication soar in dollars. They will have realized that it is more economically sound because those who will not be able to afford medications will develop over illnesses, costing insurance companies hundreds of dollars more than they bargained for.
Every worker will be paid the worth of his or her efforts—a living wage. Employers must now go through training to ensure that the needs of youth are met—in terms of sensitivity training, flexibility with school schedules, and basic rights. By ensuring that benefits are given, the health of the average worker has increased as employee turnover has dropped.
This city's legislative body currently works with youth to plan for the city by including youth into decision-making areas. Our charter includes two elected youth legislative members, embodying the message that youth will not be a token minority.
^ top
Kamal Massoud Wasiq lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. He can speak five languages (Dari, Pashto, Urdu, English and French) and currently attends high school in Kabul. He has completed a photojournalism course at Aina Photojournalism Institute and works as a photojournalist and reporter at an Afghan youth magazine. He has created health and educational commercials aimed at youth for Afghan radio and television. In his spare time he teaches English and computer skills to friends and family. His main concerns are Kabul's many child-breadwinners, and the high rate of illiteracy in Afghanistan.
What I think about my city in 2020 is that my city will not be as improved as other countries in technology. But my city will be reconstructed and will have peace. I think we will have democracy in my country. My city won't have any more war. We will have a free country.
If we don't work hard I don't think we will have peace and stability.
Kabul is in the center of Asia. I hope Kabul will have big markets of trade. I hope it will be able to earn a lot of money from traders and merchants.
I hope Kabul will have metros and trains because it has a lot of transportation problems now. It will have highways, parking and good parks for fun.
Kabul will have good electricity and water. Kabul will have a good river like the river it had before.
My city will have big buildings and skyscrapers. It will be fun for foreign people to be in Kabul. My city will be a good place for education like other cities and Afghan people won't need to go to foreign cities to learn.
I think Kabul will be a city that people would like to come. It will be beautiful and people will enjoy being in Kabul.
We have to work to make Kabul beautiful.
I hope we will have a good Afghanistan and a good Kabul in the future.
^ top