Walking Across Africa

If you have been to Africa, then you will know what an amazing place it is. For those who have not, this may well be the next best thing. ZeFrank shares this teaser for a new documentary called AfricaTrek (don’t know if/when it will be available here in Australia). Two people set off from Cape Town to walk to Israel. But you can see it even in this preview — the life, the joy, the hospitality of the African people. It helps to remind us all of what is important, and why children are an essential part of my efforts.

Blog Action Day 08

Well, the ball is now well and truly rolling for Article Thirty-Nine, and it makes my heart skip with joy and excitement every time I think about it! Mind, studying for H.S.C. exams this week and undertaking all the necessary preparation has put a dampener on things, and I admit it is, and has been stressing me out somewhat – but today, I want to put things into perspective. We are currently in the middle of Anti-Poverty Week (12-18 October), and today is Blog Action Day 08 – the topic of which is poverty.

As I sit here, fretting about the studying, the cramming, and all the work that I could be doing now instead of writing this post, I want to take a step back and open my eyes to the bigger picture.

There are thousands of children and youth around the world who don’t even have the opportunity to go to school, and yet here I am, dreading the thought of having to sit in an exam room for a mere two hours. It seems quite petty really. There are countless children that I met on my trip to Ethiopia who would have given anything to have an education, and there were those I met who had been given a chance to attend school, and they treasured it above almost all else. Poverty is a grave injustice that no one in our world should have to endure. As Nelson Mandela said -

Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.

Poverty is such a massive issue, and it can be easy to become overwhelmed by it all … but I believe the actions that we each take, no matter how large or small, will make a difference to the world – and as much of a cliche as this will sound – I believe our generation can and will end extreme poverty.

So as I sit in my exam this Friday, I will be sure to keep in mind that one, I am lucky to have such an opportunity and two, there is a world out there that needs my, and our attention!

The October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and it is our chance to Stand Up and TAKE ACTION against poverty. So once my exam is over I’ll be heading into the city to participate in Sydney’s Stand Up events! Join us in the fight against global poverty and injustice – the time is now!

Tickets Available!

Please note: The URL to purchase tickets for the concert has changed, so the address shown in the video is now out of date. The correct URL to buy tickets from The Factory site is as follows http://tinyurl.com/article39concert

It’s on!

IT’S ON!
In celebration of Universal Children’s Day, the Article Thirty-Nine concert is being held at The Factory Theatre in Enmore, on Sunday November 23.

There have been a few changes since the last rain check, such as the change of date to the 23rd, but I’m confident that you’ll like our new arrangements, which will see the concert rocking from Sunday afternoon until late into the evening.

Jack Carty and The Party and Adam Cousens are the latest and final additions to our line-up,  rounding our total up to 7 bands! With Peregrine, The Dawn Collective, The Shipwrecked, Tim Ireland and Falling in Autumn, Adam and Jack and his Party are the perfect finishing touches to a truly eclectic mix of styles for our night of celebration. Adam is travelling all the way from Melbourne just for our gig, and Jack and The Party are keen enough that if the gig was in Melbourne, I think they’d go the distance! These are two more acts you don’t want to miss, so stay tuned for their official introductions which I’ll be posting within the next week, and be sure to book your spot in their audience! >>>

Tickets will be going on sale within the next couple of days from The Factory website – I will be posting all the latest updates, news, and information here, so if you want to stay in the loop, this is the place to be!

Be inspired for change. It starts here and now!

Light, darkness, and a little skip of joy!

It is with growing excitement, and a grin upon my face that I sit down to write this post…

Over the past few months I have been busily juggling the many tasks involved with the organisation of the concert. Working hard and doing my best to pull everything together and make all the final arrangements, I tried not to worry as the months kept swiftly passing me by. Time and time again I found myself lost in a maze of dead ends, where every path I took seemed to end in an impassible wall of disappointment. At times I began to wonder what had possessed me to set out on such a journey so ill equipped for, and ignorant of the many challenges I was to face. Yet still, I wouldn’t, and didn’t give up. No was not an answer (well, it certainly was, ever so many times, but I learned to not let it discourage me, and did not let it stand in my way [any longer than a little moping and temporary disappointment allowed for]). My passion for this cause never wavered – only my belief that I could actually reach my goal, and do what I had set out to achieve…

As the saying goes – without darkness, there can be no light. Certainly, there have been many rays of light shining through the darkness on this wild adventure. It sounds like a terrible cliche, but the steadfast support and encouragement of my family, friends and wider community has kept me sane, and never failed inspire me anew. The enthusiasm of our bands and performers has been incredible, they are quite literally the lifeblood of the concert – we couldn’t do it without them! So many people, both those I know and also those I was meeting for the first time, came forward, and magically appeared out of thin air, to help make this project, and the concert, a reality.

Well, not only is the concert a reality – it is a reality that will go on sale this week! In plain language, I signed the contract for my venue on Friday, our performers are all confirmed, and the tickets will go on sale within the next few days!

Indeed, the rays of light greatly outshine the darkness, and in the end, what is left is an experience and a journey. While I know that this journey is in many senses only just beginning, it feels like a happy ending for now. I can live with that!

The juicy details of the concert will be up tomorrow – so be sure not to miss the first annoucement of its kind!

Back in town, and go go go!

Here I am, back in Australia, writing a long overdue post that I promised to write more than a week ago…

Picking up where my last post left off, we returned to Athens from Santorini, and for the next week and a half we didn’t stop, even for a moment. From Athens, to Delphi and back to Athens, then on a flight to Milan and on the train to Florence, a day there, then out to Venice and back to Florence, only to leave the next afternoon for Rome. Each day (and night) was filled to the brim; from dawn ’til dusk and dusk ’til dawn, making the most of each moment. It really was the trip of a lifetime, and one that I will never forget.

I arrived home yesterday morning, and am now doing my best to get back into the swing of things here in Sydney. I have to admit, it’s hard to sit down and do my work, having spent the last 21 days galavanting across the world!

Luckily for me, in my absence, my cousin, Jacqui Biffin, took on the role of assistant director. I am afraid that Gavin may have to share his title (and his chain mail), as Jacqui certainly fits the bill of knight (or knight-ess?) in shining armour! She worked ceaselessly and incessantly while I was away (and shows no signs of letting up), and tied down a few flying loose ends that I’ve been trying to knot for a couple of months now. I take my hat off to her, and all the hard work she’s done on this project.

There has been a couple of key changes regarding the concert, which I will post in the next couple of days, once the final strings have been tied – so keep an eye out for it (and I’ll make sure I don’t let you down this time with almost 2 weeks of silence!)

Into the wild…

After many long weeks of silence, I thought it was time to make an appearance, just to clarify that I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth – however I should say, that I have (temporarily) disappeared off the face of Australia.

I am now half way through a 3 week trip around Europe with my school, and right at this very minute, I am enjoying the beauty and the warm sunlight of Santorini, in Greece.

It has been hard to snatch the time amidst the business of our trip to jump on the net, and as I have to run along to get to our ferry back to Athens, yet again I will have to dash off, and leave this post as a little appetiser for my next post about the trip, which I hope to write in the next couple of days – so keep an eye out for it!

The concert project is still underway and going full steam ahead, I will write more about this in my next post. Hello and goodbye from Santorini, when I next sign in I will be in Athens, Delphi, or Italy!!!

Ciao!

An Introduction – Steven Freeland

Many months ago, when I first set out to organise the concert, I began hunting for potential speakers. I admit that my “Googling” skills aren’t the best in the world, and I couldn’t find any “Australian child soldier experts”. Mind, I did try many other combinations too, yet still my searches yielded no results. That is, until my English teacher and project Supervisor from school, (with his far superior “Googling” skills), discovered Professor Steven Freeland, who has a wealth of knowledge on child soldiers, and vast experience in speaking on this issue. Incidentally, he happens to be a Professor at University of Western Sydney.

I managed to track down his contact details, and get in touch with him via the University (again, the need for “tracking down” was most likely due to my lacking Googling skills). Despite the fact that when I first contacted Steven he was working in The Hague in The Netherlands, he replied to my enquiry within a couple of days, expressing interest and enthusiasm in the project.

So, now that I have told the story of how our contact came to be (in my usual long and winding fashion), I shall now formally introduce you to Steven Freeland – get ready to tip your hat to him!

Steven Freeland is Associate Professor in International Law at the University of Western Sydney, teaching Public International Law, Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law and Commercial Aspects of Space Law.

Steven is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen, a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court, The Hague and has been a Special Advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry in matters related to the International Criminal Court.

He sits on the Editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Human Rights, the Australian International Law Journal and a series of books entitled Studies in Space Law. He is also involved in a series of casebooks annotating the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor. He has published extensively on various aspects of International Law and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, having presented conference papers and keynote speeches in United States, France, Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, Singapore, China, Denmark and Australia.

This information was taken from Steven’s public profile page – I could fill page after page with all his qualifications and achievements – if you’d like to read the full version, (which I encourage you to do), you can find it here.

An Introduction – Falling in Autumn

Over the duration of my project and organising the concert, I have been struck by the power of community, and what it has the potential to achieve. Falling in Autumn have just confirmed, bringing our band count to five.

Through the connections of one of my brothers, we are lucky to have scored this great duo who are bursting at the seams with enthusiasm about the concert – which, I must say, is ever so refreshing! In fact, I take my hat off to all our wonderful bands; they are ever so supportive and always ready to go out of their way to help. Without them, the concert, quite literally, could not happen.

Without further ado, I am honoured to introduce you to our fifth band – Falling in Autumn.

Falling in Autumn is a Sydney-based group which revolves around the cathartic folk songs of Carissa Lehmann and Simon Williams.

Meeting through a mutual friend, the group’s dual songwriters found in each other a musical partner in whom to confide their acoustic confessions.

The pair have spent the past year quietly writing on a backbone of ‘love, loss and the unknown’, honing their sound and the songs which would become their recently self-released Tree EP.

Falling in Autumn have crafted a lush, ambient sound; spawned from both a love of classic folk artists as well as their respective surroundings in the Blue Mountains and Northern beaches. They have drawn comparisons with acts such as George and Angus & Julia Stone and continue to convert new fans with their warm, honest songwriting.

2008 is set to be a big year for the group as they expand their lineup and plan to record their next release.

Check out their myspace: www.myspace.com/fallinginautumn

Lost for words

On Saturday afternoon I had a meeting with Will Body from The Oaktree Foundation, in regards to my project.

We had arranged to meet at Town Hall, and as we had not met before, it took a little guesswork (and searching glances at all the passers by) to find each other. Once we had introduced ourselves, we headed off past Town Hall steps (where, to my bemusement, a large group of well-dressed youths were sitting with cardboard signs featuring “money for beer please?” under which they had placed a hat for donations), to find a seat at one of the crowded cafés in the QVB.

It turned out to be a great meeting – not only did we make good progress, as an added bonus, Will’s enthusiasm greatly encouraged me. I am becoming increasingly excited (and do believe that you should be too!) about the potential of the concert. We have such an opportunity here to make a real, lasting difference to the lives of children in the DRC. It’s so exciting!

During the meeting, Will asked me -“Why are you passionate about this cause?”

It’s such a potent question. There were so many thoughts rushing through my head all at once, that somehow, I didn’t manage to capture a single one, and thus ended up stumbling through a cloud of muddled words, landing in a puddle of embarrassment. At the time, I could not answer the very question that is the driving force behind my whole project. It was a shock to realise I could be caught so totally without words. Sitting here now, it strikes me how much easier it is to write it out, than to explain it in person, and to have the words there and ready. And I had the answer here all along …

As I wrote on my About page, I am passionate about this cause because I believe it is vital that young people don’t become disillusioned with the world, and with what we, as young people, can achieve. There is much that we can do to change the world for better simply by having the knowledge, passion, and opportunity to do so.

I aim to equip my peers with a sound understanding of the issue of child soldiers, ignite their passion for change, and give them an opportunity to make a difference.

I live and breathe my committment to fighting for the rights of these children, and if you catch me lost for words, please know that I still hold true to my passion …

I stand for this cause because there is a need for action – and we can take tangible action to make a lasting difference to those in need.

Will you stand with me?