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

I was talking with Fran today i and I'm saying that between having my twitter and tumblr accounts i don't feel like i need to have blog... i had a wordpress for a couple years and all i used it for was uploading my avatars and posting lyrics of songs that i liked...

Maybe i never really liked them to begin with.. what do you think

I am on my way to New York, going there for a three months internship at the UN. I will use this blog to share my thoughts during my internship at the Global Compact Office.
I am now on the Greyhound bus still in Toronto.

After I worked in a corporate responsibility research firm in Toronto, I will now try to expand my knowledge in this area and learn more about all the stakeholders that are part of Corporate Social Responsibility. I think the UN is the best place to analyze such issues.
So far, my research mainly focused on the private sector perspective and how CSR can contribute to the value of a company. I am very interested about human rights issues, while this is a personal interest.
The bus is leaving see you soon.


... Well I realized the Greyhound bus had wifi! Great!

So yes I am writing this blog to organize my thoughts a bit and share my experience with those who dare read my poor English... whatever..

Before coming back to the goals of my internship I will briefly write about why I am going there and maybe why I was selected for the internship.

I have been passionate about global issues since my studies in history. In France, I studied history and political science. My program was B.A Multidisciplinary Social Science, History and Arts. I especially enjoyed a course on international relations and the history of socialism from Serge Wolikow. My passion led me to study International Relations at Laval University in Quebec, where I could further my knowledge by studying international economy, IR theory, environmental global governance.

I had the huge opportunity to work at TakingITGlobal on a project from IDRC, Microsoft and a Swiss development Agency whose aim was to develop IT infrastructure in developing countries. This was opportunity to see how a CSR project work, who the stakeholders are, and what make a project successful ... or not!

Then after completing some courses in business I had the huge opportunity to work in a Corporate Social Responsibility / Social Responsible Research Firm called Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. There I did a qualitative assessment of more than 600 publicly listed companies (listed on worldwide Stock Exchanges), to analyze the policies of multinationals (MNFs)and their relations to their actual (or what is publicly known) performance in term of environmental social (labor and human rights) and governance/anti-corruption norms. This led me to learn a range of issues I did not know before, and I gained expertize because I had to compile in my research all the reputational issues of MNFs in one database containing more than 2000 companies. I learned what the main issues are, but I only had the broad picture in relation to those issues.

I realized that the way company report their environmental performance is far from being the same for all companies. In accounting a company can hide a range of issues to increase the way their valuation is perceived by financial institutions or people who want to invest in those company.
But when social/environmental/governance (ESG) issues are in question, this is much worse!

There are some initiative that took place recently such as the Global Reporting Initiatives and other business initiative such as Responsible Care that compel companies to benchmark their reporting. This is great but not enough. I think government hold a responsibility to render those companies much more accountable. This is a first step to a cleaner, responsible and more transparent economic growth.
There is a great need to make accountability uniform and sufficiently transparent so that the financial markets take into account new metrics to valuate companies.

I also learned that corruption is still pandemic and companies policies in this area can be really weak (there are of course best practices). Also I was amazed to see companies that have a competitive advantage BECAUSE they are non-transparent (the worst are private equity firms). Most of those non transparent company are registered in fiscal heavens, do not pay taxes locally.

Some Banks also do not have thorough anti-money laundering mechanisms and specific policies.

When I talk about non transparent companies I am mainly referring to emerging market companies located in Brazil, Venezuela, China, India, Russia. Those are the worst in term or accountability. Not that all are doing bad, but their reporting is quasi non existent. So that at the end we never do what they do (good or bad).

I will post this blog as it is... that is to say very disorganized and come back later to talk about other issues I have in mind.

I took some notes from the last report for the UN, Building resilience: A human rights framework for world food and nutrition security, from Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Human Rights Council. Olivier De Schutter is absolutely wonderful and I am amazed at everything he is doing to advocate positive change for the right to food. The main idea of the document is that the current increase in food prices can be seized as an opportunity in order to advance the realization of the right to food by the adoption of structural measures, leading to a profound reform of the global food system.
Here is a random list of facts and figures I compiled:
- It has been estimated that with a 20 per cent increase in food prices in 2025 relative to the 1996 baseline, the number of undernourished people in the world would increase by 440 million
- It has been estimated that the production of food will have to increase by 50 per cent by 2030, and double by 2050, if an increase growth in demand is to be met
- Most of the food insecure live in rural areas. Agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable, owing due to the often informal character of their employment, depriving them of legal protection from their employers. They amount to 450 million, and represent 40 per cent of the world's agricultural work force.
- There are approximately 500 million small-holder households, totalling 1.5 billion people, living on two hectares of land or less. Many are facing an unprecedented increase in the price of inputs, as a result of the increase of the price of oil and, for livestock farmers, of crops, at the very same moment that, as net food buyers, they are spending larger amounts of their budgets on food.
- The surge in prices in 2006-2008 is the result of policies that have systematically undermined the agricultural sector in a number of developing countries over a period of 30 years
- Food crops currently used to produce ethanol are also the crops that form the largest part of the diets of poor people, maize, sugar cane, soy, cassava, palm oil and sorghum provide around 30 per cent of mean calorie consumption of people living in chronic hunger. There is a need for international guidelines on the production of agrofuels
- At both ends of the chain (producers and retailers) and in the middle (the food processing sector), the degree of concentration is particularly high: for instance, the 10 leading food retailers have a 24 per cent share of the $3.5 billion global market, and their activities in developing countries have expanded dramatically in recent years.
- “Cargill, the world’s biggest grain trader, achieved an 86 per cent increase in profits from commodity trading in the first quarter of this year. Bunge, another huge food trader, had a 77 per cent increase in profits during the last quarter of last year. ADM, the second largest grain trader in the world, registered a 67 per cent increase in profits in 2007. Nor are retail giants taking the strain: profits at Tesco, the UK supermarket giant, rose by a record 11.8 per cent last year. Other major retailers, such as France’s Carrefour and Wal-Mart of the US, say that food sales are the main sector sustaining their profit increases” (GRAIN report, Making a killing from hunger, April 2008, available from: www.grain.org/articles/?id=39)
- In 2007, approximately 23 per cent of coarse grain production in the U.S. was used to produce ethanol, for a share of ethanol in the gasoline transport fuel market of 4.5 per cent in 2008; in the EU, although 47 per cent of vegetable oil production was used in the production of biodiesel, causing higher imports of vegetable oil to meet domestic consumption needs, the biodiesel share of the diesel transport fuel market was 3.0 per cent.

Friday September 8th, 2008. I attended a conference organized by Rights & Democracy and the Canadian FoodGrains Bank on the theme: “Solutions for Hunger - A Policy Seminar on the Human Right to Food”. Basically we discussed how the Right to food (adequate food) should be incorporated in the national laws of every country, and in the mandate of international UN agencies. I have understood the “right to food” primarily as a participatory approach by which people can actually participate in the process of establishing or advocating for good food policies such as claiming the right to food. Indeed many countries ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which article 11 says “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.” According to international law, every people if they could not have any response from their national judicial system to claim their rights were violated, can have access to an international court. Other international commitments are enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Additionally, article 56 of the Charter of the United Nations that states must cooperate in the identification and elimination of the obstacles to the full realization of the right to food. In 2004, the FAO adopted “Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of Food Security at the National Level” (the Guidelines) as a follow up to the World Food Summit series of conferences. The Guidelines provide a roadmap for states and civil society who want to apply the human rights framework for strategies to end hunger. Since their adoption, the Guidelines have inspired a number of initiatives designed to implement the human right to food. These initiatives have included country-level assessments, grassroots awareness campaigns, legislative and judicial procedures and violation monitoring.
I want to use this blog to write stuff I learned. For those interested in having access to some resources, they can read the following documents:
Building resilience: A human rights framework for world food and nutrition security, Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Human Rights Council http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/
Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of Food Security at the National Level
www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/y9825e/y9825e00.htm
3 case studies:
The Human Right to Food in Malawi: Results of an international fact-finding mission, Rights & Democracy and FIAN International, 2006
www.dd-rd.ca/site/_PDF/publications/globalization/food/food_malawi.pdf
The Human Right to Food in Nepal: Results of an international fact-finding mission, Rights & Democracy, 2007
www.dd-rd.ca/site/_PDF/publications/globalization/food/report_nepal_sep07.pdf
The Human Right to Food in Haiti: Results of an international fact-finding mission, Rights & Democracy and GRAMIR, 2008 http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/publications/index.php?id=2316&subsection=catalogue

One of my most favorite discoveries on my first trip the Western Cape region of South Africa was the Alluvia Winery. Located just outside of Stellenbosch this boutique winery makes some fabulous wine. It is a much smaller winery than those surrounding it, yet there is some truly unique about the place. It also has a great story. When there last time I learned that the owner of the vineyard had decided to venture into the winery business as a way to leave a lasting legacy for his children. He also believed that Johannesburg, with its high crime rates, was the best place to raise a family.

On a recent trip to South Africa this fall, I had the opportunity to visit the winery again. Was stocking up on some great South African wines from various vineyards (hope Canada customs is not reading this!) and remembered that I liked this particular vineyard a lot! Upon arrival into the tasting room (got to love the tasting part!) my father and I discovered that they had added another wine to the Alluvia collection. The story behind why this particular wine was developed is remarkable.

After moving his family to the area, the owner discovered that just down the road from where his vineyard was located is a place called Kylemore. This particular area is one of the Stellenbosch region's poorest areas. Even in beauty lies poverty. When this was discovered the owner felt that it was necessary to do something. Hence the "Give Me a Chance Trust Fund" wine was created. At the moment the proceeds of this wine are going to help a certain amount of youth in Kylemore. From what my father and I gathered from the individual telling the story, it is not just money that is given to these youth, but also time. Already because of this fund there has been some of the youth entering university.

Anyways, just thought I would share as I thought it was a nice little twist to the story of wine-buying in the Cape Region!

Words can't even describe how I feel right now. After 18 weeks of training, I have achieved what I once thought was impossible. When I first started running years ago in Montreal I never thought I could run a marathon- if someone had said to me after running that 10 km race that one day I would run a marathon I seriously would have thought they were insane. But strangely enough how I felt yesterday was similar to how I felt when I crossed that 10km finish line years ago. The sense of accomplishment and achievement is still the same- no matter what the distance.

I think one of the main reasons that I achieved what I did yesterday has a lot to do with the people that are in my running life. Some may think that running is a pretty solitary sport and maybe for some that is the case, but one of the main joys of running for me have been the people that I have met along the way. All of the people I have run with have helped me become the runner that I am.

I can't believe that I have run a marathon- is a really surreal experience. Crossing that finish line has made me realize that I can achieve the things I set my mind too. Impossible really is nothing.

We all know I'm a big fan of technologies and gadgets... so when I read last week in the New York Times that one of the more innovative genetic mapping companies (23andme) had reduced the price of its Genetic Mapping service (which many companies sell for up to $2-3,000) from $999 to only a few hundred dollars, I decided it was an amazing amount of information and education to be able to get access to for that amount, so I took the plunge and signed up.

A day later, FedEx delivered a Spit Kit to my house, which requires about 10 minutes of spitting into and mixing together with a solution, and your DNA sample is ready to send back! And off it went to Los Angeles, California to a laboratory today. Funny enough, the FedEx Pak they provide specifically says "do not send liquids" on it :)

So in 6-8 weeks, I'll know where my ancestors are from, whether I'm genetically lactose intolerant, whether or not I love broccoli because I can't taste the bitterness in it, and whether or not I'm a bit more likely than average to get certain diseases or be susceptible to certain conditions in my lifetime, along with dozens of other interesting facts. For less than the price of a university course in genetics, I can view and learn much of the world's most up-to-date knowledge on the relationships between genes and personal/medical conditions personalized to my specific genetic data. How cool is that?

You can make a case against "messing with your life" this way (I had an interesting discussion about this with someone just the other night), but I think that given the great power we have as humans to be intelligent and understand life in a way that no other species can, we then have a responsibility to use it to maximize the potential of our lives. Right? I guess it's also just a bit of an extra motivation knowing that you're slightly more at risk than average to do something about it! (from 1-2 times more or less likely than the generally population, in most cases)

I'll check back in with the results in a few months!

Hey guys, hope you are all doing well! As all you Canadians know we are going to be having an election soon! So, I just wanted to invite all of you to share your views on the up-coming election! Is voting in the Canadian election important to you? If so, why is it and what are the issues that you care most about! Check out the blog here: http://www.tigblog.org/group/elections08

This Sunday I managed to run the longest distance I have ever run- 35 km and then some (I say then some because I think I may have added some distance by messing up the route). The route took us all over the place and I also experienced another "First"- seeing what Scarborough look like!

The run was a really good one for me physically and mentally. If I could run a race like that I would be extremely happy. I also was really proud of myself for finishing this distance. It made me realize that I should have confidence in myself and that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. I think when I cross the finish line at the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon at the end of this month it will mark a new chapter in my life.

I know that this blog was supposed to be about my road to the marathon, but today's entry is not really about running--more like my lack of running these days.  At the moment I just feel so overwhelmed, useless, and all round tired (emotionally and mentally more than physically).  I haven't slept more than two nights in my own bed since July 29th and won't sleep in my own bed again until August 25th.  My diet is thrown off and I can't eat where or when I want.  Am just worried about if I will actually fulfil my goal and my dream at this point.  Agh am way too emotional.

I headed off in the morning to the Australian Science and Math School, hosted at Flinders University. The school is only a few years old, and is built with an open concept -- no classrooms, but instead a number of large spaces with desks and chairs that reconfigured in many different ways to foster teamwork and collaboration. We had a large group - about 50 teachers and school leaders, and had a really interesting day -- when I showed the "Are you listening?" video, a whole bunch of students gathered upstairs in the area overlooking where I was speaking to watch - I think they were really curious that so many teachers were learning about their way of using technology!

After a fantastic dinner by the water with a group of curriculum developers, I headed to sleep -- because I had to catch a 6:40am flight to Canberra!

I made it to the nation's capital early in the morning, and it was freezing! 0 degrees but it warmed up as the sun rose... I had a few hours to fit the gym and have lunch before heading to Canberra University -- the group in Canberra decided to have an evening workshop (4-9pm) with dinner. Although everyone had a full day of work before showing up, we still had a lot of active participation, and after wrapping up at 9 and getting back to the hotel around 10, it was time for sleep for another 6:45am flight back to Sydney for the last workshop of the trip!

Arriving in Sydney in the morning, with my 32kg on-the-dot bag faithfully appearing on the carousel, I headed off to Parramatta right on time, and arrived 3 minutes before the workshop was to begin! We had the biggest crowd of any session -- around 60 people, and so a lot of the interactive sections took a lot longer than usual, but they had great ideas and a large group of schools approached me after and wants to deeply engage their entire district with TIGed, which is exciting! After wrapping up and chatting with a bunch of the attendees, I was off to one of my favourite hotels in the world -- the Westin Sydney, to relax, enjoy their great gym, and have dinner with Jenny, who had the whole series of workshops organized, to debrief on the experience (yum, Tasmanian lamb!). After that, I met up with Jarra and Nick, and headed to Micky's for dessert (Banana Pancakes and Ice Cream!) to catch up and for me to celebrate the completion of 10 sessions in 11 days in 5 cities!

I'm writing this now on the flight to Vancouver -- I managed to get right to sleep after lunch on the 10am flight, which will hopefully mean I can work through the North American day and head to sleep at a proper time tonight. Saturday, we head to Quebec City for the World Youth Congress to meet TIG members from all over the world. I've also agreed to head to Brisbane on the 19th to speak at the Queenland Government's e-learning summit, and after that, I'll be ready to just settle down at home and enjoy the rest of the summer in Toronto :)

Now that I've been away a full week, I forced myself to carve out some time to reflect on the intensity of the time so far before kicking off the second stretch.

As always, our summers at TakingITGlobal are quite busy -- generally for the education "industry", most conferences are held during the summer when teachers have school holidays. This summer, as a follow-up to my keynote at last October's ACEL (Australian Counsel of Educational Leaders) conference (which was apparently quite good even though I was quite sick at the time), I was invited to be a "Traveling Scholar" for ACEL, presenting 5 full-day workshops on TakingITGlobal to school leaders and teachers across Australia. In addition, I started off the trip by keynoting a leadership conference at Melbourne Grammar School, and today keynoted the International Middle Years conference in Adelaide... so I've made quite good use of two weeks!

Sunday - Wednesday: Melbourne

After the trek from Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne, I knew the first thing I needed to do to keep my sanity was to spend a good amount of time at the fitness center at the Westin. What a great idea - it helped me refresh, have a fantastic swim in the beautiful infinity pool, and after a brief stroll that was quickly canceled when the rain started, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour.

On Monday, I woke up nice and early and arrived at the charming greened campus of Melbourne Grammar, one of Melbourne's oldest and most respected private schools. To their enormous credit, they had invited students from a broad cross-section of Melbourne to attend the conference, in addition to a grade of their students. I was brilliantly introduced by one of their capable students, and my keynote was well-received - with more questions from students than we had time for. Following the keynote, a panel including a futurist, scientist, and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson, who cited my presentation several times as they discussed issues of leadership in the 21st century and challenged students to act on the issues they felt challenged by. In the afternoon, I ran several hours of hands-on workshops guiding a small group of students through the TIG site and beginning the Guide to Action as a tool for action planning.

Tuesday morning, I visited Kilsyth, a suburb of Melbourne, and ran a 3 hour workshop with a group of teachers across that region looking at TIG and especially with an interest in Health education... it was a good challenge because we didn't have Internet except for a very slow 2G connection, so I was able to get well prepared and experiment with some activities for the following days' sessions!

That evening, I traveled to Mooney Valley Racecourse (home of Australia's best race - the Cox plate, worth $3 million!) and presented our work at TIG to about 150 principals, who also had some great questions, and I enjoyed meeting a teacher who grew up in Mississauga and had spent his recent years enjoying and exploring Australia's wilderness.

On Wednesday, I spent from 9 AM to 3:30 PM with an enthusiastic group of teachers and principals learning about TIG, exploring global issues, and understanding how to fit our programs and ideas at TIG into the curriculum and everyday use in their classrooms. I also shared our Best Practices on Global Education resource with them... and then I was off to the airport, heading to my next destination: Tasmania!

Thursday - Saturday: Hobart, Tasmania

On Thursday, I woke up and did it all over again, in a beautiful setting amongst Lemon trees at Lateare Gardens in Hobart with a fire burning to keep us all warm and cozy from the cold outside! I think the goals of what we do at TakingITGlobal really connected closely with some people - one teacher was literally in tears sharing how wonderful she thought what we did was... it's really a special opportunity (as exhausting as it is) to be able to share our work with people that are also dedicating their lives to helping young people develop. I think sometimes we all forget the power and opportunity we have to impact the lives of others - and I feel like a few people really felt reconnected to that opportunity, which is really an amazing opportunity to be able to stimulate.

After a short 2 hour break to refresh and do some e-mail, I headed off to the Hobart Yacht club, where I addressed about 50 high school principals, who weren't able to attend the day's workshop because they were having a leadership retreat. I had to pack 90 minutes into a 30 minute before dinner speech, so I think it was overwhelming, but many of them were quite excited by what we do... and I had delicious local Salmon which was a bonus!

The next day was my main day off. I decided not to head off to my next destination right away, but to stick around in Hobart and see some of the beautiful wildlife Tasmania has to offer. So I signed up for a Tasman Island Eco Cruise - having no idea how much of an adventure it would be! After a scenic bus ride to Port Arthur, one of the main convict colonies from the 1800s, we boarded a powerful boat (675 HP) that they describe as a 4x4 of the sea. Initially the ride was quite smooth - and we discovered some caves and amazing rock formations on the coast. The "swells" were only about 1 meter, and so it was just like jumping waves on a boat at home.

However, once we got out to the Tasman Sea, things got a lot more interesting. The waves and the winds were coming strongly from an unusual direction, and 2-3 meter waves and swells gave us quite a ride! I had chosen to sit in the 4th row (moved from the 2nd) and for close to an hour, we jumped waves and it felt like we were on a roller coaster as we plunged down after riding a wave.... but I stuck with my seat - a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

We arrived at two areas with Australian and New Zealand seals, and at a cove where dolphins chased our boat around until we had to leave - amazing to lean over and watch them at the water and bow of the boat jumping up playfully! A number of albatross with their huge wingspans also provided us with an amazing show - watching them fish and gracefully glide across the sky with nothing around us but huge rock and menacing water... or what looked menacing in my book. In 1998, however, the water was so rough that in the annual Sydney-Hobart race, five boats sank and six sailors were killed.

On Saturday morning, before heading to the airport, I spent a few hours enjoying the Salamanca Market, with hundreds of stalls offering delicious local treats and art and coffee and everything needed to pass a few hours and take in the culture of a place!

Sunday - Monday: Adelaide, South Australia

Now I'm here in Adelaide, where this morning I keynoted the International Middle Years of Schooling conference, and was again introduced by a fantastic student duo! I gave out dozens of bookmarks afterwards, with many many people promising to check out the site and connect their students into TIG. I was also followed by an excellent presentation by Professor Erica, who gave a talk on creativity that linked really perfectly and built on top of many of the themes I covered.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Australian Science and Mathematics School to do another day-long workshop, and then heading to Canberra the next morning... I'll be sure to check in soon with more! And I'll be editing this entry in about 2 hours with photos once they upload.

G'day for now, Mike

If you ever find yourself in Austin, Texas definitely check out Zilker Park for its great running trails. Beautiful routes, great water fountains, and even a couple of showers to wet your head if you are too hot! Fantastic! Did my 10km tempo run there (although not too sure if it was really tempo...)

Even a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn to check out along the way...

Training for this marathon will not only involve me doing a lot of running distance-wise, but will also involve me doing a lot of running in hotel gyms. Had my first hotel treadmill experience--considered running outside, but is super humid here in San Antonio and have no clue where to run, so just decided to bite the bullet and run in the hotel gym (Holiday Inn Riverwalk in San Antonio= not the best gym)....But I managed to do the 6m I was supposed to do tonight and also managed to calculate what 6kms is in miles...well, had some help with that...otherwise known as conversion calculator.