center on alcohol marketing and YOUTH…
October 23, 2008
…
a project of hope…
Dealing with alcohol policy issues I came across this institution:
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth – it seems like a very good project, with good, useful and valueable sources. I became happy when I found – which I did via the webpage of IOGT International.
I just hope that there is not the alcohol industry behind it – somewhere hidden. I know it sounds paranoid. But there are several similar “projects” that are financed by the alcohol industry. They just appearto serve a good cause but actually aim on protecting and advocating the industry’s interests. And those are interest’s that oppose public health, the well-being of individuals and families.
So, I hope that Camy is on the good side.
Number of the day – from the Camy webpage:
60 811 alcohol advertisments on TV that kids were more likely to see than adults – in 2005. What does this number say about the industry?
What do I say: Sobriety is in!
hope… it’s all about hope (#2)…
October 11, 2008
…
connecting to an earlier entry with the same title and to the comments written to this entry, I am publishing this quotation, originally by Marianne Williamsson. But I have it from the movie Coach Carter:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequat.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were all meant to shine as children do! It is not just in some of us. It is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
Each person is a visionary. Can be. It is just to choose to be.
If you chose not to be – don’t stop others.
There is no shadow around dreams and hope. So if you don’t choose to dream and hope yourself, enjoy the light of other dreams. Do not diminish it.
We are all meant to shine. And once, before the world grabbed us, we all did.
unf president…
October 9, 2008
…
on TV tonight.
As I just read in Robert Damberg’s blog, he will be participant in svt1 programme “Debatt” tonight at 22:00 o’clock.
The topic – as I understood from Robert’s entry – will be youth and alcohol.
I think it is great that UNF has such a position in society in Sweden to be invited to a TV debate! It shows that UNF has done a paramount job the recent years.
Also great: that television is discussing issues like that (after my srong criticism of MTV few days ago).
Now I am just hoping that they don’t show a football match at the same time 
http://www.svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=8742&lid=tv-guide&from=menu
an unnoticed tragedy…
October 8, 2008
…
in Burma…
again:
After the tropical storm Nargis that hit the country – literally – with its full blow and also after the heavy riots and massacres against Burmese monks earlier this year, the media coverage was huge. And thus the people from the Western hemisphere got to see for a little while the disastrous conditions people in Burma are living in.They got to see a military junta which exploits its population.
All that was in the news. Pictures were travelling the world round.
Today, however, we don’t hear anything anymore about Burma. Or, have you?
We might soon start believing that everything is better there now, that things are improving – if we even remember “Burma”, of course.
The sad thing is: the army in Burma is attacking the population. The army is attacking now the region in southern Burma, on the border to Thailand, since one week. This region is the new “home” to many refugees who flew from the catastrophe of Nargis. It is a fertile region. And, many international organizations are running their aid projects in just that region of Burma, because of its peaceful atmosphere – so far.
The interest fo the military junta has grown: the southern border region is highly fertile, has huge corn fields and also huge araeas of expensive luxury wood. Thus the Junta has 500 soldiers burning down corn fields and schools in order to scare away the people from this region. The military steals the food reserves and they attack aid projects – like new build schools and hospitals, a small factory for the production of hygienic articles for children or a company to produce green vegetables for school kids. The military is attacking, for the first time not only the coe regions of Burma, but also the periphery ones.
And the military has learned: While it was beating men to death before, systematically raping women and leaving children to starvation, it is now much more “discreet”. The Junta does not want to attract negative media coverage anymore.
But the Burmese people are still crying for help. And the international organizations are crying out for help. They all cry in vain. Without bloody death, rape and other evil the pictures from Burma are just not shocking enough, yet. Therefore Burma does not get attention.
And for me this is a global humanitarian crisis.
It is true, there is a lot to discuss related to this blog entry – for instance about regimes, who are designed to provide and maintain safety and peace for its members (see Hobbes), but who happen to exploit and kill its population. But the debate must be about the crisis or the on-going catastrophe that is simply not perceived.
We must never forget the Burmas, Darfurs, Ruandas… Never!
Sobriety is…
October 4, 2008
…
IN!
Who said that abstaining is uncool?
- abstaining from meat and animal products;
- abstaining from tobacco and other drugs that the uncool smoke;
- abstaining from alcohol ;
Being sober in today’s society is like being a long distance runner. Sometimes you feel the rush and the excitement of the enterprise you have embarked on and the steps flow easily. You seem to be running with seven-miles-boots; at other times your legs feel heavy, you are not running but walking, and you wonder why you don’t just stop; but: you always keep going… like a long distance runner. And with every step you take, some kind of hope to reach the goal, or simply to enjoy the wind of running in your hair, returns. And as it returns, other runners join, you take up speed again – until another hill comes, or puddles of alcohol on the street… but you never stop running. You are a long distance runner.
- a long distance runner
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=promoe+long+distance+runner&search_type=&aq=4&oq=promoe
Sobriety is in!
03/10/1990…
October 3, 2008
…
is the date when the divided Germany was united. It is ever since then the National Day of Germany – a holiday for all.
I am reading German newspapers. 03/10/2008 is today. But I started to wonder about the date… Today it should be the 18th aniversary of the re-unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.
However, there is NO sign at all in the four best quality newspapers.
It surprises me. I find it noteworthy, having on mind the National Days of Norway, France or USA, for instance.
In the German newspapers there is not one German flag; not one headline; no sign at all.
I don’t even mind. I just want to say, that Germany has a Nazi – problem – which is not getting smaller. But the society as a whole is so far from being nationalistic, that it is not even patriotic.
I like it.
The true re-unification has to be implemented in fair wages and equal opportunities for people from the Eastern part. I don’t think that waving a black-red-gold piece of cloth is big help in this.
MTV…
October 1, 2008
…
Music Television in Sweden keeps me wondering.
Today I saw a commercial for a new serie: “Celebrity Rehab”
Waiting for football matches to start, or even trying to hear a good song, I occassionally zapped to Music Television and found myself looking at shows like:
“Tela Tequila – a shot at love” – where men and women are competing for one woman; given this one could even start thinking that this serie promotes understanding for homosexuality/ bisexuality and has some benefit for youth culture; but watching just one minute, you have to face so many perpetuated stereotypes and alcohol; in every activity there is alcohol; people are having a date in a giant glass filled with champagne, for example. After all the serie is called “a shot a love” – who drinks the most gets love…
There is also “Made” where unpopular highschool kids meet a famous person who choaches them for a few weeks and helps them to change their lives for the better – also a promising sounding concept at first sight, if it would not end up every time in dogmatic sentences like “you can do it” and a make-over by fashion stylists and make-up artists. Music Television can obviously make dreams come true real fast…
Another serie is “X-Factor” were an ex-couple “Mysteriously” ends up together in an expensive hotel for a wellness weekend. The catch: the current partners are at the hotel, too, equipped with spying material, so that they can witness how the two Ex are cheating on them now (or not…). Also here an awful amount of expensive alcohol means to play a major role. Which suits well, since one can blame the cheating on the alcohol later…
I wonder, seriously, why MTV is still calling itself Music Television.
Thinking about the target group of Alcohol & Sex Television, I just wonder what values are promoted to the youth? It seems like Alcohol & Sex Television is creating its own audience for “Celebrity Rehab” – first promoting “Sex, Drugs and Rock’n'Roll” – and then letting people watch how the consequences are treated;
No wonder girls stop eating when they weigh 40 kilos. No wonder gender equality is still a theoretic rather than a realistic notion. No wonder we think that drinking is the way of living, that appearence matters – not performence.
I want to hear music again – Bob Dylan and Freundeskreis; Sister Keepers and Melissa Etheridge;
I choose a better world!
