Avaaz.org

Here is another website some of you may be interested in. It is called Avaaz.org: The World In Action. Their mission is:

Avaaz.org is a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want. Across the world, most people want stronger protections for the environment, greater respect for human rights, and concerted efforts to end poverty, corruption and war. Yet globalization faces a huge democratic deficit as international decisions are shaped by political elites and unaccountable corporations -- not the views and values of the world’s people.

Technology and the internet have allowed citizens to connect and mobilize like never before. The rise of a new model of internet-driven, people-powered politics is changing countries from Australia to the Philippines to the United States. Avaaz takes this model global, connecting people across borders to bring people powered politics to international decision-making.

“Avaaz” means “Voice” in many Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages, according to the website.

Furthermore it is described as, "a community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today. The aim of Avaaz.org is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decisions. Avaaz.org members act for a more just and peaceful world and a globalisation with a human face."

Take a look and let me know what you think. There are so many different places now for global citizens to congregate, many of which I have written about, that it would be nice to know what people think about each of them and for what purpose each one could be used. They are certainly all valuable resources, but each has a different reason for using.

Smaller World, Bigger Community

It is a small world. It sounds like a cliche but it really is not. More and more we are seeing the impact of actions around the world having reverberating implications geographically far away. Some of the largest threats that face us now and in the future are global threats.
It is about time we start thinking of the world as just one big community. If everyone felt like a child in Africa, or a grandparent in India, or a farmer in China, were in fact our neighbors, then it would be a heck of a lot more difficult to ignore their needs.
Despite how much smaller the world has become with our myriad of means for communication; the internet, television, phone, etc. we have yet to warm to the idea that we are all in fact now one big community.
Social websites have become a place to congregate, Facebook is the next big open source hit, MySpace, if it were a country, would be the 8th largest in the world. We are all neighbors. Collaboration in the workplace, where an MBA grad in China starts work on a project when a co-worker in Canada goes to sleep, has become the next big wave in workplace productivity. The world is shrinking, which is both a good and bad thing. It is up to us, however, to start spreading the word - we will not stand by and watch our neighbor suffer and die.
This idea is somewhat difficult to wrap your head around but Bono's organization ONE sums it up best by simply saying we are all One. I also like Desmond Tutu's description of the word Ubuntu, which means 'I am because you are'. We are more than ever interconnected, which means like never before we are able to work together in harmony. Lets just embrace our small world with our large community. It is here to stay.