I've had some time now to digest my travels to Ljubljana, Slovenia; I was recently there for the OECD's International Workshop on Open & Inclusive Policy Making. TakingITGlobal conducted an e-consultation on Climate Change & Building Citizen Centred Policies & Services.

I want to thank all of the participants who gave their views and opinions on these 2 important themes - and especially Vidar and PJ who coordinated the consultations. When I presented your thoughts at the Workshop, all of the delegates were deeply interested and reacted positively to what you said. I found that there were a number of civil servants who already recognized that engaging young people is an important component of reaching out with their citizens. I also heard a lot of innovative ideas and projects that governments were experimenting with.

Still, there was a recognition that more political will and resources are needed to make sure that these efforts are supported. One of the main points that I stressed is that governments need to include young people at all levels of the public policy development process. Additionally, having youth civil servants is also a good step - and listening to your ideas will definitely help transform government.

I want to invite you to read the full report that I presented - you can download it here.

I also had a chance to take in some of the sights of Ljubljana and I must say, it was very pleasant to roam around the streets of a small, yet cosmopolitan city. I really appreciated the history that you can clearly see in the buildings and the layout of the city. The neat thing was the emphasis on dragons - St. George is the patron saint and you can see that everywhere.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to head out to Bled lake or Skocjan caves, but hopefully I can make another trip in the future to check them out!!

How fascinating. But maybe not, considering the rates of autism these days. Carry on. Malcolm Lawrence Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal

You may not know about Ingrid Bétancourt, but this is huge news here in France. Colombia hostage Betancourt freed Ingrid Betancourt's joy at freedom

This link has photos of a Hongwe/Mahongwe Bwete reliquary figure from Gabon. http://www.discoverafricanart.com/Hongwe_bwete_figure.html Neal Robbins

Malcolm Lawrence Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas. http://towerofbabel.com ... From: "NATIONAL TABBOULEH

Our hits seem to be going through the roof today, apparently thanks to a link on this page: http://www.limk.com/ Malcolm Lawrence Babel: The multilingual,

I always enjoy the videos you post. MM ... From: Malcolm Lawrence To: Babel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 1:12:47 AM

These links have photos of Spilogale gracilis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SPILOGALE_GRACILIS.jpg

Spilogale gracilis is often called the Western Spotted Skunk. It lives in the western part of the U.S., northern Mexico, and the southwest portion of British

Martinogale was an early skunk. Xiaoming Wang, David P. Whistler, and Gary T. Takeuchi wrote an article about it. The title is A new basal skunk Martinogale

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.

The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Mr. Jean Ping, is
following closely the latest developments in the situation in Zimbabwe, including the
decision by Zimbabwe’s opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, to pull out of the
second round of the presidential election, scheduled to take place on 27 June 2008.

This development and the increasing acts of violence in the run-up to the second
round of the presidential election are a matter of grave concern to the AU Commission.

The Chairperson of the Commission has initiated consultations with the AU
Chairperson, as well as with the Chairman of SADC, the SADC mediator and other
regional leaders, to determine how best the AU could assist in addressing the current
situation.

In the meantime, the Chairperson of the Commission stresses the need for all
Zimbabwean stakeholders to exercise restraint and reiterates his call for an immediate
end to all acts of violence. He urges all Zimbabwean parties to work together to
overcome the challenges facing their country in this critical phase of its history.

Addis Ababa, 23 June 2008

Malcolm Lawrence Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas. http://towerofbabel.com ... From: Jon Letman To:

This Blog was supposed to be an Advocacy initiative for Earth Charter International...but a while after I found myself surfing for Iz. The Hawaiian musician , Israel Kamakawiwo'ole,'was known for promoting Hawaiian rights and Hawaiian independence, both through his music & through his life'. Iz as a Cult, remained even after 10 years of his premature death in '97 at the age of 38, due to respiratory disorder, caused by his Obesity.

Facing Future - released in '93, considered as the best of his albums, incorporates the featured song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow-What a Wonderful world!

On July 21, 2006 BBC Radio 1 announced that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" would be released as a single. On July 4, 2007, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole debuted at No. 44 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart with "Wonderful World," selling 17,000 units. It was his biggest sales week ever, helping him garner his second No. 1 on Billboard's Top World Music chart. As of October of 2007, the album has sold 75,000 copies.

The song continues to be a low-charting but a best seller, passing 1,040,092 downloads sold as of the survey week ending 3/9/08, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Over the Rainbow" was played at the conclusion of NBC's political analyst Tim Russert's memorial service in Washington D.C. on June 18, 2008. As the guests were filing out of the service, there was a double rainbow seen in the Washington D.C. sky. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

A strong lyrical effect, use of typical instruments like Ukukele, his soft soothing voice & Iz's innate pronunciation make me spellbound for the first time I listened to it.

I need not, emphasize Earth Charter's mission here, as you would easily come to know about it, by watching the video...but I'm supposed to thank Earth Charter for introducing an Indian with Iz & Hawaiian music as well.

Astounding work on this, Tim! Rudy On Sat, Jun 28, 2008 at 11:53 AM, Timothy B.Gunter ... -- Regards, Rudy Carrera http://clcx.org/