Global Citizen's Festival, Concert, and Project Everyone - NYC September 26 - End poverty and hunger in the world!

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One of the most effective and aggressive efforts to mobilize people from throughout the world to help others will be launched in just six weeks beginning September 24 when the United Nations is expected to adopt a new set of Sustainable Development Goals to help bring poverty to an end in the world.

The leaders of 193 nations are expected to adopt the new goals for the United Nations, UNICEF, the Global Citizens Festival and Concert, and Project Everyone.  President Obama and Pope Francis are among the world leaders pledging support.  On September 26 the Festival and Concert will be held on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park.

While the festival and concert will be streamed live around the world, an edited version of the concert with film inserts from around the world will air in a worldwide broadcast on NBC and BBC September 27.  Featured performers include international stars Beyonce, Cold Play, Pearl Jam, and Ed Sheeran.

The Coltons Point Times is proud to be assisting the Richard Curtis team in making this international effort a success.  

A new feature of the world initiative is the addition of Project Everyone to the international team headed by perhaps one of the greatest fundraisers for charitable causes in history, Richard Curtis.  As you will read in this article, Richard Curtis has raised over £1 billion through his charities the past 30 years.  For those of us in the colonies, that  translates to about $1.56 billion.

More about Richard in the next articles, here is the story of the efforts by the Global Citizens and Project Everyone.

Project Everyone was founded by Richard Curtis, filmmaker and founder of Comic Relief. This is why...

In September 2015, the United Nations are launching global goals, a series of ambitious targets to end extreme poverty and tackle climate change for everyone by 2030.

If the goals are met, they ensure the health, safety and future of the planet for everyone on it. And their best chance of being met is if everyone on the planet is aware of them.

So the simple but mighty ambition of Project Everyone - is to share the global goals with 7 billion people in 7 days.

How We Do It

Our mission is to get a short, dynamic and snappy explanation of the global goals onto every website, TV station, cinema, school, radio station, newspaper, magazine, billboard, newsletter, noticeboard, pinboard, milk carton and mobile phone.

The more famous these global goals are, and the more widely they are understood by everyone - the more politicians will take them seriously, finance them properly, refer to them frequently and make them work.

This is a mission for humanity, unified goals that resonate with everyone, everywhere.

Our partners in this mighty plan

Project Everyone is partnering with Global Citizen. Global Citizen is a content, events and campaigning platform for the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030. The objective of Global Citizen is to increase the number of individuals engaging with the global goals, and provide a platform for the NGO sector to increase support for their policy and campaigning objectives. By connecting tens of millions of people to global issues, inspired global citizens take action and generate support for the organisations campaigning to end extreme poverty by 2030.

Our Founding Team

Richard Curtis

Richard Curtis is a film writer and director, responsible for films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Mr Bean, Love Actually, The Boat That Rocked, About Time and most recently Trash and Esio Trot.

In the other half of Richard’s life he is co-founder and vice-chair of Comic Relief, which he started after visiting Ethiopia during the 1985 famine. He has co-produced the 14 live nights for the BBC since 1988 and the charity has made over £1 Billion for projects in Africa and the UK during that time. In 2015, he will bring the massively successful Red Nose Day to the United States with NBC.

Richard was a founding member of Make Poverty History and worked both on that campaign and on Live 8 in 2005. As part of his contribution to the MPH campaign he wrote The Girl In The Cafe for HBO and the BBC - a television drama based around the G8 summit, which won 3 Emmys. In 2012, Phillip Noyce directed Richard’s TV movie “Mary and Martha”, a film about two mothers losing their sons to malaria. It has been shown in 50 countries around the world and used as a campaigning tool by many organisations committed to ending malaria.

Kate Garvey

Kate is a strategic communications and campaigns consultant specialising in promoting global campaigns and issues. Clients and campaigns have included Google; the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; Product (RED); Live Earth; The Global Fund; UNHCR; the Maternal Mortality campaign; Make Poverty History and the Live 8 concerts. Her career began in politics where, from 1997 until 2005, she worked for Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street in the Prime Minister's Private Office and played an integral role in 3 successful election victories. Kate was also a director at Freud Communications.

Gail Gallie

Gail Gallie is a business leader with a strong sense of social purpose.

Gail’s background is in marketing and advertising. She has worked for both advertisers and agencies, in the public and private sectors.

Gail started her career working for ad agencies, helping to create campaigns for a variety of clients including P&G, the Ministry of Sound, and the Labour Party. She then took a role in marketing at the BBC and over the next eight years was responsible for the strategy and delivery of many major projects, including the launches of CBeebies and BBC Three.

On leaving the BBC Gail co-founded the strategic communications consultancy GaillieGodfrey, delivering corporate campaigns and brand strategy to a mixture of commercial and philanthropic clients, including Sony Music, the Camden Roundhouse, and the Millennium Cities Initiative. During this period Gail also worked as a freelance consultant for Comic Relief.

In 2010 Gail was appointed CEO of the ad agency Fallon, part of the Publicis Group, delivering campaigns for clients including Cadbury, Eurostar and Skoda.

 Amanda Mackenzie

Amanda was a member of Aviva's Group Executive for 7 years and joined Aviva to oversee the rebrand from Norwich Union and to set up a global marketing and communications function.

Amanda has a BSc in Psychology from the University of London, is a graduate of the Insead Advanced Management Programme, a Life Fellow of the RSA and Fellow and past President of the Marketing Society. Amanda has over 25 years of commercial experience, including director roles at British Airways Airmiles, BT and British Gas. She is also a non-executive director of Mothercare Plc. and sits on the audit committee.

She has been on the board of the National Youth Orchestra for 8 years. Amanda is a member of Lord Davies steering group to increase the number of women on boards.

Amanda was awarded an OBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List for services to marketing.

Amanda has joined the Project Everyone team on a 2 year secondment from Aviva.

Join the world’s largest team

Support for the Project Everyone campaign is growing across the globe, so please don’t hesitate to ask more about what we are doing or how we might work together to make the goals famous. Everyone will thank you for it. To learn more about Project Everyone contact
team@project-everyone.org

Citizenship

How Project Everyone will talk to 7 billion people

By Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer on June 26, 2015

In weeks the United Nations General Assembly will hold a historic meeting that will shape the next fifteen years and beyond. Yes, the UNGA meets every year. So what makes this year so special? Stay with me, this story is getting good.

Back in 2000 the UN developed the Millennium Development Goals, a list of 8 goals that were designed to improve the world. Among the MDGs successes was cutting extreme poverty in half. This success was great but it still leaves a lot of work left to do.

Now, the world has a chance to get the job done. The Global Goals, or as policy folks like to say “The Sustainable Development Goals”, are the roadmap to ending extreme poverty and solving climate change by 2030. What will be key to their success, however, is ensuring people know about them, so that world leaders are held accountable.

That’s where Project Everyone comes in. According to the campaign’s website, it’s mission is to share the Global Goals with the world’s 7 billion people, all in the span of 7 days. Sounds crazy, right? Check out the video above to see behind the scenes of this ambitious campaign and see how Project Everyone’s going to make it happen.

Citizenship

Everything You Need to Know About the SDGs

By Natalie Prolman on Jan. 30, 2015

Image via Wikipedia

From now until September, you are going to be hearing a lot of dialogue about the “SDGs” (aka: the Sustainable Development Goals) and how they will be dictating the roadmap of development for the next 15 years. You may be asking yourself..wait, what are those??

Good question.

Long story short, the SDGs (think of them as phase II of the Millennium Development Goals, except even better...we hope) are a universal set of goals and targets that UN member states will be expected to use in framing their political policies and development agendas from now until 2030. These goals are going to be essential in ending extreme poverty and creating a future free from inequality and dangerous climate change. Super important stuff!

Because I’m sure you’re as excited as I am about these SDGs, I figured it would be helpful to break them down for you and explain why you should care. And most importantly, how you, global citizens, can get involved.

So, back in June 2012 at Rio 20 (the UN Conference on Sustainable Development that took place in Brazil) countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental process to develop a set of "action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate" sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The main objective? To help drive the implementation of sustainable development. In September of this year, these goals will be made official. Let the countdown begin!

After Rio, a 30-member Open Working Group (OWG) of the General Assembly was tasked with creating a proposal on the SDGs. It was agreed that they must be: action-oriented, concise, easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries (while taking into account different national realities, capacities, and levels of development as well as respecting national politics and priorities).

Here is what they have come up with so far: 

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
As global citizens we can all get behind this one!

2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
It’s not just about getting food on the table. We need to make sure that everyone has access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food!

3. Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
As my girl Michelle likes to say, let’s move!

4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
In other words, we have to make sure that people from all backgrounds, regardless of their socio-economic status, age, or geography have access to quality education. Like this awesome lady!

5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
My bff Emma Watson is all about this.

6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Let Raya from Sesame Street break this one down for you in this helpful intro.

7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Yup. Sounds good to me!

8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all
All too often people are forced to work under grueling, dangerous conditions for very little pay... this needs to change.

9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation
If you don’t have safe roads, you can’t get essential things (like vaccines) to the people who need it most! Right?

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
Talk about a no-brainer.

11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Who doesn’t want clean streets?

12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
This year let’s commit to the mantra of reduce, reuse, and recycle.

13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking note of agreements made by the UNFCCC forum)
YES!

14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
THINK ABOUT NEMO!

15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss!
It's time for global leaders to show off their green thumb.

16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Peace, inclusivity, and justice for all. Triple win.

17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
It’s time we all start working together!

Okay, so now you’re probably asking yourself why should I care about all of this?? As I mentioned before, 2015 is going to be a pivotal year in refining and establishing the SDGs. Once they are put into place, this will be THE framework that determines what sustainable development will look like for the next 15 years. Everything listed above is still tentative.  

From now until September, global citizens have a chance to stand up and collectively raise their voices to make sure that this development agenda represents the needs of those who are most vulnerable. Over the next eight months we will provide plenty of information to educate you on these issues and offer concrete actions that you can take to play a part in making history. We’re all in this together, and with such ambitious goals it's our responsibility to stay informed and do our part! Stay tuned!
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19th Amendment gave Women Right to Vote 90 years ago Today

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[In the 1800s, women in the United States had few legal rights and did not have the right to vote. This speech was given by Susan B. Anthony after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. She was tried and then fined $100 but refused to pay.]

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:


"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.

For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.

To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.


Susan B. Anthony - 1873


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If Women Ruled - Why Don't They Rule? America is Ready

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"There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers."
Susan B. Anthony



Susan B. Anthony, one of the heroines of American history whose lifelong fight to get women the right to vote in America almost got it right with her quote. She should have added, "...and elect women lawmakers."

Men have been in control of the world for thousands of years and of the United States government for 222 years and look what it has gotten us. I am one who believes there are certain characteristics of women that would make a significant contribution to our political and cultural evolution. Twice in my career I worked with and for women in top government positions and they were every bit as successful as any man.



When I worked for Governor Thomas Kean of New Jersey I was chief of staff in the Energy Department when Christine Todd Whitman was President of the Public Utilities Commission. She went on to become the first and only female governor in New Jersey history and the first Republican female to defeat a Democrat incumbent for governor in America. I also worked as assistant Treasurer for Feather O'Connor, New Jersey State Treasurer. Both were exceptional leaders.

So what stops a Whitman, who can capture a powerful statewide office, from becoming president or vice president? Well, it is a male club she would be trying to capture and it will take a monumental effort by many, many women and some men to get the job done of breaking through. The hardest part of the task, as Sarah Palin found out, is getting the women to agree on a woman candidate.

Why can't women put aside petty differences, even differences on policy and social issues, to join forces and once and for all break down the barriers keeping all women out? Men set aside personal causes and policy differences to get in the door. And remember, if you are not inside the door to the club you will never change the club for the better.



After an incredible 50 year battle against the world of men Susan died in 1906, just 14 years before enactment of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that finally recognized women's right to vote. She did not go to her grave without experiencing the right, however, for in 1872 she set off a firestorm when she did vote in spite of being denied the right to register to vote. It resulted in her arrest and one of the most fascinating trials in our history. By the way, she voted for the Republicans.

We do not know enough about Susan and her passion for equality so the Coltons Point Times web site will be presenting history lessons about her life and about the historic trial and it would do you well to read them. But that is not the main purpose of this article. This article explores why women don't rule.

The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People". The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.



That means that today, the legal framework of our nation has been in effect for 222 years. This will be the 90th year women have had the right to vote. After suffering second class citizenship for the first 132 years of our history what have women achieved with the right to vote during the past 90 years?

While it is true that women have slowly broken down many barriers to not just voting but being elected to public office, it is also true that no woman has been elected president or vice president. In the last election we came the closest ever with viable candidates for president and vice president and Sarah Palin came within 7.2% of being elected.



In 1984 Geraldine Ferraro was the vice president nominee with Walter Mondale but they were defeated by Ronald Reagan and George Bush by 18.2%. Thus the Palin election was the closest a woman has ever come to winning a national election. No woman has ever been a presidential candidate on the ballot.

Why is it no woman has won the top two offices in our nation when women are the majority of the voters and gender prejudices were never as strained as racial prejudices yet Barack Obama won in 2008? The answer may be obvious. Women have never united as a voting block.

In America we have this thing called single issue focus, it means being so obsessive about a single issue that anyone disagreeing is condemned. This narrow minded view of political reality stands as the greatest barrier to women breaking down the last bastion of politics and getting elected as president or vice president.



The most publicly recognized groups of women are members of the most polarizing of groups and therein lies the problem. There is the feminist movement whose leftist priorities are so far removed from the mainstream of American politics they will never get elected. They are also the first to condemn anyone who does not advocate their far left agenda.

Social causes like pro-life and pro-abortion face the same dilemma and the until the groups drastically lower their virulence toward each other nothing will ever be accomplished but deeper polarization. Think about it. If anyone from either of these groups were ever elected president or vice president they must take the Oath of Office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Whatever law is on the books and upheld by the Supreme Court, Roe versus Wade for instance, they are sworn to defend it. That does not mean our elected officials have to agree with the law and they have every right to pursue change through our Constitutional processes but while the law is in effect they must enforce it.



Women activists must get past their tendency to condemn those who disagree or they will never get women elected to our highest offices. Look at all the Founding Fathers who did not agree with elements of our Constitution yet set aside their own beliefs for the benefit of the nation. They understood that a higher good must always be served in our federal government, preserving the nation, while changes to our nation could take place as the public came to accept the need and it was adopted according to prescribed methods.

So women are their own worst enemy. If they could get beyond the litmus test of social issues or prejudices against those women they feel are less qualified to lead because they do not have the same education or beliefs, the floodgates to women in office would be thrown open.



That might be a real good thing for America. This is the first of several stories on Why Women Don't Rule in America and I would like to hear your thoughts on the issue. I would also like to hear about women you know that are present or future leaders of this nation and why you think they might be able to break through. Please comment on the Coltons Point Times web site and maybe we can help get them where they belong.

"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand."
Susan B. Anthony

Electing Our Past
January 7, 2010 by generationgapping
by Tara Aarness

"Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny."
Susan B. Anthony, 1873

Susan B. Anthony was sentenced to jail (however only after paying a fine, which she never paid, thus escaping her jail sentence) and on August 18, 1920 women received the right to vote, just 14 years after her death.

Today, though, we subconsciously realize our societal advances, and we recognize more of what is tangible. For example, I am sitting here typing this on my laptop, just an hour prior to my bone scan; both things that were unheard of just under a hundred years ago. Technology is quite literally in our faces on a daily basis. A text message arrives and reading it, I am informed that on October 23, 1915 over 25,000 women marched in New York city, demanding the right to vote; I’m intrigued by what has helped shape our society.

Despite the chilled fall air, 40,000 women and men alike gathered in Washington Square hours prior to the parade beginning. Joining them were women from 26 countries showing their support and it was noted that every state in the union was represented, as well. Women from every walk of life stood side by side, the majority wearing white clothing, however all were unified by wearing white hats, men included. There were to be no talking or laughing during their march, as to impress upon the voters the magnitude of the issue which was to be voted on that November 2nd.

At noon, the huge procession began silently walking up to Fifth Street toward the public library on Forty Second Street where it still stands today. There a platform was erected for the mayor and other dignitaries to view women with their children, some with their dogs, pass by. Remaining strong, they march toward their destination of Fifty Ninth Street, totally fifty blocks in all, thus completing the greatest women’s suffrage march ever held in America.

November 2, 1915 votes were cast and the result was women were still not allowed the right to vote, despite being citizens. For another five years, women persevered, often enduring cruelty, by women and men alike, for their beliefs of equality and bettering society.

94 years later, women have the right to vote and are widely considered equals. As politicians grasp at straws, desperate to obtain just one more vote to elect them into whatever office they’re fighting for, I’ll proudly cast my vote, remembering another fight that was of greater importance, and just as hard won.

More than any other woman of her generation, Susan B. Anthony saw that all of the legal disabilities faced by American women owed their existence to the simple fact that women lacked the vote. When Anthony, at age 32, attended her first woman's rights convention in Syracuse in 1852, she declared "that the right which woman needed above every other, the one indeed which would secure to her all the others, was the right of suffrage." Anthony spent the next fifty-plus years of her life fighting for the right to vote. She would work tirelessly: giving speeches, petitioning Congress and state legislatures, publishing a feminist newspaper--all for a cause that would not succeed until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment fourteen years after her death in 1906.



She would, however, once have the satisfaction of seeing her completed ballot drop through the opening of a ballot box. It happened in Rochester, New York on November 5, 1872, and the event--and the trial for illegal voting that followed--would create a opportunity for Anthony to spread her arguments for women suffrage to a wider audience than ever before.

Mohammad - Iranian Student - Do not Abandon Us In Iran

Barack Hussein Obama - Are You Listening to the People

This morning, Monday, a young Iranian was interviewed by CNN and he pleaded that President Obama please do not abandon the hundreds of thousands of Iranians risking their lives to bring about human rights and democratic reforms in Iran. Like the young woman Neda, murdered in the protests, he is one of the silent majority in Iran who have had enough.

As the President of the world leader in promoting Democracy, Obama has shown no more than a casual interest in the plight of the Iranian people whose protests since their fraudulent election has rattled the very foundation of the Islamic leadership that has kept the people in a state of captivity and second class citizenship since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

First Obama said it didn't matter who won the election, a slap in the face of the people risking their lives for democratic reforms and human rights. Then realizing he was wrong, he tried to paper over the earlier stand by saying the Iranian government should not use violence to stop the protesting. The unlawful government of Iran has been using violence and the abuse of human rights for 30 years against their own citizens yet he didn't even condemn it.

Wake up Obama. Are you willing to let thousands of young freedom fighters be slaughtered because you intend to pursue diplomacy with a ruthless regime? Ever since Obama took office Iran and North Korea have flaunted their violations of human rights, increased the suppression of their citizens, and laughed at the international calls for reform. Why do the Iranian freedom fighters have to burn an effigy of the President to get his attention?

While Obama twiddles his thumbs both Iran and North Korea have been on a fast track to complete the development of nuclear arms, rockets, and spawned hatred throughout the Middle East. Obama's goal of accommodation has encouraged threats to world peace throughout the world. He still thinks he can sit down and negotiate with soul less despots who place no value on human rights and dignity. When a cancer permeates a government it is time to replace the government and to back the people fighting the government.

Media reports indicate that even his Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are opposed to the inertia in the Administration concerning the freedom fighters in Iran. If he doesn't listen to his top advisors who is he listening to?

The lowly student risking his life in Iran has a simple idea to stop the oppressive regime, stop the flow of foreign gasoline that is fueling the Iranian war machine. He is willing to risk more harm to the people by stopping the flow of gasoline because freedom is worth the sacrifice. The gasoline is what keeps the development of the nuclear bombs underway and the military suppression of the people.

Where is the leadership of the free world Obama promised? Why does he continue to ignore the threats against the world and the violence against the people in Iran by a corrupt and suppressive regime? Why can't he hear the call for help from the hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters, mostly the young and future generation of the Middle East, to please not abandon us in our struggle?