Wanted: 1000 young video activists

Jonas Eriksson’s Generation Dialogue wants to create a direct link between young people and decision makers.

The big UN conference on biodiversity http://blogs.sweden.se/sustainability/2010/05/23/the-value-of-biodiversity/ has just been finished in Nagoya, Japan, and in the beginning of December another big global conference will take place in Cancún, Mexico, trying to deal with the threat of climate change. But although the decisions made in these meetings will have an enormous impact on the life of those who are young today, young people rarely get to have their say.

Someone who has decided to do what he can to change this is Jonas Eriksson, a 28 year old Swede who presents himself as an educator and acitivist. He explains his vision like this: ”The challenges we face, with climate change, extreme poverty, racism and economic
instability, we need a great generation. A generation of committed leaders with the knowledge and tools to change the world.
This is possible if we start giving young people the influence and the tools they need. It’s within our reach. And my part will be to create the communication between young people and policy makers to build the momentum needed for cooperation.”

His idea is to give 1 000 “video activists” between the age of 13 and 30 years a bunch of questions and let them share their comments and own questions in videos. A working group will then see that the films get to somebody who is actually in power, from local politicians to ministers. For example there are already five recorded questions for Sweden’s environment minister Andreas Carlgren.

When I ask Jonas what impact this project can have, he says “I think that decisions change when politicians have a dialogue with the citizens, and on the local level I think Generation Dialogue can let politicians know the views of young people.”

Are you young enough and have access to a webcam? Then why not participate? All the information about how to do can be found at Jonas Eriksson’s blog Great Generation http://greatgeneration.org/?page_id=391.Wanted: 1000 young video activists

Jonas Eriksson’s Generation Dialogue wants to create a direct link between young people and decision makers.

The big UN conference on biodiversity http://blogs.sweden.se/sustainability/2010/05/23/the-value-of-biodiversity/ has just been finished in Nagoya, Japan, and in the beginning of December another big global conference will take place in Cancún, Mexico, trying to deal with the threat of climate change. But although the decisions made in these meetings will have an enormous impact on the life of those who are young today, young people rarely get to have their say.

Someone who has decided to do what he can to change this is Jonas Eriksson, a 28 year old Swede who presents himself as an educator and acitivist. He explains his vision like this: ”The challenges we face, with climate change, extreme poverty, racism and economic

instability, we need a great generation. A generation of committed leaders with the knowledge and tools to change the world.

This is possible if we start giving young people the influence and the tools they need. It’s within our reach. And my part will be to create the communication between young people and policy makers to build the momentum needed for cooperation.”

His idea is to give 1 000 “video activists” between the age of 13 and 30 years a bunch of questions and let them share their comments and own questions in videos. A working group will then see that the films get to somebody who is actually in power, from local politicians to ministers. For example there are already five recorded questions for Sweden’s environment minister Andreas Carlgren.

When I ask Jonas what impact this project can have, he says “I think that decisions change when politicians have a dialogue with the citizens, and on the local level I think Generation Dialogue can let politicians know the views of young people.”

Are you young enough and have access to a webcam? Then why not participate? All the information about how to do can be found at Jonas Eriksson’s blog Great Generation http://greatgeneration.org/?page_id=391.