Michael Lok: A Youth Activist's Blog (the road after the Road To Davos)

ESF Sixth Form Leadership Conference

2008-02-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

It has been suggested by many members of the ESF community – teachers, students and parents alike – that there should be an ESF Student Council to unite students from all six secondary schools. However, instead of having one group of students to setup the Council and call meetings independently, I believe that it would be better if current student leaders from these secondary schools meet and establish the Council together. To achieve this, I decided to introduce a two-day ESF Sixth Form Leadership Conference in which we will bring together five Year 12 and 13 student leaders and one teacher representative from each ESF secondary school to attend.

Along with five other sixth-form students from Island School including Deputy Head Boy Thomas Stansfeld, Ella Fung, Alicia Mou, Vinay Dayaram and Charity Yan, with the support from the Island School Senior Leadership Team and the ESF, we have begun organising this conference.

As a result of the conference, we hope to:

Raise awareness within the ESF secondary schools about the idea of ‘Student Voice’;
Create a network between student leadership teams from each schools;
Discuss and set up an ESF Student Council.

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What do you think? Any suggestions/ideas?

Two Weeks ...

2008-01-27T01:33:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks since the Road To Davos yet exchanges between all 60 of us - made possible by modern technology namely Facebook and MSN Messenger - are still continuing non-stop and I receive literally endless emails from the group everyday!

Davos 6
First of all, credits must go to the Davos 6 (http://www.roadtodavos.net/roadtodavos/site/the_davos_6/) for doing an amazing job at Davos on Thursday. See below. When I say amazing - not only do I mean that they performed well in the sense that they were great presenters, public speakers etc. but they did a great job in representing the 54 of us. They often referred back to us while on the panel and they incorporated many of our ideas into their speeches so a BIG THANK YOU to the 6!

The Reunion Event
Secondly - as I've said - at the moment we are planning a Reunion. But it is not going to be as simple as just another "reunion" event where people look at photos and talk about how much they've missed each other. We've done all these things on Facebook so we are actually planning a fruitful and productive reunion - not just for the 60 of us but for the wider community. We will be contacting sponsors (and thanks to the Davos 6, we have got a few contacts already but we need more!), we will be exchanging ideas on what we've done since we got back home (and how much have we done towards reaching our personal challenges) and at the moment, Mahar from Palestine has come up with an idea of having this event in a less developed country so that while we're there - we can meet with local leaders, local citizens, local youth activists etc. etc.

My personal challenge - what have I done?
To reach my goal of further promoting Student Voice - I have contacted members of the ESF headquarters and the British Council Hong Kong asking what they think of the idea of an ESF Sixth Form Leadership Conference. I am now putting together a team of Sixth Form students at Island School to organise the event and I am glad that the school is very supportive in this idea. Secondly, it looks like the British Council is going to organise an interview with the SCMP (the main English newspaper in Hong Kong) for me so that I can share my experience at Guildford with the community as well as promoting Global Youth Activism and the Student Voice idea. At the moment, this is yet to be confirmed but hopefully it will happen soon.

Thank you...
Once again for visiting my blog. I am not sure how many people still come visit it but it really encourages me to continue when people come up to me and say "I really enjoyed your blog!" or sth. like that. I will make sure that I update the progress of Guildford 60 as well as that of my own from time to time.

We will we will CHANGE you

2008-01-23T07:02:00.001-08:00

Road To Davos - Media Coverage

2008-01-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Check this out!

http://www.bsn.org.uk/view_all.php?id=13673

The future...

2008-01-21T01:53:00.000-08:00

Ok - I just woke up from a 24-hr sleep!

Anyway, before I am off to revision I think I need to talk about this blog. I have decided to keep this blog - I won't update it everyday like the past week but I will aim to update it from time to time so if you are interested, come back once a week to check it out!

So what will the blog be about?

On the last day of the Road To Davos, we were asked to come up with a few challenges for ourselves and my main challenge was the promotion of Student Voice in Hong Kong by working with the British Council and ESF. I therefore hope to use this blog as my "Activism Blog" and will use it to record what I've been doing.

The sixty of us have agreed that we need a reunion soon so perhaps I can keep this blog all the way till the next reunion event (hopefully within 0.5 year) when I can return to the daily updates again!

Once again thanks for checking the blog last week and on my side, I really enjoyed updating it and was extra pleased when I received all those comments. Thanks.

Michael

Day FIVE - its over - NOT

2008-01-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Alright - nope I have not been selected to go to Davos.

I'm in a rush at the moment so not going to explain to the full what happened. But to be honest, yes I was sad and disappointed because I was pretty close to becoming the Final 12 but after thinking for a bit, it doesn't really matter who gets to go because we are all aiming for the same thing - to make a difference.

We just voted for the final 6 and I will now run down to see the results and honestly - all 60 participants (yes including myself!) I believe are competent in going to Davos so whoever those 6 are - they are well-deserved.

I am now proud to tell everyone that I now have friends from 43 different countries in six different continents and that six of my friends went to World Economic Forum.

Anyway - don't worry, the blog doesn't end here but I probably won't update until I get back to Hong Kong (and I have my History exam on Tuesday!!!!!!). Thanks EVERYONE for commenting so far and I will hopefully see you all soon - MISSED YOU ALL A LOT!

Many Thanks.
Michael

P.S. I HAD FUN AND I LEARNT A LOT SO THAT"S ALRIGHT

Day F.O.U.R. - The Video

2008-01-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

(This is a pretty long post but it actually reveals EVERYTHING so do take a look!)

Ok - today is Thursday already and it's pretty close to the end of the forum and (if I don't get to go to Davos which seems VERY likely seeing how great all the other participants are) the end of the journey!

However it was a good day.

Before going on to talk about what I did today I think it might be a good idea to outline the way the Davos 6 will be selected. Unlike last year, it's selected individually i.e. we've been able to work with almost everyone else instead of working with just 5 other people, which was the case last year. Basically tomorrow we will be split up into regions and then within each region, we will vote for 2 representatives (after everyone in the region makes a speech) and 12 will be selected. These 12 will then make their speeches in front of the entire group and then at the end, the group will vote for the final 6. This will all happen tomorrow so it will prove to be a great day!

So what did we do today?

Well if you've been reading the previous blogs, you should know that we've been having a lot of training regarding public speaking etc. and today was like the "assessment day". The task was that "imagine you got 3-mins of the BBC World News to pitch your voice, what would you say and how would you present it?" and in groups of 3, we worked together to produce it individually and filming each other. It was great fun and because of the time constraint (10am-3:30pm) - it was very pressurised while exciting - just like The Apprentice and we ended up eating in the conference room where we were working in and was literally running along the corridor to make the deadline! Just got the feedback back (back back haha) and it's pretty good so hopefully I can do the same tomorrow! I will try to put the video on YouTube so that you can take a look at it as well!

At night, we had an option of going shopping at Guildford but I didn't because I chose to stay and dine with the British Ambassador to Switzerland instead(so ya don't expect any souvenirs!). He was an amazing guy (he served us desserts because we were sitting in the inside so it was hard for us to go them ourselves!). We had a great conversation with him as well as some of the other British Council staffs and it was extremely interesting when we started talking about the situation in Russia with British Council - basically Russia wants to kick British Council out due to the worsened USSR-UK relations and they actually arrested the Director of BC Russia yesterday for "drugged driving" but it was claimed that he would be the LAST-PERSON on earth to do such a thing so it was of no surprise that the Russians let him out after an hour when the British Consulate-General arrived to solve the matter.

The UK Ambassador to Swiss was actually the ambassador to China (Beijing and Shanghai) for 10 years when they were about to return Hong Kong so he was telling us how he is actually quite amazed at the limited Chinese infiltration so far and that there was a slight tension on the night of 30th June 1997 when two hours before the changeover, the Chinese PLA demanded to revert a previous promise - which was that the soldiers entering from China would not be armed. Eventually 200 or so were armed and it did scare the Brits for a bit! Anyway ya he was a very nice guy and if I am going to Davos - I will be meeting him again and there will definitely be more stories!

Anyway, in reference to an earlier post - what's my idea?

Ok - as I said the other night, I realised that young activists are facing two major problems - the lack of human resources and financial support. Therefore I am going to put forward the establishment of a Global Activist Fund for Youths. This fund will lobby business leaders in contributing financially, network youth leaders from all over the world, lend money to young leaders aiming to make a difference in their communities and invite political and cultural leaders to support and endorse the fund. I realised that once we have the publicity and name, it's much easier to get people and donations but you kind of need enough people and money in the first place to get publicity so it's like a chick or egg first question. So what happens is once the project starts off - you have to return the money to the fund which means the fund, while gaining money from continuous lobbying of business leaders, will also have money coming back from time to time. Also, last year they suggested to establish a Global Education Fund but recently they had to depend on the World Bank or sth. similar to run it because the youths couldn't manage it themselves. What I suggest is, to prevent a similar problem, the hiring of a professional management team - lawyers, financial managers, MBA holders etc. - to take charge of the fund full-time because it's unrealistic to expect six young people like myself to spend 24-7 on looking after a fund. Having said that, I believe that we will still have to be there at times and make sure that it's going along the right way.

Ok - anyway the above is what I came up with after hearing SO MANY AMAZING ACTIVIST STORIES told by AMAZING ACTIVISTS so if I do get to Davos, it's what I'm going to say.

Alright anyway FINGERS CROSSED for tomorrow's votes and I do hope that I get to go to Davos! There will be a party tomorrow night but I will try my best to skip a dance and come up to my room just to post the result of the votes!

Thanks for all the comments and I am glad that I decided to keep this blog!

Day 3 - SUCH A SMALL WORLD

2008-01-17T15:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating last night - was way too tired but here it is..

So yesterday morning it was a DEBATE with the motion - "This House would reshape the world map" and I was opposing! It was fun but the main part was the speaking style training which was quite useful as we were taught how we should stand; how much should we lean back/forward; how to make eye-contact; how NOT to look over-confident while giving a sound argument etc. etc.

More interestingly, after lunch, we were transported to London! Due to the large amount of requests from participants - we had a sightseeing tour on the bus before coming to the Parliament. It was interesting how we entered through the MPs building (WHERE I SAW DAVID CAMERON!) on the road opposite of the actual Parliament and then went into a committee room in the Parliament through a "secret" underground passage! Unfortunately, camera was not allowed to be used apart from our official photographer so hopefully he took some great photos!

Anyway - so we had three speakers coming in, 2 MPs (one is from the Labour party and the other is a shadow minister) and a special adviser to another MP. Most interesting was the shadow minister (due to what I'm about to write, it's probably not a good idea to say exactly who he was here but feel free to ask me privately if you want to find out!) because when he came in - he basically turned into a robot and started talking about how great his party (the Conservative) was - how Margaret Thatcher ghosted the UN about climate change etc. etc. It was a total comedy as it seems like he came in to make a live commercial for his party in front of an audience who won't/can't even vote for him! (Should've told David Cameron how useless yet loyal some of his ministers were).

Ok - after the speeches we walked to the nearby Commonwealth and Foreign Office where we were invited to a reception held by the British Council. Now this is why I titled this post as "Such a small world". First of all - a member of the RBS (the Royal Bank of Scotland) lived in Hong Kong for a few years and he actually lived in Bowen Road, thus knowing our school. What's more was that an author present there - Mr. Romesh Gunesekera - happened to be a friend of Mr. A - yes, our Mr. A, Mr. Alexander - and apparently, he had been to Island School quite a few times! How cool is that! In addition, I also met the Main Presenter of the BBC World news as well as Ruhana Ali - the Education and Welfare Officer of the LSE Student Union. It was an amazing evening talking to all these great people - not to mention all the food and wine that were served. Unfortunately again cameras weren't allowed so fingers crossed that the camera man - point of interest, who is actually a professor of linguistics at KCL - took some great photos.

Anyway ya we went back to the hotel and it was about 11pm so I didn't really have the ability to write another blog but here we are!

Day TWO!

2008-01-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

Today we got into different groups and we shared our experiences with being active in our communities. It's interesting how everyone seems to have confronted the same or similar problems or obstacles at some point of their lives so in fact it was a very good exercise because others could actually give you advice (and vice versa) towards being an activist.

We then had media training - where we were taught how to talk to the media, how to be careful because the media can become a poison - you have to USE it and be careful not to be used. The media is highly exploitive but as long as you know how to play the game (e.g. requesting to check their article before publishing, being careful at what you tell them and being very well prepared etc. etc.) , it is a very good way of sending your message across to the public.

At night, we had a mini-cultural evening where people put their visual materials on the the sides of the room and we would walk around and look at what others have been doing. My area of the board was filled with photos of the school, the city, a SCMP article and a copy of the Island School Code. (see <--)

It's very exciting to see that people have been doing so much things in their communities but it's sad how they are always limited or dragged back by material problems such as lack of resources or funding. I am now thinking of a way to tackle this problem, and I will probably (hopefully!) have transformed it from a creative concept to a concrete plan by tomorrow night!

By the way, its excellent how people are commenting because it shows that I'm not talking to myself! Please, even if you don't have much creativity, drop a simple comment or just to say hi!

Edit (Tom:) No - we don't have debates etc. but on Thursday we will be doing some sorts of presentations for everyone else - we haven't been told the details yet though. We are going to London today.

Mr. Gordon Brown...

2008-01-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

The Sculpture - explained

2008-01-15T16:21:00.000-08:00

Ok here you go -

The girl standing on the platform is trying to persuade people to join her in her initiative/project and she's giving out some leaflets; the two girls at the front are obviously ignoring her; the guy in the white sweatshirt is the only paying attention (making notes); I am about to chuck her leaflet while dragging my friend away who is actually quite interested in the project thus showing peer pressure.

This shows the difficulty to get people to think in the same way as you do thus the difficulty to get people involved in projects that you want to initiate.

Haha what do you think?

Day ONE - Teamwork + Communication skills

2008-01-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

(From left to right: a semi-group photo; a castle at the business centre; photo with delegates from Israel, Malaysia and Mauritius (? will check this...it is quite hard to remember everyone!)

First of all - sorry to those who messaged me because even though I was online, I only came back to my room at 2:22AM HK time so was too late to make a reply!

Ok - so what did I do today?

Well the forum officially started at 11am and there was a welcoming talk made by the British Council staff as well as the PM of UK - Mr. Gordon Brown (no he didn't come here, he made a video!) - he might be meeting us on Thursday actually - we'll see. Then we had two team games.

The first game was called "Build a Tower". Basically what we had to aim to build a tallest and most beautiful tower with colourful plastic straws (not too environmental friendly there but I'm sure they will be recycled :D) which can hold a golf ball. Our team's one was the tallest but then after an earthquake test (delibrate shaking of the table) - it collapsed (lucky none of us is thinking of doing architecture!). Anyway - the point of the game wasn't really to build the tallest and most beautiful tower- it was a means to reveal the difficulty with teamwork. Every team had to share one thing that they did well and one thing that they didn't and it was agreed that time management was a big problem and so as a result of the game - we learnt more about the key aspects of team-working.

The second game was that each team must come up with either a sculpture or a painting to show an obstacle that activists face when they are promoting their projects etc. The main point of the game was to emphasize on the importance of visual communication. Did you know that body language contributes 55% to communication? We were not allowed to use ANY words at all and we could only depend on our positioning, body language, facial expression and eye contact. Another aspect of the game was that we are now starting to take stuff out of our hearts and minds and actually taking them out and sharing with each other; meanwhile learning from each other.

Guess what we were trying to show! Answer on tomorrow's entry!

Both games were fun but we all learnt a lot as well - as you can probably tell.

Anyway - I'm off to dinner now, see you later!

P.S. Just an extra piece of information - the hotel is in a very nice location and the food is great!

(From top to bottom: lunch buffet; photo in front of the pond at the business centre; participants paying much attention)

It's cold and tiring...

2008-01-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

After a 13-hr flight, it's tiring and it's pretty cold here! Anyway about half of the guys are here and they all seem pretty nice and some are so professional that they have namecards etc.!

However as the forum officially starts tomorrow, I knew nothing much would happen tonight so I've written a blog on the plane - here it goes...

“Please fasten your seatbelt while we prepare to take off” announced the flight attendant. Like myself, I’m sure you’ve heard this announcement tons of times but this time, it’s not just another in-flight announcement for me – it marks the start of an extraordinary and probably once in a lifetime experience.

Having gone through the movie channels and watching a pretty good film I decided to think about this journey. To me, this is going to be an opportunity and a challenge.

It is an opportunity for me to speak for my generation. What sorts of problems are we facing and what should/can we do in order to prepare ourselves for the future?

Next, I believe that I’m facing a challenge here – a challenge to grasp this opportunity to make the right call – to really make use of this opportunity.

On the online message boards (http://www.roadtodavos.net) designed for the participants of this forum, Queen Rania of Jordan (one of the patrons) asked us all to name 6 issues that are important to us and I came up with the following list, what do you think of them?

1) Environmental sustainability - as mentioned by many, global warming etc. is very serious and the uncertainty about the possible consequences is extremely worrying. Consequences of environmental problems will affect the world economy, society and will certainly take a lot of lives. Renewable technology should also be invested on.

2) Control over the widening of the Rich-poor divide - the encouragement of universal education, the support of SMEs, the control of multinationals.

3) Education - improvement of this will directly help 2).

4) The development of the UN - It is always accused as a “toothless tiger” - one must change this point of view by strengthening the world peace-keeper.

5) Assistance for developing countries - health, fresh water, food supply, education etc.

6) War and Peace - Crisis in the Middle East, Nuclear weapons, North Korea, Iran etc.

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Tomorrow we'll be told about the selection method of the 6 going to Davos so come back tomorrow to check out the latest post - which should be interesting!

(at dinner)

Edit: I totally agree with Alicia and in fact there's a really good book which highlights the flaws in the UN system especially on the UN-US relationship.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Intentions-Annan-American-World/dp/0374182205

12 Hours to go...

2008-01-12T04:22:00.000-08:00

Only about 12 hours to go before my plane takes off from Chap Lap Kwok and heads towards Heathrow! I'm actually extremely excited at the moment - all the people I'm going to meet, all the stuff that I'm going to do and all the things that I'm going to hear and learn from others! This is going to be such an extraordinary journey for me I'm sure and I honestly can't wait for it to begin!

Should get back to packing now so will update again when I get to Guildford!

The venue of the forum: Horsley Park, Surrey

Welcome.

2008-01-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi There. Welcome to my blog about my experience at Road To Davos.

If you've got questions or are curious about something - please feel free to ask! You can either drop a comment here or alternately, you may e-mail lokmichael@gmail.com!

What is "Road To Davos"?
It's a global youth forum organised and sponsored by the British Council where 60 young leaders from 49 countries will meet and exchange.

It's called "Road To Davos" even though it's going to be held in Guildford, London because it will select 6 out of the 60 participants to go straight to Davos, Switzerland in order to attend the Annual World Economic Forum to present to world leaders including Mr. Gordon Brown (PM of the UK) and Queen Rania of Jordan.

"Road To Davos" begins on Monday, 14th Jan and I will be making my way to London from Hong Kong on Sunday morning.

For more info. about the forum, visit http://www.roadtodavos.net/ !

Anyways...
Thanks for dropping by and I'm looking forward to sharing my journey with you - I'll try my best to post every evening during the forum!