Th!nk3 Launch: Not Just a Song and Dance

Dateline: 24-25 March 2010.

Flying home over the developing world between Brussels and Melbourne.

Assignment: Th!nk3: Developing World blogging competition

(Brussels Airport: 07:15 24 March
Thirty hours to get home and only 3 hours laptop time. Where’s a pen?)

In 2000 the United Nations established 8 ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for the Developing World:

GOAL 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

GOAL 2: Achieve universal primary education

GOAL 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

GOAL 4: Reduce child mortality

GOAL 5: Improve maternal health

GOAL 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

GOAL 7 : Ensure environmental sustainability

GOAL 8: Develop a global partnership for development

The critical question being asked now:
Can journalism play a more constructive role in realising the MDG targets set for 2015, whether it be traditional mainstream media or the new online media?

(Amsterdam Airport: 09:30
Seem to be going backwards. Déjà vu! Hope it's not an  omen. )

Is it possible that even the much-maligned blogosphere can make a difference?

The European Journalism Centre thinks it can. One hundred people are participating: in the Th!nk3: Developing World blogging competition. I was lucky enough to be one of those selected from outside Europe. We attended the launch on 22-23 March in Brussels. We weren’t all bloggers on Monday but we all are now.

It was no place for cynics but most of the hard questions were belted around, if not fully answered. How can bloggers fill the perceived hole left by the mainstream media? The MSM seem consumed by the sensational moment, the celebrity circus, the sporting spectacular or preferably all three at once. Even their disaster attention span is usually exhausted within the week.

(Unknown time zones:
Turkey, Middle East, now flying over Afghanistan India next. The pilot seems to have increased our altitude. The Taliban must be excellent shots.)

Remember the last war, ethnic cleansing, tsunami, earthquake, flood, famine or epidemic? What are the people doing now? Hopefully not filling the next boatload of 'illegal gatecrashers' that dominate our emotive headlines.

(KL Duty Free 08:05
It’s hard to believe that the developing world is so close but so far…)

The T3 competition lasts until the end of August. Some lucky “winners” will be parachuted into Africa or Asia. Real foreign correspondents! That should help some bloggers overcome one issue raised: how to tell stories from our comfortable first world homes. For once the African and Asian competitors have the edge. The select few will meet the nobs at the UN General Assembly debate on the goals in late September. I’d even give up a football Grand Final for that.

(12:10
Indonesian islands below us now. World’s biggest Islamic population. )

There was much debate at the launch about the population pressures in the Third world. Wonder what happened to Indonesia's two-child family planning program of 20 years ago.

(13:30
Western Australia’s Kimberley region. Anyway, now for the laptop.)

Australia has plenty of developing indigenous communities. Do they count for the competition?

(17:15
Just passed over Uluru, talking of aboriginal development issues.)

If you would like to help promote the greater global good, then spend some quality time online with the Th!nk3 Community conversation.

(20:40 25 March
Home touchdown at last. )

Today's  headline: 94 asylum seekers caught off coast Back down to earth.

Any suggestions for a  Down Under approach can also be left on  my new blog, Red Bluff.