Fortress Of Freedom Board
Bringing The Mass Media To The Masses!
 
 FAQ  Search  Usergroups  Memberlist  Profile  Log in to check your private messages  Register  Log in
A Social Club Of One.....
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 283, 284, 285 ... 414, 415, 416  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Fortress Of Freedom Board Forum Index -> Social Club
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well the application page is up for speeches at the Commission for Social Development.



I’m continuing to work on the speech and now it’s at 2:40 which is just about perfect. My goal is to just hand it in Monday and see what happens. Right now it is just make sure all the points are there and that it reads well and when your changes don’t substantially make it better anymore; then you lock it down and submit. You don’t wait until the last minute as they may review the applications ahead of time and if so you want your speech to stew in their minds and let it have its effect.


So that is the plan. There are only 15-20 slots so I have to remain reasonable about our chances there. But there is always plan B and plan C. But you make the play. No talking yourself out of applying as you have no chance. You do have a chance even if it’s minuscule. You just submit your best speech and then wait. That is all you can do anyway. Wait and react - but first you gotta make that play.....



Later.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m at the point where I am just tweaking things…..


I had other versions of the speech. I had a cute version where I used myself as one example of the fullest expression making us happy where I ended up going from nowhere to speaking in front of them about changing human development, but cute may not work so I am playing this one straight. So that continues. It can get nerve wracking as this process goes forth. I have a lot invested in this but in a world of 7.5 billion, that means nothing – and yet – I seem to feel that the eyes of the world are on me, or that The Fates have taken me to the end of this journey and like Moses, I have something to offer the world but will the world listen.....




The Fates


Anyway I do have a few cards up my sleeve nobody knows about. If anyone questions the truth or strength of the conclusion of The Fortress Experiment then I have the answer that ends all discussion. The silver bullet, the golden arrow, my version of the Holy Grail, but only if someone actually gives me the time of day to enquire. But we shall see. At the end of the day we shall see. I was right about one thing, The Fates – as whatever metaphor you want – have taken this to the end. I made it to the end to where I can offer a way for humanity to develop. The question is whether they want to or not. That is the story and it is playing out as we speak. The reason why I have to make the play is because I have to do my part and offer it so that we can see what if anything happens with that offer.


Realize that it took over 50 years when I was a nine year old wondering if a Black kid like me would ever see any improvement in things as the civil rights movement in the States was in full swing. Well I’m 59 now and only in the last year did we make it to mixed couples being shown in advertising. That is the crippling pace of human development left in the current vacuum! Technology is simply roaring past humanity and their ability to handle it. I at least have some ideas, and not some narcissistic concoction in my head but ideas based on what humanity really is and what they want – their desires and not some opportunistic play for commercial selfish desires.


So I make the play, I do my part; and then I just watch the show carry on. I can’t make humanity do anything. I can only offer and see what, if anything, happens.



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xI70fFg78&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A late on but it is snowing outside and I am setting up for a weekend indoors and taking it easy.



Laura wrote:
IAIJ to Attend the 57 Session of the Commission on Social Development!




By Laura Tommasone, IAIJ Staff




United Nations Headquarters



This is to inform the membership that barring unforeseen circumstances, the International Association of Independent Journalists will attend the 57 Session of the Commission on Social Development. The event well be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The member attending will be IAIJ President and Founder Maurice Ali but may also include IAIJ staff as needed.


More information as it becomes available.



http://iaij.org



IAIJ: JOURNALISTS IN ACTION AROUND THE WORLD!




Yes, we are going to the 57th Commission for Social Development this February 11-21 (2019). We will make an important announcement tomorrow but I have to inform all parties before we can do that – protocol you know at IAIJ. Anyway it is a “take it easy weekend” for me as the rest will get progressively more hectic just like in December with the movie premiere.


I’m still tweaking the speech and we are almost there. Keep in mind we have the odds against us on this one as only 20 or so max will get to speak. The speeches are evaluated by representation of specific groups with specific problems. That is how it usually goes at the UN. For example I represented citizen journalists at the UN for the WSIS+10 Review. But this time we are representing all excluded peoples and disadvantaged people on earth and have a solution that solves all problems. This totally runs counter to how they evaluate a speech for inclusion. That may get noticed, but may also get tossed. We shall find out, but don’t get your hopes up too high.


You do what you can. So at the end of it all they may as well put this on my tomb stone: "Freest Expression of Humanity's Physical and Mental Abilities Because it Makes us Happy!" That may end up being my one contribution to the world..... It’s important how you go out. I built this organization on disenfranchised folk who remain loyal to me to the end. That means something even as we face formidable odds. We fight the good fight because it matters. And I make the play - I take my shot! Our intentions are good.....







So while I mull over the speech before sending it in, I will finally input the movie video into our editor and all that stuff I put off during the holidays. And clean up the place. How about that! Wash the dishes! How about that…..



Later…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnPK799NCK4&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A quiet Saturday night.



A quiet Saturday night for me – How is it for you?



I actually ran through the speech many times and went through it at a comfortable pace. You time it and make sure it is under 3 minutes. You do it slow because translators have to translate this stuff for the multilingual crowd. Now we submit these speeches when we apply so the translators probably have the translated hardcopy in front of them when your turn comes up at important events. They even put it on-line later on. So the night before my General Assembly WSIS+10 speech I got an email requesting a copy of the speech which can be found here:



http://workspace.unpan.org/sites/Internet/Documents/UNPAN94870.pdf



There is a slight difference in the opening salutation but the rest of the speech is the same as can be seen here:




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Xf2Efb6_w&feature=share





Maurice begins his speech!



So the same thing with these speeches. For us we can’t get any measure of complete information about the positive mandate, so we just hit the high notes and offer more information if interested. So you make several versions of the speech. Then go with the safest version and time it. If it is close you just stay with that and make changes until the changes start to make no difference or even become counterproductive. Then you sleep on it, look at it again and if no changes are seen – you just send it in!



As I said before, when you reach this stage nothing you change will substantially affect the way it will be evaluated. What you don’t do is just sit on it because the deadline has not reached yet. You don’t know if they read it immediately or whatever. For dissemination of a radical idea like ours you need it to sit in people’s minds and take hold. A quick read and then evaluation can work but is not best – so you send it in early and be done with it and do other things. This isn’t life or death, or brain surgery where the slightest wrong move will stop a person from speaking; this is just a speech. This is an important speech but if there is video of this you will just see that person give this dry speech in this quiet room and then things will move on. And that is about the size of it. A side event will get much more time and consideration, but is not officially recognized by the powers that be. So in the end we are just disseminating an idea, that is the plan, and we go wherever we get the chance.


I hope you also see that doing these things gives me a purpose in life. When nothing much is going on you look around and your life is this lonely existence. Why must it be this way. Why can’t we have it all. But the reality is that a wife and kids is time consuming. That family costs whatever money you make and nothing for the advocacy. Your goals will get compromised by those that control the cash box in this situation. No - it has to be this way, and that can be a bitter pill to take. The job finds the man and not the other way around as it found me...


Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhmtefhPkAc&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes we got the side event:



Tyrone Taiwo wrote:
IAIJ Side Event at the 57th Session of the Commission for Social Development!




By Tyrone Taiwo – IAIJ Inc.



The International Association of Independent Journalists is pleased to announce that we will be holding a side event at the 57th Session of the Commission for Social Development. Details about the side event will be announced shortly. Our representative going to the United Nations for this event is Maurice Ali who is the President and CEO of IAIJ:



Maurice Ali


“One behalf of myself, the Board of Directors and the general membership, I would like to thank the Bureau of the Commission for Social Development and the Commission for Social Development for the opportunity to hold a side event during the 57th Session called “A Positive Major Mandate for Humanity at the United Nations.”

This side event will focus on The Fortress Experiment which was a 13 year experiment that focused on what is important in our lives and how we should all live our lives, and the in-depth report we did on the experiment that proposes the positive mandate for the United Nations. We will go over the report with artifacts from the experiment and detailed analysis of such a mandate proposal. This will be an open workshop for anyone that attends to fully participate as we disseminate the idea and concept for this positive major mandate for humanity."





All of us here at IAIJ wish Maurice all the best on his trip to the United Nations in New York and at the side event we are holding there.


More details as they become available.




Please visit the side event’s website at: http://humandestiny.org





IAIJ: JOURNALISTS IN ACTION AROUND THE WORLD!




We will give more details in the days that follow but the long and short of it is that we have our side event on the Positive Major Mandate for Humanity at the United Nations. I’ll go with the webcast and all like the first one back in 2017, but you never know so we shall see. Before we got confirmation it was like anyway we could get in to present the positive mandate, and now we are in you keep reaching for more. But that starts to get tougher; and sure you can apply to address the Commission but this is competitive and they will typically go with speeches about specific groups represented with specific problems, I think I have said this before and we are the exact opposite coming up with an idea and “pie-in-the-sky” projection of solving social problems with one silver bullet. But the idea is good and its introduction at this venue probably has merit, but I would say our chances are slim. But you never know so we try our best. You can also work it in by intervention from the floor at panel discussions but your input must match the topic discussions. So those are the options open to us after getting the side event. Nothing is for sure.....


So that is the situation as it stands now. I’m actually in a depressed mood of all things. It could be the miserable snowy and frigid temperatures, but I am a bit depressed. You spent years of your life on a good idea and in the end it comes down to a minor read through of the abstract in the 2017 side event on a cell phone voting application at the United Nations, and then a full on side event at the UN that hardly anyone will go to in 2019. People will watch it streamed out of there for sure, but in the UN and in the second week as scheduled very few will be in attendance which is why I always go for the web-cast. Of course the idea was to disseminate the idea and a side event sort of does that but direct input to the commission is even better. We just don’t know about that but you still try. I don’t mind going there two times to do this. I’m not poor or anything and I have the time to do it all. But still – depressed.


I said I would send in the speech on Monday but I may just stretch it to Tuesday, it depends. Other things are happening with regard to that UN trip. They wanted an alternative if you get to speak so for us it is Tyrone Taiwo. I met him for the first time at FOFSTOCK when he was performing as a rapper/hip hop artist on stage. He then signed up with the record label and IAIJ, and from 2011 till today put out two albums and one single we just distributed a few weeks ago under the name Corporate Spot (and after setting up the website and all I caught him and Shane at the movie premiere wondering if he should go back to Yung Spot.....). Also in that time he got his Bachelor’s degree from York University and his Masters degree from Ryerson University, also my alma maters. So I called him up today and told him if I had to get operated on or got popped by some sniper on a roof top and could not make the UN stuff, it was now up to him: Batter Up! Yes – I actually said it like that “Batter Up!” without even asking him if he wanted it. He wanted it so he is the designated alternate. But that was a funny phone call. Yes, we may send a rapper with a Masters degree to the United Nations to pitch our positive mandate – only at my organization (an organization that allows people the chance to do what regular society socially excludes them from doing – but I digress – but I do talk the talk and walk the walk). And so that is about it for the UN business.


As for this mild depression – you just get over it. I’ll preen myself up a bit as that always makes you feel better. Life is what it is and we just keep getting older and the life clock keeps ticking down. You just have to accept the fact that you are not going to get all that you hoped that you would get when you were young. You did get some of that, some of the more outrageous stuff like that fantasy about walking up the steps to the UN trying to save the world. Actually in the fantasy I saved the world but the reality is him walking up the steps trying to save the world..... But the other stuff like a family and such seems gone for good. That is a bitter pill to take and you were unfairly denied that – but it is what it is and nothing can or will give you back the years and opportunity. Even now you are still under the same social inequalities and exclusions you always had as your contemporaries still endorse those standards. The kids may be different, but your generation will always be the same. Actually thinking about all that is making me depressed so I will cut this short and try to get some sleep.




Goodnight.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 4:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The speech to the Commission for Social Development is sent…..



The acknowledgement page for submissions!


Only a slim chance here but we shall find out. If things go my way I do have guidance moving forward. Yes, this idea can be more than just dissemination. If enabled by circumstances I can take this all the way to adoption. There is a roadmap to change for the benefit of all. It means travel for me to Europe but I have done that before when I gave that 10 minute speech at UNESCO Headquarters back in 2013. I find it incredible that we are coming up on six years on that and I’m still active! But yes it would be Genera, Switzerland. I warned my gang in Europe of the possibilities a year ago so I may be doing some globetrotting in the next little while. There are actually several ways to skin this cat but this way seems easier.....





The UN in Geneva!



Of course all this rests with what happens in a few short weeks. This is all very fluid right now. Some of us are motivated by change due to our own hard lives and situations and want change for the better and for all. And you will always find those who have some privilege and are quite comfortable in their lives and want things to stay the way they are. But if you work from a moral imperative you will see that it is a smug and selfish existence to live a privileged life while billions suffer and yet their lives could be so much happier if you did the right thing instead of the selfish thing. Anyway, things will sort itself out. Like I said – The Fates want to see this play out, I have to offer and then we see what happens.....


Ultimately we are all puppets to some master even if ultimately it is a supreme being or just random chance. But as an individual I can choose to be more than my base self, and if you choose this route the way may be hard, but you have the ability to change things.....


But to do that I have to get past the usual obstacles to be able to move forward.



Goodnight....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz0dYy73xAs&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Miscellaneous ramblings.....

So the application for the request to speak is in as I posted on Tuesday. We shall see what happens to that but I also sent in an email to request to participate in interventions (in case I don’t get selected to speak). At the time the web page with information about interventions wanted you to email the UN if you were interested, and I did exactly that on January 16 (2019). That information has change since then and now they only mention the ability to have interventions but not as detailed as the early ones that actually gave time limits of three minutes and such. At the end of the day they can do what they want. All we as an organization want is to be able to express ourselves on the issue of social inclusion which directly relates to a major report and experiment we performed that holds the answer to that in the most basic way.



An email about our desire to speak at an intervention at one of the discussions!


As an individual who has experienced all forms of social exclusion literally all of his life, this is very close to me. And I am sure I have the answer. The realities of enacting that answer is another matter but the idea and concept behind it is exactly what the Commission of Social Development needs and the 57th Session at the United Nayions is the place it needs to be expressed in! We and particularly “I” don’t need to be socially excluded as an individual and as an NGO from participating in the general discussion on an issue like this. It would go against the whole idea of the Commission’s reason for being. Social inclusion is one of the keys to happiness and we as an organization have something important to say about this. Now nothing has happened yet. Nobody has said to us that we don’t get to say anything. They have given us our side-event and the UN has been very nice to me opening doors for participation and so forth, so far. Compared to Canada where I call home the treatment I get in this international venue is in another universe compared to the treatment I get where I call home. I just want this last bit of expression to make it there! On the questionnaire to speak it mentions if you are a collective of NGOs or a committee and such as this is one parameter they use to rank the oral speeches. Yet I am speaking for all that have been socially excluded and prevented for expressing themselves in all sorts of ways in their lives. I’m not looking to discuss just one particular issue or group, I’m talking about a blanket policy that addresses them all and future possible social exclusions that are prevented from even happening with this social attitude toward expression.


Anyway, I just wanted to show all of you that I am trying in every way possible to disseminate this idea at the place that matters! Trying every way possible. This will be a two part trip for me. The first time that has happened but the issue is near and dear to my heart. I just want to speak my piece. And I can feel the eyes of everyone on me I knew in my life that was shut out of life and opportunities based on things like, race, religion, socio-economic status, handicaps, disfigurements (I knew one guy who had lobster claws for hands), you name it I met them! And now that I have a chance to speak for them and propose an idea to help the situation – you bet I am going to fight like hell to be heard! This is a closed event; the public does not get in. But I and my organization are there. We get to speak for the members of our organization which is in the hundreds and endorse all that I am doing there. We speak for those participants of The Fortress Experiment. And we speak for all disparaged people in the world. That vote at IAIJ to go forward with this is a vote, world-wide by the average folk of all cultures and areas – a representative sample – of the people of the world, to go ahead and do this dissemination of our idea! We want to be heard!


Anyway that is what was on my mind. We should just see what happens and archive the experience. People in the future who come across this shall see. All right, I think I’ve prattled enough about this, I need a break and chill a bit.....



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x64DP9kFyQU&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Things are moving along......


I have to concentrate on the side event as we see what happens with addressing the Commission. Thursday had me booking every date of the session so that I could do what I had to do without sleeping in Central Park. When I know exactly what I am doing I will amend things and save money but before then the money does not matter. I also had to see if video and audio came out of that displayport in my laptop. It does and now I just keep moving ahead. That laptop has a i7 processor and a SSD hard drive so performance is state of the art and the videos should play well.



Displayport to HDMI to TV and audio and video works!


And we just keep at it. I am pushing a plausible idea there that may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I have to do what is right. So the optics may not be as good as when I was just a curiosity to this crowd. What matters is the content and not the optics. The movie is over and that side event had good optics. So I may be making a speech standing up instead of sitting down in some properly placed section of a room with my name emblazoned in front of me; I may be talking from some particle board table fully exposed underneath, but that is all good as it’s the content that matters now! This is not a popularity contest. I don't have to keep up with the Joneses, I don't need anything but the ability to express myself there. My life isn't there so they have little to influence me. I am my own man and not some puppet. And that also means the laws of probability for success or failure are not predetermined or absolute - anything can happen. Good or bad its all on the table. I wanted an adventure and I got one!


That is where I am at now



More news as things develop.



Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZUr0BEfE&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 9:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A quickie as I’m getting busy with the United Nations stuff.


One thing that has struck me is that the Movie Premiere seems like a gazillion years ago even though it was just over a month ago? How can that be – and at my age. But it just seems this long time away and when people comment that I just jump from one thing to another it seems to just be normal to me now. But yes a month and days ago.



Our movie premiere during the day!


The time shifting is welcome as at my age the years usually just fly by and then you are old and die. But this time of my life is stretched reality in so many ways and I really will miss this stuff when it is over. Sure it can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but it is an adventure. And you have a chance to develop parts of humanity rather than the trend of de-evolving which happens in the vacuum of new ideas for people to latch onto – so they turn to the old ideas. This is the biggest problem these days. Technology rages ahead at a faster pace but humanity and its culture has nothing to offer up to keep pace – but I have some ideas – fear not….. But yes, the movie stuff seems like it happened last year and it did - but I mean like over a year ago in time. That is about it for now.



Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JdS-sSKsBc&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A really late one today.


I got up and went to the mall to look around and maybe, maybe shop for a coat. Then to Taco Bell and home where I slept till 3:30pm. And now I’m just playing catch up!


I should add that on Friday we finalized the side event and that is happening on February 20th at 9:45am in Conference Room 12. We will be live webcasting from there and will put up notices by the end of the weekend. I also booked my airplane flight to Manhattan so everything is a go! So that pretty much is it for the side event.


The other part is saying something at the actual session of the Commission for Social Development. One way is with a prepared speech and we have applied and are in there for that. It is only 20 or so get that chance and we may not get it. So the only other way is by questions from the floor and interventions. This is tricky, but when you have no other way you will just have to go there and fight for your expression. But that is the plan. The side event is done and now onto the stuff with the actual Commission for Social Development.


I actually - love - having a weekend where you can just stay in and sleep if you feel like it. I do have stuff to do but the fact I have the option is so enticing; so enticing I actually did it. Sure the UN stuff needs to be obsessed over and maybe one more revision on the positive mandate report. But what will happen will happen. Sometimes you just need to grab a coffee and look at some cars and go to Wallmart and look for some obscure movie to watch. That’s what I am going to do now - why - because I can.....


Later...





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhdqUhkd_Ok&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 6:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well Saturday was nice for the most part.


It never lasts though. More to the point is that you keep following through and make the play. We all have the usual life we have to live and I added this bit of advocacy to it. That’s fine as I don’t have a family of my own or even a wife. That saps time and money and effectively crosses you off the list to do what I do. Even if you have the time and money you have to have the ability and caginess – for want of a better word – to position yourself to do what I’m doing. Even that is not enough as you have to be creative to get the ideas and somehow get noticed enough to have a chance to speak formally just to get the idea out there.



That is where I am at now. The goal was to disseminate the idea but we are moving a bit beyond that and trying to get to maybe some first steps to looking at the idea in terms of viability over there. That is a good goal as usually you don’t get the goal but fall short and falling short is successfully disseminating the idea in our case. We shall just have to see where all this takes us. The side event is basically a done deal in terms of planning. Next is the oral presentations. We find out next week if I get to speak directly to the Commission, but if I do not I’m still going here to see if I can get into the discussion via questions and interventions. So we may have to fight for even the smallest of mentions but like I said – make the play. You make the play as opportunities are few and far between. No second thoughts about should I or should I not have done this or that. You try everything and if you get stymied then that is it as you tried everything you could. The arena is the UN and specifically for this session it is Conference Room 4. Consider that to be the playing field and we get to side the sidelines. Sooner or later you get your chance. Even if you just wait for things to get quiet and all of a sudden you get your chance. And then you have to wrap an idea around a pertinent point of the panel discussion or whatever is going on at the time. You may have to really fight for it. This takes time to wait for an opportunity so I may be there for several days on the first week.



I am in this - this year and this is where it has to happen. Money does not matter; time has been taken care of. All that remains is what goes on there. So we shall wait and see what happens with the formal speeches and then quickly set things up with dates and such. Then we just run the plays. The best way for me is to just keep everything low key and just do what I have to do. For me this is all a big deal and that is because the issues are close to my heart. For the others it is just another boring conference. And that is the funny thing about this. A non-event for all except me, but if the idea takes hold it impacts everyone, and that is the essence of what is going on. Probably nothing to this event but there is always that slim, small chance that the idea takes hold and goes somewhere with it – so you just have to keep at it!



Goodnight…..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I got enough sleep this weekend.



I did a little bit more work on the side event on Sunday. Mostly just checking things on the laptop and connections to the HDMI cable – all good to go. The clips I am using have to be tweaked with name tags and I might play a bit more with formats to make sure I get the best out of the video feed. Here is a photo of Conference Room 12 at the UN:




Conference Room 12



The room is the usual as in robotic arms on cameras and the ability to display a power point presentation on a big screen. This is a little bit different than the central monitors in Conference Room 8.



So that is where you will see me prattling about the positive mandate for humanity. Like the cell phone voting app in the 2017 side-event, at best there will only be a handful of people there. And it may be even smaller than that. There will be a reporter there for sure so at least one in the audience. Personally, I think it would be a badge of honor to actually be alone in that room, prattling about a new idea to save humanity and so forth. Many would shun such a situation but I would revel in that! It sort of is like the lone voice in the wilderness crying out! But there will probably be a couple of supporters who actually do get it, and you never know someone may actually ask a question. Since this is a closed event you are never going to get real massive participation. The most I have seen is maybe the high twenties at a non-webcast event. But for me as long as it is piped out and through the UN system I am good to go. I will never get the social endorsement in person. It never happens that way in my life. Most recent example was the movie premiere. Hardly anyone I knew showed up there with the bulk walk-ins from the street who heard about the show on radio and in Now Magazine and the flyers we had on poles.



So in a way this trip or trips are a personal journey. It actually reminds me of my very first trip to the UN and the NGO Committee. That was an awakening. It took me so long to get over that trip, and now it is completely different. Back at the beginning I thought I would be forever blocked from Consultative Status and just dreamed what it would be like to have it. Now that is all in the past and we have it at IAIJ but it is replaced by actual advocacy and the usual frustration of being so close to doing something and yet things are never made easy….. It is sort of full circle in a way.



In any case, like my first trip I have booked all days of this session and will tailor things as best I can as things get decided. But I am playing it safe and would rather err on the side of over booking than under booking. No regrets! I can live with getting bored in Manhattan rather than seeing opportunities go wasted and possibly never happen again.



No mistakes! No regrets!



So that is where it stands in my mind right now. Just a few more weeks of this constant single minded prattle and then I can coast a bit until we go onto the next thing.




Goodnight…..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It snowed on Monday and it was the heaviest snowfall in at least 10 years…..



So I’m digging out the driveway and then it hits me: I may very well be the only one out of all 7.5 billion people on earth to be making this play to disseminate an idea that can make everyone’s life happier and more meaningful. A new idea not of my mental concoction but based on a representative sample of people we followed for 14 years. How many people are going to this session to do that? Maybe it is just me. Most of the others are there to present their experience on already accepted themes and programs at the UN in social problems and why they need action or help via the UN and its special agencies. But we are there to give them an idea that solves all those problems and at a fraction of the cost of present programs! You would think they would at least want you to speak for a couple of minutes and answer some questions. Well, we shall see. I hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Unlike Canada, the United Nations and its special agencies like UNESCO has been very good to me. They gave me back my dignity and presence in the world. I have to admit that. All sorts of member nations – many vilified by my home country - have helped me get to this place where I am now, and I am grateful. So let me help everyone there with this idea!




The Fates



But again – how do you get your head around the fact you may be the only one in the world making this play! Let’s say you are the only one this year with a universal idea that helps all and reaffirms many designated human rights at the UN. Let’s say I’m the only one this year. Is it only this year? Or this decade? Or even since the inception of the United Nations? How do you wrap your head around that possibility?



So that’s the thought I will leave with you today. It is just an observation – that is all. The more petty among you will think this is just chest thumping but I could have accomplished that far more easily with material goods that rub your wealth and style in everyone’s face. This is not that. Nobody does what I do with the odds so heavily stacked against them to impress other people. This is from a moral imperative. So I’m doing all this for the right reasons – slam dunk you all say – never count on anything. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. And make the play!




The Fates watching my outcome at the session like it was a movie!




Back to shoveling snow…..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A quickie today.....


I spent the day checking out my dad’s car and making sure every thing is good to go. The only problem I saw was that the driver’s windshield washer nozzle was not working. So I put some spit on the nozzle and it worked! The only thing that car might need is an oil change but aside from that everything is good to go! Yup - I’m a gear head and that goes back decades.


As for the UN stuff: I took the day off.....





Later.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another quickie...


It’s my Dad’s birthday today and the checking out and fixing his car was his present. I spent the morning changing the oil and air filter. The oil filter is a bugger as the filter sits right next to the “hot” exhaust manifold. The air filter is a bugger because it’s fastened down by torx screws and then it’s a bother to actually wrestle the assembly off the throttle body. Then I gassed it up. So that is now done.


It’s back to the IUnited Nations stuff from tomorrow until the end of the session. I’m actually looking forward to it now.....



Goodnight.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Fortress Of Freedom Board Forum Index -> Social Club All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 283, 284, 285 ... 414, 415, 416  Next
Page 284 of 416

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group

affiance theme by sparsely