The Australian Communications and Media Authority today launched Let’s Fight It Together, a new teaching resource to combat cyberbullying that will be available free to all schools in Australia. Let’s Fight It Together is designed with teenagers in classroom situations in mind [...]
Global Filipinos Australia in association with Rooty Hill High School, Blacktown City Council and the Community Relations Commission is holding a free Youth symposium that will attract Filipino-Australian leaders from across New South Wales. The youth symposium called “Pag asa ” or “Project HOPE” [...]
The achievements of Sydney-based Filipino-Australian handballer, Bevan Calvert, are being highlighted in interstitials by The Filipino Channel. The interstitials production titled “The Global Filipino” features Filipinos who have achieved international recognition [...]
Young journos joined the second workshop of the Filipino Press Group of Sydney at the Corregidor Centre in Rooty Hill yesterday, Sunday, March 29. Topics, among many, included interviewing techniques, negotiating the subjective, descriptions, titles, timing [...]
Customs and Border Protection has arrested two more men, including a Filipino, for child pornography importation at Perth International Airport over the last weekend. This brings the total number of unrelated child pornography arrests over the past week to four. “Those seeking to come to Australia should see this as a warning that Australia has strict laws [...]“
“We traveled for 5 hours to get here only to be beaten by a bunch of Filipinos” jibed a Grenfell RUFC Rugby player as he contemplated losing 31-5 to the Sons of Lapu Lapu rugby team. This may have been similar words uttered by Magellan as he confronted Lapu Lapu on the beaches of Cebu and it certainly were the words from the Grenfell rugby team dealing [...]
Global Filipinos Australia has successfully launched last July 14 the Global Filipino Youth Awards at the Macquarie Theatre, NSW Parliament, Sydney. The Awards recognised 28 youth and 2 youth groups in arts, academic, community service, sports, journalism, business and entertainment [...]
THEY WERE A GROUP of 1,000 educated and carefully chosen section of Australia’s ruling class, the best and brightest of them all, the Australia 2020 summiteers.
Some say the composition was biased as there were no average ordinary,little Australians. As one was heard to comment, perhaps the average Australian has nothing bright to contribute at all a reason for being average. There were no battlers, pensioners, home buyers having difficulty to pay the mortgages and the fact was those summiteers were evidently supporters of Australia as a Republic and Rudd Labour sympathizers.
The 1,000 summiteers were unrepresentative of the wider community was another criticism. True or false or a sign of weak or strong leadership? Most of those summiteers have easy access to the government. The convenors were co-chaired by a Government minister and an invited Government co-chair.
What really was achieved of the 1,000 Australia’s “best and brightest”?
Not a lot of new ideas as the big issues were repackaged, revisited and reinvigorated. The 10 groups produced consensus suggestions out of the thousands of ideas. The process was well controlled and 40 non-controversial suggestions which some suspect it was a set-up job. According to some it was a carefully crafted and well managed event.
Innovative and biggest ideas that were presented include: “the community corps” for students to reduce their HECS by providing volunteer services; a national preventive health care agency funded by taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and junk food; increasing the formal and legal recognition of Aborigines; all new buildings to be carbon neutral and bringing regulations for transport and agriculture across states into line.
The challenge now for Prime Minister Rudd is to deliver the brightest ideas into action.
Delivering the recommendations is a costly exercise in the sum of billions and an enlarged bureaucracy.
In the event Rudd fails to deliver concrete results from the summit, the exercise will be seen as a stunt.
Whatever you say, the Australia 2020 is a powerful symbol and the fact that it happened is important and shows democracy has come of age. The message was that the government looks outward for ideas, inspiration and input to address the problems of the country.#
Lolita Farmer OAM is a regular contributor of emanila.com. She is the chair and convenor of the Global Filipinos Australia.
SYDNEY – The Philippine Consul General to Sydney Maria Theresa Lazaro reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs on a series of meetings with several members of the Filipino clergy to discuss preparations for Filipino visiting pilgrims who are expected to arrive in Sydney to participate in the upcoming World Youth Day (WYD) 2008 Celebration to be held in various venues throughout the City of Sydney from 15-20 July 2008.
Consul General Lazaro met with the Filipino Chaplain of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Fr. Menardo Mercene, to discuss the ongoing preparations in anticipation of the arrival of Filipino pilgrims and clergy.
The Consul General also met with the Reverend Bishop Joel Baylon, Chair of the Episcopal Commission on the Youth (ECY), during her recent working visit to the Philippines.
“The meetings that I had with Fr. Mercene in Sydney and Bishop Baylon in Manila were very productive undertakings since they presented opportunities by which we could best work out our coordination efforts that would best assist the visiting Filipino pilgrims from the Philippines before and during the event. With five months to go, the Consulate has been receiving queries from Filipinos regarding the event and that we have thought it best to assist them by directly linking with key Filipino members of the clergy both in the Philippines and Australia as well as the World Youth Day organizers so that the Filipino pilgrims would be up-to-date with the latest developments in the preparations.” Consul General Lazaro said.
The ECY is the arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that coordinates the World Youth Day preparations for Filipino pilgrims in the Philippines.
According to the latest figures provided by the WYD organizers, there are now an estimated 187 groups with 6,560 expected Filipino participants who have registered for the event. Of these, more than 900 pilgrims coming from the Philippines have been confirmed to date.
Philippine Consulate-General Advisory
The Consulate continues to advise pilgrims and participants from the Philippines to regularly monitor the WYD Website for updates and instructions. The WYD website is www.wyd2008.org. There is an accompanying registration fee to participate in the event which does not include that person’s airfare to and from Sydney.
The visiting Filipino pilgrim is also advised to take note of the limitations of their selected registration packages, particularly their health insurance coverage. Filipino pilgrims who may intend to stay for a period beyond the coverage of their health insurance are strongly advised to carefully consider getting additional travel and health insurance to cover unforeseen personal circumstances. The WYD website advises that the health cover “is for emergency medical treatment and repatriation to home country. It will cover the package period plus the three days immediately before and after the package period provided that the travel from/to the home country is direct to/from Sydney.”
The visiting Filipino pilgrim should also be aware that the WYD Sydney is being held in July, when it is considered to be the depth of the winter season in Australia. Although Sydney’s winters are usually mild, dry and generally snow-free, the pilgrim should be nonetheless prepared to anticipate temperatures ranging from 18 degrees Celsius in the morning and 8 degrees in the evening and the usual wind chills that may bring the temperature further down. Those intending to reside in the inland suburbs would find the temperatures even cooler.
The visiting Filipino pilgrim should also consider the fact that the cost of goods, services and transport around and outside of Sydney are high and must be taken into account when planning one’s budgetary requirements for attending the event and other tourism-related activities.
WYD 2008 Highlights
The highlight of the WYD 2008 celebrations will begin on 15 July 2008 with an Opening Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell.
Catechesis (teaching) sessions and Youth Festival events will be held for the next two days; to be followed by the Stations of the Cross re-enactment throughout the City; the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI and an evening Vigil, culminating in a Mass on 20 July 2008. The Closing Mass will be held at the Randwick Racecourse.
The WYD organizers expect an estimated 500,000 participants attending at least one event during the World Youth Day week. This includes 125,000 overseas pilgrims. A media contingent of 3,000-5,000 is also expected to cover the event. This is the 10th International World Youth Day celebration since it was held in 1986 by the late Pope John Paul II.
Detailed Information
Further information on the World Youth Day 2008 arrangements could be obtained from the following:
Registration and general inquiries: World Youth Day 2008 E-mail: gle@wyd2008.org; Home-stay arrangements and Filipino community WYD-related events in Sydney: Rev. Fr. Menardo “Nards” Mercene, Chaplain, Filipino Chaplaincy of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Tel. no.(612) 9604-5512; and WYD-related information in the Philippines: Most Rev. Bishop Joel Baylon, Chair, Episcopal Commission on the Youth, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, email – ecy@info.com.ph
#
SYDNEY, 12 Feb – GLOBAL FILIPINOS Australia has today announced an awards initiative in eight major fields of discipline to recognise work of excellence of Filipino youth in meeting the challenges of diverse societies.
The announcement was issued in a media release by Global Filipinos Australia head, Ms Lolita Farmer OAM. The eight categories of the awards project, “Global Filipino Youth Awards,” are Academic/Education, Arts and Entertainment, Business, Community Service, Government, Journalism/Media, Sports, and Technology.
Global Filipinos Australia is a member of Global Filipinos network with main offices in the USA. In 2007, GFA was host to the international 5th Global Networking Conference held at Rooty Hill, Blacktown City. The conference was attended by representatives of Philippine-related community organizations from different countries, including the USA and Middle East countries.
Nominations for the youth recognition awards are opened to anyone with Filipino ancestry, 16 – 35 years of age. The deadline for nominations is 30 May 2008 5.00PM AEST.Awarding will be held on 14 July 2008 at the NSW Parliament Theatre, Sydney. Nominees should provide passport size photograph and full documentation of 100 to 150 words providing details of their achievements. Awardees will be responsible for their own fares and accommodation in Sydney.
Additional information on the awards may be obtained from the Global Filipino Australia by contacting Ms Farmer on 0419 262 530 or Atoy Sayas on 0411 262 434
#
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