Global Island - Democracy Game for Young People
15 July 2002 at 1:07 pm
“Global Island needs young people around the world to help decide its future”. That’s the fascinating invitation to participate in a new democracy game for teenagers on the Internet.
“Global Island” is part of a major global awareness campaign as part of the World Summit in Johannesburg on Sustainability later this year.
It’s a community game developed for the Internet specifically aimed at students between the ages of 13 and 17. The purpose is to promote understanding and solidarity between people, co-operating across national and cultural boundaries to contribute to global sustainable development!
Global Island is developed by u-land.dk and the Danish Association for International Cooperation, along with the Danish web agency Eisenstein and produced with support from the Danish Ministry of Education.
In the Global Island game serious dilemmas are presented for debate in local Parliaments, and the goal is to find a solution and avoid serious conflicts.
As a citizen of one of Global Islands 5 countries, teenagers are entitled to give speeches in the local Parliament, and vote for the propositions in the Parliament.
All citizens take part in the Global Island election.
Every Monday a new dilemma will be presented in the local Parliament. They can discuss the dilemma with fellow citizens until an elected time on Wednesday.
Participants can make their own statement or applaud speeches made by fellow citizens. When they give a speech they earn points according to the response they get from the citizens of their country.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, the Governments in each ‘country’ choose the two most popular statements among the speeches given in their local Parliament.
The statements that receive the most votes will represent the country in the global Parliament.
Participants score points according to the similarity of their prioritising to the overall result in the global Parliament, and for the rank that their country gets among the 5 nations. Their country scores points according the position it gains in the global election.
There are twists and turns and all manners of cyberspace assistance to keep teenagers interested.
The first game will be played from the 9th of September to the 4th of October 2002 (deadline for registration is 1st of September).
The second game will be played from 21st of October to 15th of November 2002 (deadline for registration is 12th of October).
Register now as a citizen on Global Island! Groups of 3 to 6 persons can apply for membership of local governments.
The deadline for registering as “Government” is the 1st of September for the first game and 1st of October for the second game.
For more information on how to become part of the Global Island Game just log on to www.globalisland.nu.
Perhaps your organisation could help finance 3-4 hours a week of Internet usage for a group of teenagers to take part. Let us know if you register to play Global Island so we can track your progress at Pro Bono Australia.
Just send us an e-mail to probono@probonoaustralia.com.au.
