Published at Friday, January 29, 2010 by Gunvor
Why travel to a huge film festival when you can make your own festival right where you are?
At Oslo Dokumentarkino you can buy three movies from last years “Human Rights, Human Wrongs” festival. For 250 Norwegian kroner you get the movies China Blue, Shadow of the Holy Book and Darwin’s nightmare on DVD with Norwegian subtitles. The movies address human rights issues concerning huge companies from the north doing business with jeans factories in China, a fishing-industry in Lake Victoria and an oil- business in Turkmenistan.
All the films can be shown in schools, cinemas and other non-commercial contexts. Invite your friends and family to an important local film-festival about human rights.
Published at Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by Caroline
Google might stop their services in China due to Chinese attacks on Google’s system and their censorship. After investigating the attack Google have reasons to believe that they have tried to get information about Google-acconts linked to Human Rights activists. Below is an abstract from their blog:
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.It is great news that big companies such as Google takes responsibility and joins our fight for human rights. Their decision will have great impact on the corporate social responsibility of other companies – and not least on nations such as China which stops people from having free speech. 
Published at Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Caroline
1. Katzenjammer with 719 votes
2. Breed with 701 votes
3. Inception with 352 votes
We are glad to announce the winners of our YouTube Music-festival, Give Your Live, which took place on the 14th December 2009. Our audience have given their votes and Katzenjammer, Breed and Inception are the winners.
The prize is historical. Their songs will be part of the new Golden Disc which will contain statements about what youth think about human right’s violations and how they want the world to be. The disc will be historical and will be sent out to space – just like the old one!
Cheating
Unfortunately we experienced cheating during the vote. This was investigated and we managed to find back to the original results. 
We want to thank everyone who gave their contributions to the Give Your Live-festival.
Now enjoy the winning songs:
http://involveyourself.com/katzenjammer-a-bar-in-amsterdam
http://involveyourself.com/breed-remember
http://involveyourself.com/inception-back-on-the-road
Published at Friday, January 8, 2010 by Caroline
After the YouTube-festival on the 14th December 2009, we arranged a voting-contest! Amongst the 55 band which gave their live contribution to the festival, 3 have the chance to get their songs onto the New Golden Record.
At the end of the contest which ended on the 31st December, we have reasons to believe that there have been people cheating. Each person (ip-address) is only allowed to give one vote to each band. However, a couple of bands suddenly got extremely many votes during a short amount of time.
It is very important for Involve Yourself that this is a fair competition. We are currently investigating what has happened, and will get back to you regarding the final results.
Thanks to all the bands which gave their “live” to the first ever YouTube-festival.
Published at Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Caroline
After continous campaigning The Norwegian Student Board has decided not to renew another deal with Coca-Cola. This means there will be n Coca-Cola products in Norwegian universities or in schools of higher education.
The board has based their decision on price compared to other suppliers of soft-drinks, but also on ethical grounds. Campaigns over the last two years shows that Coca-Cola factories in India causes a reduction in water for the locals as well as water-pollution.
India Recourse Center welcomes the students’ decision and states they give out an important message to other educational institutions.
Read more here
Published at by Sanne
If we didn’t have freedom of expression I believe that we could never even dream of the life we are living now. Today, I can say what I want, and stand up for what I say. We control our own lives and the government doesn’t control us.
When I first think about a society without freedom of expression and speech I think of some sort of a dictatorship, meaning that one man or a small group of people are controlling the country and the rules it follows. A one-man dictatorship is where there is almost total freedom of repeal whereas an authoritarian dictatorship means that residents can come with their opinions, but they have little or no freedom of action. In relation, I believe that those who are in charge of a dictatorship (the dictator) are in complete and total control. If you say anything against him/her you will get punished.
In such “dictatorship-like” societies I think the government would control the media; the government would choose the information they want people to hear. This would lead to one common thought and opinion among the people. People have to say what the government tells them to say for the fear of being prosecuted. To live in a fear of being prosecuted is to live in a cage censorship—prison. Everything you believe that may be against the established law or government is wrong. Therefore, we can’t say what we mean, we cannot use our own words and we cannot voice our own opinion. How can we live like that?
I believe also that the entire media would be different. There would only be certain films shown at cinemas, certain themes that artists are allowed to sing about, and certain themes for television-programs.
“See we just had a misunderstanding. I thought we lived in the U.S. of A., the United States of America. But actually we live in the U.S. of A., the United States of Advertising. Freedom of expression is guaranteed? If you’ve got the money!” – Bill Hicks
Is it like this in the United States? Is it the case that in some societies, those with the most money can say whatever they want without getting punished?
Every Miss Universe participant says in their speech that they want ‘world peace’, I would say that you can’t have world peace without a world where you have freedom of expression, in EVERY country. Freedom of expression is really important, and everybody should enjoy this human right.
“I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.” – Madonna.
This is what I call freedom of expression, and that’s something everybody should have.
Published at Monday, January 4, 2010 by Caroline
A new survey from Norstat proves that 84 prosent of 15 year-olds and youth between 17-19 year olds do not think that poor countries are responsible for their own poverty. 57 prosent states that they believe poverty can be extinguished.
200 youth took part in this survey. Over halv of them said that they think they themselves can contribute towards a better future with regards to reducing poverty.
The survey was conducted on behalf of Strømmestiftelsen.
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