“Studies indicate that the one quality all successful people have is persistence. They’re willing to spend more time accomplishing a task and to persevere in the face of many difficult odds. There’s a very positive relationship between people’s ability to accomplish any task and the time they’re willing to spend on it,” (Dr. Joyce: Quote World).
March 26, 2008
“Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared,” (Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890-1973: Quotations Page).
March 18, 2008
“A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again,” (Margaret Mead: Memorable Quotations).
March 17, 2008
“By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacation-less class,” (Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American writer and aviation pioneer, 1906-2001: Think Exist).
March 10, 2008
The ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius is calling for applications for “Settling Into Motion” – The Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarships in Migration Studies. The scholarship program seeks to address the ongoing transformations in societies where migration is just one factor among others generating change. For 2008 applications relating to migration and urban transformations are especially welcome.
Within this international program, the ZEIT-Stiftung grants six to eight pre-doctoral scholarships per year. Applicants must be Ph.D. students of – in a broad sense – social sciences. The scholarships involve a monthly stipend of 1.200 Euros as well as yearly conferences and workshops. The deadline for applications is 31 March 2008. Scholarships are granted for up to 36 months. They can be used for research and writing periods but not for course work.
The world is in motion: people and ideas, products, technologies as well as diseases are travelling between regions and continents. Cities and cultures as well as family and labour market relations are changing in these processes of globalization. Regulatory competencies of nation states are also in question. The movement of people is only one factor among others generating change, but one whose importance will rise over the next years.
Migrants are settling into societies that are themselves transforming. Thus the meaning of integration is increasingly hard to pinpoint. Everyone needs to be prepared to embrace change. Some migrants will also keep multi-stranded relations with their countries of origin, thereby building transnational spaces; others will after little time move on to third countries. All of them settle into motion.
How can migrants and their receiving and sending countries reap the benefits of this movement of people? Which structural and procedural conditions have to be in place to take advantage of diversity? And what are the challenges for the individual, the migrant family, the regions and countries migrants come from as well as the places of reception? The Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship Program “Settling Into Motion” seeks to address these questions, each year focusing on a different topic.
For 2008, applications to study “Migration and Urban Transformations” are especially welcome. The majority of migrants live in urban areas. For a long time, cities were regarded as “integration machines” because of their capacity to incorporate people of different backgrounds in a functionally differentiated system. At the same time, cities are themselves focal points of economic, social and cultural transformations.
Applications for scholarships under this topic could study the following questions of (but are not limited to):
Super-diversity and the effects of rapid diversification on neighbourhoods
Housing careers of migrants
Policing and anti-discrimination policies
(Informal) economy and development of innovation
Governance issues at local level (including provision of welfare services)
Urban sprawl
Social and political participation at local level and the role of religious communities
Local school choice and the school-neighborhood nexus
Innovative approaches both in methodology and in research questions are highly encouraged.
The ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius is one of the major private foundations in Germany sponsoring academic research. Among other things, it founded and continues to financially support the Bucerius Law School, a Hamburg-based private law school that combines innovation in teaching with renowned research.
Please find further information as well as the online application at www.settling-into-motion.de
Gunilla Fincke, Project Director Science and Research
ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius – Feldbrunnenstrasse 56 20148 Hamburg Germany
Tel.: 
0049-40-41336-771
Fax: 0049-40-41336-777
E-Mail: fincke@zeit-stiftung.de
http://www.zeit-stiftung.de
March 4, 2008
Calling All Filmmakers and Activists!
The 5th annual Freedom Film Fest (FFF) began its campaign to promote and highlight socially conscious film making and films about human rights. the launch also signifies the calling for submissions for the “Dare 2 Document” film proposal competition 2008. the 2008 logo and theme “Democratic Space – Making Room for Human Rights” was also unveiled.Democracy is deteriorating in Malaysia. There are increasing restrictions to freedom of speech, assembly, information, free and fair elections, religious practice and other basic rights. Hidden behind the facade of economic progress is an authoritarian state using its machinery to deny our inherent human rights!
The questions that beg to be asked are: “What really is Democracy in Malaysia?”, “Where are the Democratic Spaces, if any, in Malaysia?” and “What can we do as citizens to reclaim our democratic rights?”
KOMAS invites members of the of public to send in their proposals before the deadline on the 31st March, 2008 to compete for the chance to be one of the three lucky people to receive a RM5,000 grant each to turn your film into a reality!
Winners will also receive the Justin Louis Award and technical assistance from KOMAS to produce their winning stories. Completed films will premiere at the FFF2008 screenings and will ultimately compete for the “Most Outstanding Human Rights Film” title.
For the past five years, FFF has earned a strong reputation for catalyzing and creating an open space for sharing socially engaging media and critical discussions among different sectors of the Malaysian public. Last year, the FFF2007 screened 32 social documentaries and independent films from all over the world in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru and was received with great enthusiasm from the public. This year, we hope to extend the FFF2008 film screenings to East Malaysia.
As part of the build-up to FFF2008, KOMAS will also be organising a series of video workshops throughout the year for community members, film makers and social activists to learn how to highlight human rights issues through the powerful medium of film. Special forums and dialogue sessions with renowned social film makers and activists from Malaysia and other countries will also be organised.
http://www.freedomfilmfest.komas.org/2008/news/dare-2-document-2008-calling-for-film-proposals/
March 3, 2008
“A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a body saying that it needs work,” (Geoffrey Norman: Quote Garden).
March 2, 2008
