Volume 3, Issue 8

ABW Presentation #1
A Glance at our World
Flashbacks
The Powerful Voice of Youth
Falling Into a Well Unknowingly
Phrase of the Month
Biofuels

News!

Greetings,

I am proud to present to you the new Leaders' EZINE!

Cheers,

       Starting with this issue of the EZINE, we will present one of the activities which will take place at LST this year. The description of the activity will be short, since we want to reserve you the pleasure of discovering the real beauty of ABW at Cambridge!

       Unlike many in-class lessons, the ABW program is practical and fun, encouraging teamwork, decision-making and effective communication skills, strategic thinking and responsibility in an innovative format. Your participation in the ABW activity will help you develop leadership skills and a keen knowledge of the basics of business - skills useful in whatever career you choose.You'll discover how to better manage your time and gain confidence in your ability to be successful in the outside world.

       In the ABW competition, which will last for 5 days, you and your colleagues will be given the possibility of running a company in a competitive marketplace, and you will be required to determine how your company will operate efficiently.

       You will be formed into company teams and you will each choose a position in the company, covering the key business areas of marketing, corporate and operations. Your team is responsible for the election of a Chief Executive Officer from within your group and the allocation of team members to each of the Marketing (The Selling and Distribution Process), Operations (The Manufacturing Process) and Corporate (Financial, Human Resources and Environmental) positions. Every position is important for making decisions and for the success of the company.

       In the next issue of the EZINE, we will describe the roles of different company positions and the kind of decisions to be made. Now, we will explain some terms which you will find useful in better understanding the ABW challenge.

Assets: Anything of value owned by the Company. e.g. machinery,inventories, goodwill, cash.

Bank Term Deposits: Money lent to a bank for a fixed period of time. e.g. 3months, 6 months or up to 5 years.

Budget: An estimate, of expected income & expenditure for a given period in the future.

Cash flow: The movement of money into and out of the business.

Debentures: A way of raising money from a large number of people to finance the business by borrowing it at a given rate of interest.

Debt Ratio: How much money have you borrowed (liabilities) compared to how much the owners (equity) have put in

Depreciation: Reduction in the value of an object over a period of time longer than 1 year.

Dividends: A share of the profits of the company paid to shareholders. Usually expressed as x cents per share.

Equity: What the company is worth to the shareholders.

Establishment cost: Set-up cost for the business before it starts operation.

Interest Rates: What the bank pays you for the use of your money deposited with the bank. Also the money that the bank charges you for money that they have loaned to you in the form of a loan or overdraft.

Inventory: Value of all goods or stock not yet used or sold. Also called stock on hand.

Liabilities: Debts to external parties e.g. bank overdraft. What the company owes.

Market Share: A company's share of the sales made in the whole market.

Overdraft: Temporary loan from the bank that rises and falls in accordance with the company's need for funds subject to an agreed limit. Usually at a higher rate of interest than raising money by issuing debentures.

Product Enhancement: The quality of packaging and presentation of a product.

Profit: Income of business after all outlays have been paid,including wages. i.e income - expenses

Quarters: The division of a year into four equal parts of 3 months each.

Raw Materials Quality: Resources before undergoing the manufacturing process.They can differ in quality and this results in a different quality of final product & will affect the level of raw materials wasted in the production process.

Return on assets: How much profit the company is making on the assets used in the business.

Return on equity: Shows the company's after tax profit as a percentage of shareholders' equity. It is the return the company has made for the shareholders on their investment.

Revenue: Total income of business from all sources e.g., sale of products, bank interest received.

Shares: Unit of ownership in a company.

Share Issue: Offering shares in the company to new investors. A way of raising money for use by the company.

Statement of Financial Position: What the company is worth at a point in time. What the
company is worth (equity) is made up by what the company owns (assets) less what the company owes (liabilities) i.e. Equity = Assets - Liabilities.

Unit Inventory cost: the average cost of what is produced this quarter plus the average cost of inventory unsold from last quarter.

       Have you ever wondered how privileged we are? I feel so disappointed at myself when I get angry because I don't have a new cell phone, not fully realizing there are people so close to me that don't even have a meal. Then I think how fortunate we are to have everything we need, even though sometimes we are too stubborn to realize that it's not necessarily everything we want. Things as simple as good health and in case we get sick, access to good doctors, hospitals and medication; three complete meals (sometimes even more), a house and most importantly have a family to rely on, are at our reach everyday; and even so, we still whine about everything. Living in a third world country helps you really appreciate everything you have, even if it is not as much as others have or not what you want.

       Honduras is a third World country with a really slow growing economy and a fast growing population. The reality of our country is capable of shocking anyone. It is sad that such a big fraction of our population is illiterate. Up to 2003 about 20.7 % of the population was living with under a dollar a day, and 44% with less two dollars a day. Over 64% of our population is living below the poverty levels. That is why students like me, privileged Honduran, should take advantage of the great experience offered by YLI, learning as much as we can in order to become the leaders our country needs. This desire of helping our country become a great place for future generations is also the reason for working with kids that have fewer chances than everyone else, as our mentor project. Through this project we are helping kids know how valuable they truly are, and that it is important to have good health habits, education, and most of all, love for your country. It is kids like this, with fewer opportunities in life, which later on becomes a problem for society, since their only means of survival might be, because of a poor education, delinquency due to the lack of job.

       As YLI members, we are doing everything we can through our schools or any other institution that provides any help for the needed. It is frustrating to know that what we do is not enough. No matter how honest we are and how much we help these less fortunate people, most of our authorities have proved to be corrupt. Our actual government, not being exempt of these flaws, has people interested only in being photographed "trying to help" creating big scandals, and after a while their cases seem to disappear mysteriously from the courts. Weird right? How can we expect our citizens to learn to read and write, when our actual president, doesn't consider education a priority, could it be because he barely finished high school? How can we expect progress in such conditions?

       Even though all of this is happening, I have high hopes for my country. I know my generation must have more than one capable leader that will have enough courage and intelligence to really work for this country. I know that Honduras' future will be great! There will be more than just corruption; there will be growth, prosperity and safety because I will do everything in my hands to help this happen.

Flashbacks - Part 2: Taking Care of Business
Hannah Rice-Gossage (Montreal 06)

       Well, the anxiety soon came to an end (as did the donuts, which was rather horrifying for at least Adjani and I). The meeting lasted an hour and a half and was the longest time of my life. I hardly said anything, so I believe that made the time pass much slower for everyone. Father Simonton truly ran the meeting and definitely intimidated the better half of us (that is everyone except Charles). The assembly was basically an in depth explanation of YLI, the rules, the history, the requirements, the parliamentary procedure. Oh that sneaky little parliamentary procedure. I have heard its lovely modest name muttered from that meeting on, despite the persistent mocking of Adjani, Elizabeth and I. I believe I speak for all of us when I say learning we could not say "aye" in response to a moved motion was the most depressing news of the meeting (perhaps of my life). Meeting after meeting Charles attempted to explain to us the importance of parliamentary procedure, how much easier the meetings would be if we could just learn to follow it, but I think Charles learned quickly that nothing would ever be easy with this particular group. We are all argumentative, we are all annoying as hell, and we all like to have food at our meetings. These three small things brought us closer together in the end and we were all able to form a very...interesting...bond.

       I was of course completely nervous about everything. I found it was happening all too quickly. I was surprised at the lack of time we had to get everything together. Suddenly there were things that needed to be signed (WHAT?!?), money that needed to be gathered that we didn't have, autobiographies that needed to be written (to this day I believe Elizabeth is the only one who has completely written one). The Montreal chapter was formed officially in April and we were leaving in less than three entire months and none of us (again, with the exception of Charles) knew what was really going on (although, we were very good at pretending). I was so happy to be finished with the first meeting. I felt so unorganized and stupid and was happy to let Jim run the others as he pleased.

       Suddenly Charles was coming to meetings with minutes from the previous, which really threw me off the edge. How we dreaded the day when it was our turn to actually concentrate on what was going on in the meetings. I always finished what work needed to be done, I was always at the meetings on time, but I still wasn't completely aware of what I was getting into and I don't think I really accepted the needed responsibility until I returned from the WLC (but we'll get into that later, kids). I was never worried about being so confused, because I knew everyone else was as well. And I like to believe everything will work itself out in the end, which it did and we got to Washington in one piece (which continues to surprise me). But there was still a serious lack of donuts (that's what it all comes down to in the end).

To Be Even More Continued in the never before published Part Three: The WLC.

Youths,  Apprentices of Global Approaches
Alina Popescu (Turnu 07)

       
       It is said that adolescence and youth are the ages of romanticism, of dreams and aspirations toward great realizations, of interrogation and multilateral curiosity, ages of formation of durable friendships and of searching, identifying and crystallization of human models.

       I will not present here the intellectual, social and affective qualities which help the adolescent to adapt to the adults' society and to progress morally and spiritually; nor will I insist that youth is the age of maximum intellectual potentiality, of grand performances, of valuable ideas, projects, and discoveries or fundamental works.

       What I would like to remark is that, for the adolescent, dominant is the need to communicate with adults, and for youth, the need to integrate and intensely participate in the society. These natural tendencies of youth are very important, both for them, as individuals, and for the whole society.

       Contemporary time is full of terrible events, of conflicts ranging from axiological to military ones, it is tensioned by multiple and unexpected changes, it is dense in scientific and technical discoveries, but poor, sometimes, in humaneness, marked by major crisis. What characterises our epoch is not the existence of change, but its extremely accelerated rhythm. This determines numerous effects: human disparity, incapacity to control changes, relatively incoherent development, conflicts between generations, difficulties in understanding complexity, lack of anticipation, inadequate and incomplete educational processes. Allured by the mirage of obtaining an immediate result and by the desire to rapidly solve our problems, we have generated innumerable crisis, expression of both our capacity and incapacity; the capacity to do, because the human being is, by his nature, a source of change, and the incapacity to orientate and control the evolution of this change.  

       In order to control the change and intervene successfully in constructing a desired future, it is necessary an increased responsibility of all people, a conscious, anticipatory and participatory behavior.

       Youths' natural tendency to communicate, to approach new themes, to be both critics and creators, their wish to solve the problems the society is confronting with, has unified them in various organizations, where their voices become more powerful. Even global leaders encourage youth involvement in the debate concerning world problems.

       A significant example is represented by the Young Atlanticist Summit, held in conjunction with the official NATO Summit which took place at Bucharest, between 2-4 April. As world leaders met for the largest NATO summit in Alliance history, future leaders from across the Euro-Atlantic region and Afghanistan convened in Romania to discuss the major security issues facing the Atlantic Community today and to launch an innovative on-line community - the Young Atlanticist Network. The 120 participants had an extraordinary opportunity to meet directly with national and Alliance decision-makers and to build consensus on critical issues in the Alliance.

       Reunited within non-governmental organizations or under the patronage of international bodies and institutions, youth have the possibility to analyze phenomenons in larger contexts, to rethink classical solutions, to change current practices and to rebuild.

       As YLI members, we have the unique possibility to benefit by the most experienced and effective youth leadership training and cultural programs. For certain, our apprenticeship beside YLI Staff, masters of global approaches, will help us find our vocation, so that each one of our actions can have personality, color and maxium social impact.

Falling into a well unknowingly
Hannah Gould (Melbourne '08)

       Today I woke up and felt Weltschmerz. Now clearly this is not what most Australians think, because it is not English but in fact German, and it is one of those untranslatable words, which most are, but if I had to it would probably mean something life 'deep sadness caused by realizing that someone's own weaknesses are due to the inappropriateness and cruelty of the world'. Now is that not the best word you have ever heard. Or not, maybe you prefer 'gobray' from Bodo, a small South Asian Language, meaning 'to fall into a well unknowingly.

       I actually wanted to talk to you about language death and the importance of valuing the complexity of languages, not as an intellectual curiosity but as an inexplicable part of who we are as human beings. In this century 300, over 50% of the worlds languages will disappear. That's a rate of a language disappearing every two weeks.

       Many of you may not seem too concerned with this proposition. Perhaps, you think that languages may be valued for intellectual reasons, but practically, the death of Bodo is no great concern. And if language were but an intellectual curiosity, if language was restricted to academics and universities, or if it were merely for the sake of passing information then it wouldn't be an issue. But it is at the point at which speak or more accurately, the point at which we think, that language becomes something so much more important. It is what defines us. More than a guidebook, a dictionary shows our culture. As Ken Hale says, "Languages embody the intellectual wealth of the people that speak them. Losing any one of them is like dropping a bomb on the Louve". So when you think of language death in the next 100 years as losing as 50% of human culture, traditions, knowledge and identity it suddenly becomes much more important.

       Some people argue that a language dies when the last person who speaks it dies. But I would argue that a language dies when the second last person does- for then there is no longer any one to talk to. Mati Ke is one of the 50-60 languages around the world that are only spoken by one person; Patrick Nudjuila in Northern Territory, Australia. Every word in Mati Ke is a reflection of the interconnection of the natural world, the way in which generations of people have understood nature. There are 10 classes of being in Mati Ke, and every object is divided into them. 'Marri' refers to the cycad tree. 'Mi Marri' is the seed of that tree, 'A Marri' is the animal that lives in it, and 'Me Marri' is the cycad spirit, the people of the cycad. Lose these languages and you lose the relationships. It is not only then the words themselves that carry the knowledge of the natural environment, but the language itself embodies unique and local knowledge and natural systems. As they die out, they take with them irreplaceable parts of Aboriginal culture and history.

Phrase of the Month

Thank you for your contributions to this month's Phrase! The phrase "Happy Birthday!" has been translated into 15 languages! Enjoy!

Chinese (Pinyin)
Sheng ri kuai le!

Dutch
Gelukkige Verjaardag!

English
Happy Birthday!

Filipino
Maligayang Kaarawan!

French
Joyeux Anniversaire! / Bon anniversaire! / Joyeuse anniversaire!

German
Alles gute zum Geburstag! / Zum Geburstag viel Gluck!

Hebrew
Yom oh-leadet samyah! / Yom Huledet Sameh!

Japanese

Otanjoubi omedetou!

Italian

Tanti auguri!

Romanian
La multi ani!

Russian

S Dnem Rojdenia! / S dn'om rojdenya!

Spanish

Feliz cumpleanos!

Tagalog
Maligayang bati! / Maligayang Kaarawan!

Turkish
Dogum gunun kutlu olsun!

Slang (Aussie)
Haps Bday!