A Voice of Youth-"Pull the Rug on Drugs" [edit] [delete]
This entry is about: Health & Wellness


Oprah Winfrey is a woman that goes the extra mile to portray the achievements of all peoples: women, men, young and old. Although Oprah has become a controversial figure in the Arab Region, where she was proved to distort the story of a Saudi journalist who was beaten by her husband, I must say that Oprah does, in most cases recommend good books to read.

Personally, I love to read. I’ve learned to take at least 30 minutes before I go to bed every night to read a book/novel/essay of my choosing. Nothing to do with school or work, my time! Recently Oprah recommended a book called A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. I was watching the show in New York with my sister and immediately I thought to myself: Who is James Frey? I went to a movie that night with my sister, and we both decided we’d get the book.

Being in New York doing GYAN related issues and meetings with UN agencies takes a lot of time and energy as we all know. I simply never got to the book. I decided to take a one week leave before I head back to Beirut and start school again. I took a flight from NY to LA to visit a cousin of mine who studies here. Flying for six hours is a long time, and you simply don’t have much to do! I decided to pull out Frey’s book and take a shot at it. I simply couldn’t put the book down. Although I haven’t finished the book, I read a good portion of it on the plane.

This book relates to many things that I work for and more importantly it’s a memoir, which happens to be my favorite type of books! This book covers the six weeks that Frey spent in a rehab center recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. While at the center, at the age of 23, he was told that if he doesn’t take on a different life style as of that moment, he would not live to be 24.

This account is (as I said, I haven’t finished the book yet) a great reminder of: The Need for Family Support, Courage, Self Respect, and the willingness of a person to help themselves to take-on a transition from being a self loathing person to a strong and able human being. Too optimistic I hear you say? Not really. James Frey was on the verge of death and today he is someone that advocates for drug misuse treatment and prevention.

As we all know, young people are the primary targets of drug producers and trade. This famine has brought destruction to many homes and families; I’ve personally seen how this plague works having known some addicts myself. Along side the work I do for GYAN (www.youthlink.org), I am also the Youth Representative on the Arab Region Development Committee of an international organization called Mentor Foundation (www.mentorfoundation.org). This organization aims to seek and promote best practices of drug misuse prevention. Reading this book, engraves my belief in the importance of youth activism and the work of Mentor even more.

How so? As I said in the previous paragraph, we, young people, are the primary targets of drug traffickers. This lifestyle that some young people pursue (forcefully or willingly) makes me realize that the only way for us to transform from being vulnerable and marginalized (as we are referred to by many) to active citizens is by taking action. Hence the title I chose for this entry, “Pull the Rug on Drugs.” (It was also a title of newspaper coverage on Mentor’s Arab Conference in December 2004). The power of youth becomes stronger and stronger everyday. We have come to the realization that if we want something done, we shouldn’t depend on others, but should take action on doing it ourselves. As young people we have much to learn from Frey’s account. In an indirect manner, he promotes an important factor which many of us lack: The need to ask for help and advice when we need it. That is why, networking and forming partnerships is essential to any field related to social change, in particular that of youth activism. If the international youth movement has any hope-which it does-we need to strengthen our abilities to work with each other by sharing experiences and forming solidified and long-term partnerships. This requires experience and is something that we can certainly gain from adults; hence the importance of intergenerational partnership-a priority that GYAN continues to advocate for.

This memoir is an important lesson learned by Frey on behalf of all young people. It’s a significant image of what obstruction drug misuse can have on us. We all need to be the person that Frey represents: Learn from your mistakes and BECOME ACTIVE VOICES OF CHANGE. I strongly urge you to read this book

Just take a minute and think….What could 136 Million Dollars do for a person? What could it do for a country? What could it do for the world?

According to the UN Population Fund this amount could prevent 8 million unwanted pregnancies, and 18,800 maternal deaths among women in developing countries. What does this have to do with anything?

Well, on September 16, 2005 the Bush administration officially announced that it would not release the $34 Million Dollars allocated to the international fund, for the fourth consecutive year, which totals to $136 Million. The Bush administration first halted US funding after hearing allegations that UNFPA supports abortion among Chinese women. The fund, invited a team from the US Administration which found no basis to this rumor. On the contrary, the investigation committee report stated that the fund was finding alternate and safe solutions to Chinese mothers-a process which should be helped.

To this day, the Bush Administration continues to veto the appropriated funds for UNFPA. In honesty, I think this is a perfect example of an oxymoron. While the Bush Administration preaches to the world on the right of choice, it takes decisions such as this that are directly responsible for the massacre of 18,800 women worldwide.

I’ve personally worked with UNFPA for 1 ½ years as a founding member of its Youth Advisory Panel, and can vouch for its efficiency and seriousness in tackling issues that face women’s health and promoting the sexual and reproductive rights of both women and young people. The fund, realizes the seriousness of its mandate, and achieves it goals through a culturally sensitive lens. This is not a personal opinion, but is echoed by many, including governments, namely US allies in the European Union who continue to contribute greatly to UNFPA’s budget regardless of the Bush Administration’s decision.

This administration has seriously hindered the United States’ credibility on the international front. It has continued to build-on non factual information (UNFPA’s case and the Iraq War which got the support from a miniscule number of countries, who were under the assumption that Iraq’s WMD reserves would threaten World Peace and Security).

I am not calling on the Bush Administration to yield the US’s right to ensure that its money is being put to use in the proper way. However, I am expecting that the World’s only remaining super-power assumes its role as today’s leading nation by acknowledging when its wrong and correcting its error. This is the essence of true leadership and so long as the US does not exert transparency on itself, it should not expect it from others.

In closing, I’d like to pose a question to President Bush, Secretary Rice and others in the current US Administration: Can UNFPA tell the families of those 18,800 women who have died, that they lost their loved ones because the US decided they were not worthy of life?

World Leaders met here in New York for three consecutive days to discuss progress made in achieving the Millennium Decleration and the Millennium Development Goals. The success or failure of the world to ensure the achievements of these goals will be the world that we, young people, will live in.

Regardless of this valid argument, young people were not allowed to voice their views on this matter to world leaders during the 2005 World Summit held in New York only last week.

GYAN and TIG, collaborated on yet a new endevour to "bring the summit to young people." This endevour marked an inspiring event, a reception which was oragnized by GYAN with the sponsorship of: The Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations, People Speak/UN Foundation, and the NGO Committee on Youth.

The reception which was held at the Roger Smith Hotel on Friday September 16, 2005 had a good turn-out (which totalled to about 100 people) including Dr. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid the Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNFPA, who was also our event's keynote speaker and Dr. Peter Piot, the Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN AIDS. We also had a wonderful chance to follow-up with our dear friend and ally, Dr. Jane Goodall, who as always, came to show her support before she went off to a previous engagement. In addition to our regular friends and colleagues, we were also joined by Representatives from Finland, Kuwait, Norway, The Netherlands, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Sweden.

Helen Tombo from Kenya and Jessica Rimmington from the US two youth activits, gave inspirational speeches which presented the excellent projects they have going to ensure youth participation in MDG related activities. In addition to all the presentations, (which didn't take as long as we had expected) our friends from Next/Next Entertainment put on a beautiful presentation on Youth involvement in the MDG's from all over the world, which was a great inspiration to almost conclude our evening!

As our grande finale, Jennifer (our dear and great friend) came all the way from Tornto to launch TIG's beautiful exhibition "Creative Change" which brought a selection of excellent pieces of art, by our friends (TIG members) on each goal of the MDG's (Franziska you did a great job!)

After that, we all had a good time to chat, talk and network...This was an excellent event that showed without a doubt, the wonderful work that young people are doing to achieve the MDG's and to promote social change worldwide!

NB-The picture above is of Dr. Obaid (UNFPA) and Dr. Piot (UNAIDS) during the reception