Stephen Harper CARES. Well. Would you look at that?

Today was a good day. Today was a day of enlightenment, fulfillment... but most of all... closure.

Today, we as Canada have worked in spite of all the media's speculation that we piggy- back the US everywhere. Well. A change of heart, perhaps, occurred today..

For once, I can say that YES, Stephen Harper has Canada's best interests in mind. Why, you ask? Well. it's simple:

Many of us heard of the faulty reasoning US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton displayed yesterday when in a CTV interview clearly stated that the US wants Canada to stay in Afghanistan beyond its set deadline. WHAT?!?!?! WHY, as the US is well on its way out of Iraq must we stay in Afghanistan? We. Are. Canada. We have our own government whom we so painstakingly ELECTED. IN A DEMOCRATIC ENVIRONMENT. Sheesh.

But YOU, Uncle Sam, are withdrawing your troops from Iraq at a steady rate. And WE, the Canadians, must stay beyond our deadline in Afghanistan? For what? To rob more men and women of their lives? To thrust their friends and families into states of total agony and shock?

Yes, peace needs to made and kept in the Middle East. Clearly, the US thinks that. And as they profess their passion for peace in the Middle East, they withdraw thousands of troops from Iraq, to please their citizens. But WE, little ol' Canada, must stay in Afghanistan. Oh, no, no. Forget pleasing OUR citizens by leaving Afghanistan. Peace needs to be maintained.. remember? So Canada must stay to keep the peace while America, the "land of the free and the home of the brave" (*snort*. Brave.) sits back and watches Canada's already small population dwindle further.

Do they MOCK US?

The US wants peace to be kept forcefully without them having to keep it.. forcefully.

Huh.

Draw your own opinions from that, will you?

With Hilary Clinton's little "slip up", America's true intentions were revealed. A word to the wise, Mrs. Clinton: REHEARSE what you want to say in an interview, speech, whatever. And SAY NO MORE. Like Barack does.

Anyways, I was proud of Mr. Harper this morning when I read that he remained firm in his conviction: Canada will be out of Afghanistan by 2011. After he prorogued parliament last December, MANY Canadians lost hope. Thought he lost some screws. Lost them all, as a matter of fact. But now, as he defies this latest hypocritical request from the US, that hope which was lost has now been rekindled.

As our national anthem says:

O CANADA, WE STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE!

Yes, Mr. Harper, you've got the right idea. DEFEND Canada and its people. Stay strong. Make the right decisions. We knew you could do it, we knew you could prove yourself as our PM.. deep, deep, DEEP down.


And so for now, Mr. Harper, we salute you.

-YouthWorldIMPACT

Aw, man!

So we heard back from the Globe and Mail..

Whew. It was rough.

How were we supposed to know that they're the only Canadian newspaper with a correspondent in Africa? hm.

Oh, well. They emailed us back saying that "their needs are well met in this area" and so they wouldn't need our contribution.

But be informed; our hope has NOT. BEEN. EXTINGUISHED! We still hope to get our work published.. moving on to the Toronto Star/ Scarborough Mirror!


-The next battle has begun! Our path towards publishing a piece for a paper is well under way, and we, the J8 prospects, intend to win.-

Any questions/comments/concerns? Email us at j8prospects@hotmail.com !

We are open to encouraging comments as well as constructive criticism

-YouthWorldIMPACT

Our Pitch to the Globe and Mail!

When the Globe and Mail called us back, we were simply elated. It was hard to fathom-the Globe and Mail took the time not only to listen to the message I (Rebecca) left them, but called back and clearly expressed their interest in our endeavours.

It was made clear to us by the Globe that in order to move further towards our goal of publishing a freelance article for them we would need to produce a pitch outlining our plans for the article. And that, we did.

After mass brainstorming :),we'd come up with the heart of the pitch. We knew what we wanted to write about for the paper, we knew what we wanted to tell the world.

Soon thereafter, we sent our pitch to the Globe (Pitch directly below):






To whom it may concern:

Across the globe, there are stories to be told; there's inspiration to be had; there are hearts to be touched. We are Rebecca Etienne, Sasen Efrem, Iffah Elnaz, and Katerina Mizrokhi. We have a story.

Sometimes it's hard to fathom what those across the globe are going through. Sometimes we think we know, but we really don't have much of an idea. To truly comprehend extreme poverty is to almost totally lack monetary solidity. To truly empathize with the starving one must once have starved.

Either of the two aforementioned topics would produce an incredible article, doubtlessly. However, there is another topic that our group (Sasen, Iffah, Katerina and myself) unequivocally believes the world should be made aware of, one that perhaps has not been given by the media the attention it deserves. That topic is foreign aid to Africa via various African governments (which is the most common means of foreign aid to Africa), and why it is not working the way it should.

We as a group wish to write an article for your paper regarding this thought- provoking topic. We strongly believe that the eyes of the public need to be opened in these regards. In our article, we will be referencing the book Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo. Ms. Moyo in her book writes of several highly innovative and realistic ways to maximize the true "aid" foreign aid money brings to African citizens.

We know that we can produce a truly powerful article for your newspaper. We trust that we can change the minds of many of your readers- convince them to invest in any of the several means of foreign aid that will help African citizens. All we ask of you is to do the same: trust our abilities, believe in our potential. We won't fall short of your expectations.

Thank you for your time, and please consider,

Rebecca Etienne, Sasen Efrem, Iffah Elnaz, Katerina Mizrokhi






~ Being proud of this pitch is a huge understatement as to what we felt for it. Now we just have to wait for a response.. CHECK BACK FOR RESULTS!~

>> [Think this is a good topic to write about for the Globe? let us know! We welcome encouraging comments as well as constructive criticism]

-YouthWorldIMPACT

Our call to the Globe and Mail

So Rebecca started by leaving a message to the Globe and Mail, Publisher Office.

They called back a few days later, telling us what we will need to do to get an article considered in the Globe & Mail.

We need to start with our pitch; what were writing this article for.

Luckily we have Iffah, who is a Writing Wiz! We will all contribute to the pitch, and send it to them in a few days time.

She said she would send our pitch and our article to the editing office, and they will consider us for their newspaper.

~Until then

-YouthWorldIMPACT