Did you know that I attended the 2013 Social Good Summit in New York City???? Yes I did and I must say that I had an amazing time. Not only did I sit in on the Social Summit Bloggers Masters Class, I also met amazing and famous women like Dr. Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka, the current UN Women Director, Malala Yousfazai the young Pashtun woman from Pakistan who has established the Malala Fund and Melinda Gates just to mention a few. I also listened to many sessions of discussions on issues ranging from technology, health, women’s empowerment, the economy and economic empowerment. It was a good place to get updated about what is going on in the world, what different people are doing to bring about change in their spaces of influence. The summit got me rejuvenated. I learnt a lot stuff too but I thought I would share three things from the Social Summit conversations and some knowledge I gathered as I went on tour see the famous New York City.
7 billion by 2014
Did you know that there are approximately over 6 billion active mobile phones in the world with a population of 7 billion people! Of course it does not mean that only one million people do not have mobile phones. In many countries there are individuals with more than one mobile phone. China has the highest number of mobile phones and mobile users followed by India then the United States of America. It is estimated that by the year 2014 there will be more mobile phones than there are people!!!!
The Statue of Liberty
That the Statue of Liberty which is one of the most iconic national monuments in the United States and maybe the world over was given to the US as a gift of international friendship by the French! The statue which is 93 meters long is located in New York City was designed by Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor. It represents Libertas the Roman goddess of freedom. The statue is a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad! (explains the diversity of people in the US!!!). The crown on the statue’s head has seven rays, each representing each of the seven continents of the world!
Towards 2015
That Bangladesh is on track to meet some MDG targets and that the United Nations presented Bangladesh its MDG Award in 2010 for reducing child mortality.
Out of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, Bangladesh has achieved the major targets of Goals 1, 3, 4 and 6 including the targets of poverty gap ratio, attaining gender parity at primary and secondary levels of education, under five mortality rate reduction, prevention of malaria, containing HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs, children under five sleeping under insecticide treated bed nets and detection and cure rate of TB DOTS. (www.dhakatribune.com)