Thank a Peacekeeper!

Missions Administered by the U.N Department of Peacekeeping Operations

May 29th marks the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, and the Better World Campaign invites you to join us as we pay tribute to the men and women who serve in UN peacekeeping operations around the world. We are collecting messages of thanks from now until the International Day of Peace on September 21. Working together with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, we will deliver your messages to the UN peacekeepers working tirelessly in pursuit of sustainable peace. Visit: www.unitedinpeacekeeping.org to take action

Let's promote peace and security by stabilizing regional conflicts, training police officers, and protecting civilians during humanitarian crises!

The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) oversees 17 operations and has more than 100,000 troops and personnel deployed, making it the second largest force deployed in the world. These missions promote peace and security by stabilizing regional conflicts, training police officers, and protecting civilians during humanitarian crises. To learn more about UN peacekeeping and each of the 17 operations, please visit www.unitedinpeacekeeping.com

In the last ten years, the number of peacekeeping missions has tripled as the Security Council has increasingly looked to the UN to serve as a stabilizing presence in volatile regions. Last September, President Obama hosted a meeting with the UN’s top troop-contributing countries to underscore the U.S. commitment to UN peacekeeping and to stress the message, that the operations are a “cost-effective means for the United States and all nations to share the burden of promoting peace and security.”

Enhancing American Interests

UN peacekeeping continues to serve key U.S. interests by:

• Sharing the burden. The U.S. cannot, nor should it be asked to, promote international security alone. UN peacekeeping draws upon the financial and human resources of UN member states to effectively share the burden of collective security and reduce the need for unilateral intervention. As a trade-off for providing a significant portion of the funding for UN peacekeeping, the U.S. provides very few troops for these missions.

• Being cost effective. The UN continues to be one of the most cost-effective solutions for preventing conflict, keeping peace, and rebuilding societies emerging from conflict. According to the Government Accountability Office, UN peacekeeping is 8 times less expensive–just 12 cents on the dollar–than fielding a comparative U.S. force.

• Maintaining stability abroad. The Human Security Report, a major international study on peace and war, declared the global security climate improved dramatically since the 1980s, with genocides in particular plummeting by 80 percent. The study attributed that decline to better conflict prevention and peacemaking effort, as well as the increase in the number and complexity of UN peacekeeping missions.

• Preventing failed states. With U.S. assistance, UN peacekeeping continues to help prevent the collapse of weak states by implementing peace agreements, monitoring ceasefires, demobilizing combatants, facilitating humanitarian efforts, training police, and creating conditions for political reconciliation and elections to take place. Preventing a rise in failed states effectively limits safe havens for terrorists which is an important U.S. counterterrorism objective.

• Promoting democratic governance. UN peacekeeping operations provide the security necessary to support free and fair elections and assists nascent democracies emerging from conflict to implement governance reforms. The promotion of democracy and stable government institutions is a key U.S. foreign policy priority.

• Leveraging international legitimacy. By harnessing the agreement of its member states and the strength of its Charter, UN peace operations enjoy a level of international legitimacy that unilateral and coalition efforts do not. As a permanent Security Council member, the U.S. is able to leverage this legitimacy in pursuit of America’s strategic national security interests.

Lower Broadway in May 15, 1902. - New York, N.Y.

LibraryOfCongress | 3 juin 2010 |


SUMMARY
The film shows a view which appears to be looking north on Broadway at the intersection of Wall Street, in front of Trinity Church. The sidewalk along Broadway is crowded with people, and the traffic in both streets is very heavy. A horse-drawn streetcar passes in front of the camera [Frame: 2814], with a sign giving its destination as the "Courtland and Fulton Street Ferry."

OTHER TITLES
Title in Biograph photo catalog, v. 5, no. 2138 [MI]: Street scene on Lower Broadway, NY City

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States : American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903.

NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 13Jun1903; H32629.
Camera, Robert K. Bonine.
Photographed May 15, 1902. Location: New York, N.Y.

SUBJECTS
City traffic--New York (State)--New York.
Streets--New York (State)--New York.
Transportation--New York (State)--New York.
Vehicles--New York (State)--New York.
Local transit--New York (State)--New York.
Street-railroads--New York (State)--New York.
Horse-drawn vehicles--New York (State)--New York.
Pedestrians--New York (State)--New York.
Broadway (New York, N.Y.)
Actuality--Short.

RELATED NAMES
Bonine, R. (Robert K.), camera.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

DIGITAL ID
lcmp002 m2a23756 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/lcmp002.m2a23756


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS presents

Broadway at the intersection of Wall Street, in front of Trinity Church.

Making it Right : Fred Lemond, head of BP Cleanup Operations

Fred Lemond, head of BP Cleanup Operations, explains the comprehensive cleanup effort involving spotter planes, satellite imaging, and nearly 6,000 vessels. So far, 27 million gallons of oil-water mixture has been skimmed from the sea and more than 8 million feet of boom has been installed to protect the shoreline. BP has created this YouTube channel to engage the public in an informative conversation and dialogue about our efforts associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We want our page to be an appropriate forum for everyone. For more information on our Commenting Policy, please see the Latest News section on our main page: http://youtube.com/bp

Blueprint for a Better World Exhibition Launch - Perth

See what people said when they visited the exhibition in Fremantle, Perth! Blueprint for a Better World is an interactive exhibition which is traveling around Australia. The exhibition shows the general public how the eight Millennium Development Goals can help end poverty and injustice in our world.
Thank you to volunteer John Reed for the filming and production of this movie.




Millennium Development Goals

◦Blueprint for Better World Exhibition — you can download resources to learn about the eight Millennium Development Goals and what you can do about them! The goals aim to halve worldwide poverty by 2015. Take action now!
◦Millennium Development Goals — Campaign Poster (1.6Mb PDF)
◦See also Teaching resources for schools
Teaching resources for schools

Project Compassion 2010
Check out this year’s school materials

From 10 July - 18 August 2010 : Blueprint for a Better World - Museum of Australian Democracy

Blueprint for a Better World is an interactive exhibition examining the realities of global poverty and the possibilities for change.

The travelling exhibition will be open to the visitors at the Museum of Australian Democracy from 10 July - 18 August 2010 and is presented by Caritas Australia in partnership with AusAID.

With a focus on Australia’s regional neighbours, the exhibition brings the eight Millennium Development Goals to life through visual art, photography and multimedia. The Millennium Development Goals is a global action plan, signed by 189 world leaders, to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015 by working towards eight measurable targets.



Photographs, stories and contributions such as posters, baskets and school books from Caritas local partners provide insights into communities and development programs in Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Sudan and Indigenous Australia.

Be part of one interactive aspect of the exhibition ‘Pledge Towers’, which provides an opportunity for you to write down the contribution you intend to make to ending global poverty. The pledges then become a component of the living exhibition, enhancing the reality of the positive difference one person – and indeed a community of people – can make in the world.

Through the exhibition’s interactive displays, be inspired to join the pledge to overcome global poverty and be part of a community striving to build a better world.

Freedom of speech and censorship: How free are we?

Freedom of speech and censorship: How free are we?
May 27, 2010

The third and final event of our Uncensored Conversations, ‘Freedom of speech and censorship: How free are we?’ was held at 6pm in King’s Hall at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, Canberra on 15 June 2010. Three members of Sydney hip hop group, The Herd, shared their thoughts alongside Professor Dr Julianne Schultz.


Event podcast
Download the podcasts of the final event, Freedom of speech and censorship: How free are we? held on 15 June, 2010.

Introduction
Julianne Schultz talk
Julianne Schultz - questions and answers
The Herd talk

General questions and answers
The Herd have used music as an outlet to express their opinions on a variety of issues. Their song ‘77%’ – which features the line ‘77% of Aussies are racist’ – refers to survey results that revealed the majority of Australians agreed with the former Australian Federal Government’s response to the Tampa affair. With a history of expressing active opinions through their music, The Herd members will discuss how democracy influences the inspiration of their craft. Tracks of The Herd are included in the Museum of Australian Democracy’s Living Democracy exhibition.

Julianne is a professor at the Centre for Public Culture and Ideas at Griffith University in Queensland. At the 2020 Summit she co-chaired the Creative Australia session, which explored the future of Australian arts, film and design. She has also written extensively about the media and democracy.

You can follow the Museum of Australian Democracy on Twitter @MoAD_Canberra.

Image credit
Photograph by Robin Sellick.