The topic was "Jugend global bewegt - Wie Jugendliche die Globalisierung gestalten" (something like "Youth global shaping - how young people shape globalisation"). The Ecumenical Discussion Circle in a Bavarian town has invited younger and older persons to discuss the challenges of globalization, the Millennium Goals, and the impact of youth. Myself, I was invited as an expert.
The event was well planned, many invitations were sent out. We expected about 15 or even 20 guests. In fact, only 2 guests came, plus a journalist who accidently read the event in the internet and drove 2 hours by car to get there for a radio interview. Myself, I drove 1 hour by car.
The discussion itself was very productive. How to help Africa? How can young people work for MDGs? How do they shape globalization? What power does everyone of us have? The discussion was very interesting, that's not the question.
But: Why came only 2 people, who even weren't young but an older couple? Since I try to connect youth activities for MDGs, it is always a very demotivating work: Some, or even many, are interested in the topic. Yes, they usually also visit workshops and conferences with MDGs as topic. But the Event in this Bavarian town showed again: when you plan to do some concrete action, it gets difficult. I tried to find work on MDGs from young activists for young activists, I didn't find very much indeed...
So, why is this so? I have a kind of idea in my head - the abstractness of MDGs. Maybe you, my distinguished fellow blogger, have an idea how to tackle the problem, this problem which makes me feeling disappointed?