IduCharity – Vision and Quick, Attainable Objectives.
(this copy was written back in 2005-2006)
Idu has a clear vision in its charity initiatives. Idu wants to utilize the internet and mobile phone technologies to solve most social problems by helping people help people.
As described in the section on LoveXchange, the net and mobile phone are perfect combination to facilitate not just people physically helping people but also creates a spontaneous podium for coaching, mentoring and social networking for personal empowerment or fulfillment.
Below is a brief description of IduLoveXchange:
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IduLoveXchange – To help or get help
There will be 3 separate sections
Empowerment – Learn a skill/talent, Offer your talent/skill
Could be hobbies, career advice, entrepreneurship info/advice.
Eg. Tennis, golf, gardening, marketing, computers, anything.
Idu matches those offering to teach to those who want to learn.
What better way to meet a new friend (or love??) through learning a new skill or teaching someone !
Help or be helped - Help needed short term or long term, in the form of physical service such as helping the elderly, coaching and teaching on the phone or the web, or committed mentoring (long term). Examples include school problems, career advice, family counseling, social issues or small things such as in need of a ride, pc problems, school homework questions etc.
Organize in 4 sections: School, career, family, social-small things. Idu seeks to match those with the qualification to help with those in need of help.
Emergencies. For eg in need of doctor/police in 2 mile radius, needs emergency rides, etc. The users list their needs on Idu website or cellphone and Idu will immediately find the designated helper with the proper skills/requirement within the emergency radius in minutes. This does not guarantee swiftness to solution but maximize responsiveness within the emergency radius.
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Time Management and Ease to Charity Participation are so important in today’s fast pace high stressed society. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, worker, or housewife, our life schedule usually allows limited quality time after an average of 8hrs of sleep, 8 hrs of work, 1 hr of commute, 1hr of dinner/lunch/breakfast, 4 hrs of recreation/phonecalls/tv/reading/meetings, leaving a maximum of 2 hrs of free quality time each weekday besides weekend.
Even if the 2hrs allows, charity participation is usually difficult due to time to commute, scheduling, and lack of organization.
The internet is able to match users free time accordingly, schedule accurately and organize efficiently based on matching each users needs/wants and skills/experience/education. This minimizes slippage, commute time, eliminate proximity problem, and even creates spontaneous participation through the cellphone connection.
Solving global imminent charity issues – education, healthcare, hunger, infrastructue, culture (Love, tolerance, compassion vs cultural misunderstanding).
Of the 5 issues, Idu believes that culture is the most important and imminent one to resolve because it resolves all the other 4 issues once the problem of culture is resolved.
Before explaining how to tackle culture, let’s touch on each issue lightly to get a rough guide on the imminent direction
Education – the availability of free or inexpensive schools on the web will rapidly resolve this issue in the near future. Idu aims to provide free video classes, tutoring and examinations for High School GED and University degrees with USA certification on a global scale.
Healthcare – Infrastructure, R&D, local Staffing & training.
Local Infrastructure requires political will, local and international funding/aid, strong local economy.
R&D should always been a global concerted effort, especially with the availability of the net.
Local Staffing and training with the deployment of foreign trainers/doctors and using the power of the web to create time, manage time, matching the trainer and trainee, help creates a immediate staff that helps local people help themselves, while attracting the foreign helpers who understands the culture of compassion with a sense of adventure.
Hunger – Modern society of people helping people should resolve this issue. The less modern society requires International aid and local political will to resolve this issue. The culture of people helping people regardless of location should overcome this issue in absence of political restraint and infrastructure constraint. Organized program is necessary to provide safety to those who travel to help.
Infrastructure – Building of Roads, schools, utilities, factories, offices are based on economic progress, foreign investments, diversification of global portfolios of funds to help invest/finance these developments.
Culture – the most important in Idu’s view of solving most charity problems of the world. Eliminating cultural misunderstanding, promoting cross-cultural exchanges in the arts engenders not just peace and unity, but a culture of love, tolerance and compassion and progressiveness. And it is this culture that solves the human resource limitations to all the other above charity problems.
Idu believes arts and culture is the solution to this issue.
Arts such as entertaining short writings, poems, paintings, photography, fashion, that address cross culture issues that promotes peace and love are badly needed in today’s media.
The reason arts can be so effective is its ability to be subtly assertive, creatively diplomatic while not rubbing old wounds on any parties. It bridges common grounds, traits, forges common ties, bonds, and engenders unity and relationship.
The lack of culture as problem & a culture of Love/compassion and tolerance as Progressives, self empowering
The approach of solving most social, economic problems by getting 1 person to help/mentor/coach just 1 other person is a very powerful mathematical solution to most charity puzzle in most civilized, economically modern society. However, it requires a culture of love and compassion as second nature, as way of life.
But what about the less modern, less economically and socially less off society with half the population or more living under poverty level? Help from International Organizations and political will to eliminate corruption in these countries are definite ways; however a culture of love and compassion from the civilized world to participate in a more active role through participation through migration while not sacrificing their career goals or lifestyle is a quicker, feasible and exciting solution/model.
Even with the availability of time and technology to participate, one may still not do so due to lack of culture. The problem of slowness to participate and unwillingness to participate in charity activities due to pressures of life and human complacency is a direct culture and lifestyle issue, as in way of life, way of thought, way of behaving, way of second nature.
Love and compassion as second nature creates a strong platform for personal empowerment, not just people helping people but helping people help themselves, and getting them to pay it forward to people of close proximity
Role of Media in setting culture
In today’s world filled with information flux and influences, the media no doubt plays not just an important role but “the “ role in setting culture, thinking, lifestyle more than any other medium such as religions, schools and parental guidance.
Fun and inspirational, progressive media is needed to fill a void not just to present the culture but more important to entertain, to stimulate intellectually, provocatively as today’s youth are short attention time and fun seeking, flooded with nuances, vain repetitive content from all media fronts.
With enough user base and traffic, Idu seeks to create this culture, lifestyle by forming this podium for progressive media and creating our own content with Idu’s unique style and flavor.
So what is progressive culture and how would one determined progressive content and therefore defined progressive media?
Progressive Culture Vs Progressive Media
Progressive Culture encompasses proper etiquette, constant self discoveries of one’s character and personal empowerment, proper attitudes about one’s talents and purpose, understanding of using one’s talent to help others, willingness to tackle the intellectual challenge of helping people empower themselves, having love and compassion as second nature – way of thought, way of life, finding true love and happiness in progressive relationship with others.
Proper etiquette will include basic politeness in words and gestures, respect for others, tolerance of people of different backgrounds and cultures, full consideration for others in one’s actions and words. It also include positive criticism which means if one would to criticize others, one should only do so with a positive attitude by providing positive advice and willingness to help improve the situation or correct the perceived wrong doings of others. Negative criticism of others out of frustration, anger, viciousness and other negative intentions should never be deemed proper.
Constantly improving oneself, constant self empowerment and learning help one discovers oneself, one’s character and contributes to a exciting and progressive lifestyle, one that always looking to improve upon excellence.
All these accumulates to one discovering one’s talent & purpose to realizing that love and compassion as second nature and thus building the proper attitudes with their talents by contributing/using these talents to help others or taking on the responsibility to help others empower themselves, therefore paying the effort forward.
Idu believes that positive development of oneself and realizing true happiness & love through progressive relationship with others by using ones talent to empower others, setting love and compassion as second nature & lifestyle is what defines as progressive culture.
So How is Progressive Media Different?
Idu defines progressive media as one that is simulative, provocative, inspirational to our emotional, intellectual stimulus, one that touches our soul and open our hearts and mind to intellectual and emotional thinking, questioning, reasoning, learning, growth and thus personal evolution.
Our daily emotional needs and logical thoughts and actions go through multiple stages of complication before deciding on many courses of actions in life. It is this complex emotional process that the media should try to depict creatively and bring it full of life to the audience instead of the usual, vain love/hate melodrama the media usually tries to exploit. (Watch the recent movies- Pursuit of Happiness, and Babel as examples)
Today’s media is flooded with excessive violence, vulgarism and thrillers which are simulative to our senses and fulfill our emotional needs but does nothing to escalate learning and positive growth.
Violence or pure vulgarism as a pure media tactic to thrill, shock or gain attention or to distinct oneself or to increase viewership and reaction on the art should be deemed “uncool” similar to a filmmaker intentionally trying to make his film as elegant, pure and artistic as possible to qualify his film as a work of art.
Actions, thrillers and violence should only be used as part of the normal, natural course of presenting the art, out of a necessity such as presenting history, a past event or a true real live current situation.
Using action, thrillers, violence to prove a point simply debase or insult the artist’s talent or his ability to send the theme/ message across using alternative, evolved form of communication/art.
What’s the real challenge of Progressive Media?
In today’s fast paced world, limited time, information flux, and short attention span is the norm among the younger audience and society.
No matter of how progressive one’s content is, unless it is fun, entertaining and provocative plus stimulating could we attract the audience attention.
Coming out with progressive content that is fun, entertaining, and fast paced will be the intellectual challenge of progressive media.
Idu’s Slogan
Idu believes in personal empowerment, Idu believes in self discovery, Idu believes in discovering your own talent and purpose, Idu believes in using your talent to help others.
Although your views, your character, your personality, your purpose and talents all define you, Idu believes in by using your talent to help others, you discover yourself.
And by discovering yourself, you find your true love.
What Idu believes to be most fulfilling – love, compassion, self discovery, self expression through the arts, relationship with others.