Press Release: Schools can Help End Poverty by Building Strong Communities

September 8th, 2010 | Comments are closed

Attention News/City Hall/Education Editors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SCHOOLS CAN HELP END POVERTY BY BUILDING STRONG COMMUNITIES: SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE

Mississauga, ON – September 7, 2010— Publicly funded schools can play an important role in fighting poverty by collaborating with community organizations.

So says Romesh Hettiarachchi, candidate for Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board Trustee (Ward 5) speaking at the Candidate Information Forum hosted by the FairShare for Peel Task Force yesterday. Acknowledging the valuable work of community organizations working to alleviate poverty, Hettiarachchi singled out the work of Nexus Youth Services for particular praise: “Your work to empower youth to re-enter the education system and have more control of their lives is invaluable and cannot be unappreciated.”

Noting that education and awareness have an important role in fighting poverty, Hettiarachchi asserted that School Board Trustees have a responsibility to ensure that students are aware of the issues faced by marginalized people:

“It is no secret that our publicly funded education system is under continual budgetary pressure. By working together with community organizations to deliver elements of education, school board can maximize the utility of limited public funding. Students may also benefit from a practical learning experience that is relevant to their community which in the long-term may result in a  stronger and more engaged civic mindset.”

“Poverty can only be defeated when there is a strong community,” Hettiarachchi concludes. “Our youth – through our public education system – can play a lead role in creating this vibrant civic spirit.”

About Romesh Hettiarachchi:

Romesh Hettiarachchi, 26, has been and continues to be a proud resident of Malton since immigrating to Canada a decade ago. A graduate of the University of Guelph and the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Hettiarachchi was highly involved in university student leadership. Currently completing his prerequisites to becoming a licensed lawyer. Hettiarachchi serves on the Board of Directors of the Mississauga Youth Games and volunteers with the Bracelet of Hope Campaign and the Mosaic Institute.

For more information about Hettiarachchi and his platform, visit http://www.romeshh.ca/schoolboard.

Contact:

Romesh Hettiarachchi – 647.894.1320 – scho...@romeshh.ca

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Category: Uncategorized

21st Century Global Business Leadership

September 7th, 2010 | Tags: | Comments are closed

I apologize for the lack of updates in the past week. I had the opportunity and privilege of attending the Desautels Global Leadership MBA Seminar in Montreal as a guest last week, and I still am collecting my thoughts from the experience.

The long and short? The McGill MBA may be one of the more relevant pieces of paper for business in the 21st century,  teaching students how to be good and make money at the same time. The three main books for discussion were: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, State of the World 2010 – Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to Sustainability by the Worldwatch Institute and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad. While all the books were informative, the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid was by leaps and bounds the most interesting and is currently in transit to my bookshelf.

» More on 21st Century Global Business Leadership

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Category: Education, Global Issues

Three Children and a Flute

August 25th, 2010 | Tags: , | Leave a comment

This is the first of (hopefully) many posts that document the extraordinary thoughts that I encounter in my reading material. The following illustration is adapted from The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen.

Anne, Bob and Carla are fighting over a flute and ask you to settle the dispute.

Anne claims that she should get the flute as she is the only one of the three who knows how to play it. Given that the others admit they do not know how to play it, Anne argues that the flute belongs to her.

Bob is the poorest of the children. Not possessing toys of his own, the flute would give him something to play with.

Carla points out the flute was made completely out of her own labour and her own money. The reason why the dispute arose was because the other two children stole the flute just after it was finished.

Who do you give the flute to?

Sen’s book is incredibly intriguing. Just to put this in context the above story is in the Introduction; I have not even started the first chapter. It might be a little nerdy, but I am tremendously excited to engage with Sens’ thoughts.

For now though, how would you resolve the dispute?

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Category: Books, Legal

Collective Responsibility and Religion

August 24th, 2010 | Comments are closed

The following was written in response to this article in the New York Times:

—

Like many New York citizens, I worry about how religious values are used to advance a political agenda.

However collective blame is  a terrible way to create public policy. Muslims are collectively responsible for the September 11 tragedy to the extent that  Jews are collectively responsible for the death of Jesus and to the extent that  Christians are collectively responsible for the Crusades.

One last thing. At the conclusion of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles assigned collective blame to Germany and its allies for all ‘loss and damage’ suffered by the Allies. The Axis nations were ordered to pay reparations to victorious nations for future years; demands that were widely acknowledged to be excessive. The economic consequences of these payments have been acknowledged as contributing to the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism.

Those ramifications need not be explored further.

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Category: Education, Faith, Global Issues
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