Win a Trip with Nick!

Hey guys.   So here’s the deal:  Nick Kristof of the NY Times is holding a contest whose winner will get to accompany him on a trip to Africa to do some reporting.  The link to the post announcing the contest is here. All I need to do is submit a 700 word essay or a short video detailing why Nick should choose me.  I’ll be shooting a video.  I would like to have as many eyes view this thing as possible before I submit it; after all journalists have diverse audiences.  Anyway, I’ve included a draft of my script after the jump and if you guys have the time, I’d love for you to take a look

Win a Trip with Nick Script </rhyme>

Me standing near a blank wall or walking down Skiles

Hi Nick! My name’s Mike Donohue and I’m a Public Policy major at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. I’ve always enjoyed following you and your fellow columnists in the New York Times so when I saw your column announcing the chance to go on a trip with you, I had to jump on it.

So why should you pick me? Simple!

Shot of Earth or something similar

Because

I want to change the world

Through law and diplomacy

Driven by an undying sense of justice.

Me walking somewhere

Alright, I’ll admit this sounds like empty rhetoric. But everyone needs a grand statement that guides them through life, and this one’s mine.

Allow me to take you along with me through my mission statement.

Different shot of me or some other establishing shot

Until recently it was the chief job of people to grow, learn a trade, and provide for a family. Only the elite could affect the world and only in a slow, clumsy way.

Shots of communications, cell phones, and computers

Then came the age of fast transport and telecommunications and all of a sudden the world shrank to the size of a transistor. Corporations went multinational, distance ceased to be a large issue, NGO’s appeared, and citizens found their voices through blogs, online video, and social networking.

Shots of Service/Journalism

These tools enable people like me to affect the world through direct methods, such as service projects, and indirect methods, like journalism. I am in an especially well- suited place to do good because of my good fortune to be receiving a quality education and to be living in a country as free as the United States.

Another shot of me

Different people change the world in different ways. Some do it via new products, others through journalism, and others, like me, wish to use the law and the relationships between governments to help people.

Courtrooms/UN

We’ve come a long way from the global wars of the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries. Wars are often regional now, and very seldom between nation states. Different countries, with a few notable exceptions, negotiate with words and economics, not bombs. This changed world-state requires diplomats and lawyers in order to help great swaths of people. I intend to be one of those.

Me again

All of these goals and plans mean naught if they don’t have some sort of motivation. Call me idealistic, but my motivation isn’t money, or power, or even a desire to help the little guy. My motivation is to see justice done.

Declaration of Independence

My feelings are best put into words by Thomas Jefferson that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I believe that all men and women deserve the chance to enjoy these rights. What they do with them is a matter for them to decide.

Me once more, perhaps switching

Now I’ve talked a lot about who I am, but not really why I should be the one to go with you on this trip. I’m a public policy major, or as I like to think of it at Tech, I’m a people engineer. I solve people problems using the tools of technology, policy, economics, and diplomacy. I will be an asset on your trip to Africa because I am a technically minded policy analyst and I feel that such a viewpoint will uniquely suit me for reporting on the situation in Africa and how the developed world can help with technological assistance and appropriate policy decisions.

Whoever you decide to take with you this summer, I wish you the best of luck and safe travels. You give these people a loud clear voice in the West amongst the noise that is our busy lives.

Farewell and good travels.

~ by Mike on January 23, 2009.