- A Satellite-Aided Infromation Clearinghouse & Cultural Exhange Center - BREAKING LANGUAGE BARRIERS AT LONG LAST AS A MEANS TO ELIMINATE RISING DIGITAL DIVIDE

Since our visit last summer, we have taken some decisive steps to help bring the Buddha Darshan Art School of the Kot-timar village in Kabre District, Nepal in direct contact with the average Japanese families who live in urban environment this summer via satellite/Internet communication system. We focus on the cultural exchange among the children and youths with Japan and U.S. on the one side, and a number of rural communities in Asia like this one in Nepal Himalaya on the other, where young people are trying to help themselves where they are. We will provide them with an entirely new satellite-aided web-site meeting place for person-to-person acquaintance, mutual understanding and assistance.

Now that we are actually establishing a direct Internet connectivity without language barriers, we will finally come to a point during the 2002 summer where the children of the developed North will for the first time in history meet and talk with their counterparts in the rural communities of developing South. Together, they can, and will overcome the problem of mutual isolation once and for all.

First of all, as it is exactly the case with the new project of satellite e-mail communication and information exchange between the Japanese consumers and the banana harvesters in rural villages of the Philippines, this web site makes it possible for all participants to witness the real life and activities in the remotest of the remote areas by video streamed news while talking to each other in one's own language via multilingual e-mail.
Such a digital encounter promises to provide the children from the North the opportunity to learn first hand about the serious environmental impact brought about by economic globalization and free market economy, while the children and their parents in the remote communities of the South will realize how important it is for them to hold fast to sustainable community development ideas if they are to preserve their pristine natural environment and cultural heritage which have so far survived the inroads of rapid economic and social changes in the Asia-Pacific region

1. SHARE IMPORTANT INFORMATION WITH OTHERS AT OUR SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (temporarily suspended) CLEARINGHOUSE: (1a) Salmon 1999, (1b) Salmon 2000 (2) Shrimp: Please use this Data Base for exchanging and sharing information on the problems affecting coastal ecosystems and the on-going resource development projects adversely impacting the life of local communities in the Asia-Pacific region. Just send your information to: Clearinghouse Secretariat
2. VIRTUAL ON-THE-JOB-TRAINING PROGRAM (VOJTP) FOR SMALL COMMUNITIES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
   

   (1) Virtual OJT Series: How To Start up Ecotourism Business in the small communities of the Russian Far East: Chapter One - "Custom-Processing and -Packing Fish for the Visiting Sportfishermen"
   (2) Virtual OJT Series: How To Start up Ecotourism Business in the small communities of the Russian Far East: Chapter Two - "Hybrid Power System for Remote Communities - Wiring a Solar/Wind Power System of the Agzu village commune" (English version only at present)
   

3. 2002 NEW PROJECT: ASIA-PACIFIC REGION-WIDE NETWORK FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, CHILDREN'S CULTURAL EXCHANGE & CIVIL SOCIETY BUILDING
   See our 2002 project designed to bring all young people of the Asia-Pacific region together for constructive dialogue using a cost-affordable satellite communication system which brings the remotest communities into the Internet communication network
   Building Bridges Among Diverse Cultures and Language Groups