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2000 - 2007
Flashlight
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Impressum
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News 2006
Einige der Links funktionieren auf dieser Seite
leider nicht, hier sind die Funktionierenden...
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31.12.2006, Sunday, 15:48, Meike
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We wish you all
a very happy,
successful,
healthy,
and peaceful new year
- and that you can
make your wishes come true!
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29.12.2006, Friday
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18:31, Meike
 Communication tip:
The secrete of paying someone a compliment
 Almost everybody loves to get compliments. It’s very helpful for your communication for several reasons, and it is easy to pay someone a good compliment if you know how!
Read the full tip:
The secrete of paying someone a compliment
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12:32, Meike
 What we didn’t know:
 If you write to the Canadian Embassy in Germany and enclose a prepaid self-addressed envelope: Don’t write with a red pen on it! Somehow the post system doesn’t like that.
But they were so nice to send their answer to me in another envelope, wrote with a blue pen on it, and put a new stamp on - and even enclosed my prepaid self-addressed envelope with a little illustrative message on it. That’s what I call friendly. I love it.
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04:21, Meike
New participants and new countries for the World’s Greatest Smile 2007 came this week again:
- Chile
- Angola
- Canada
- Central African Republic
- Mexico
- Luxembourg
- Finland
- Nepal
- Indonesia
- Argentina
- Norway
- Bolivia
- Mauritania
- Hungary
- Ghana
So now we have already participants from more than 50 countries!
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28.12.2006, Thursday
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13:45, Meike
Community strengthens...!
The euro is the world’s favorite form of cash now! Though a narrow majority of French people think that the switch to the euro was bad for their country, Slovenia seems to be happy to get it in January.
Financial Times
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11:16, Meike
World’s Greatest Aims
What we do, what we will do, why we do what, who we are and why we are what we are and whom we want, where we want to do what, what we need, why longhairs and shorthairs want love, peace and happiness, why there is some hope, and which weird ‘w’-word you would want.
Yes, finally I wrote down the aims of the World’s Greatest Smile. And, yes, the skunk was pretty much flat.
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27.12.2006, 12:41, Wednesday, Meike
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Communication tip:
 Modal Operators
Language is wonderful!
It gives us the possibility to impress what we do - and furthermore the possibility to modify how an activity is done and how important it is for us! And that’s where Modal Operators come into play.
Read the full tip: Modal Operators!
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26.12.2006, 13:40, Tuesday, Meike
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World’s Greatest Kids
A lot of schools and other groups of children from all over the world participate at the World’s Greatest Smile every year.
Some of them organized whole World’s Greatest Smile days and weeks about friendship and friendliness! If you have children or work with them, or you are a child by yourself - at least sometimes: Here are some suggestions to have fun together and learn about the World, different people, and the World’s Greatest Smile.
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25.12.2006, 14:02, Monday, Meike
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World’s Greatest Friends
I provided a nice little new toy for you to play with:
The Wolrd’s Greatest Smile - Tell a friend page.
So send your friends a friendly message!
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22.12.2006, Friday
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18:03, Meike
World’s Greatest Smile countries
And again new participants smile for the World’s Greatest Smile 2007! This week new individuals and groups (groups with very interesting names) came from old and new countries. These are the new countries:
- Ukraine
- Tanzania
- Ecuador
- Pakistan (coincidental (?) on Wednesday evening)
- Haiti
- Poland
- Senegal
- Czech Republic
- Palestine
- Iceland
- Portugal
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11:34, Meike
World’s Greatest Smile World Map
During the last years we talked with a lot of children about the World’s Greatest Smile, it’s aims and the future. And beside the deeper meaning of this project one of the most popular thing we gave them was a copy of the World’s Greatest Smile World Map. They just loved it and were very interested about the names and all kind of information about the different countries.
That’s why I put one online now. So if you have children, work with children, or you are a child by yourself, at least sometimes, you may print it and then paint in the countries with participants of the World’s Greatest Smile!
(Here are the countries so far: Smiling countries! Stay up do date, there will be a lot more during the next weeks!)
You can - together with your children:
- crayon in the countries plain
- fill in the colors of the flags
- paint local animals
- add the names of the countries and continents
- colour language groups
- paint local places of interest or glue on pictures from travel catalogues
- colour the international organization participation
- Imagine how people live in different countries and why there are distinctions.
- Let your imagination run away with you!
- Have fun!
Printable version:
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02:14 (really...), Meike
Solstice
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Let the sun go up and down or move it wherever you want to - just for a change...
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Today is solstice! Days are getting longer or shorter, depending where you are.
P.S.: Yes, two of the World’s Greatest Smile VIPs, Lucy Diakovska and Nadja Bennaissa, sang the song ‘Daylight in Your Eyes’. It got 3x Platium and 2x Gold, and had the peak position in the Austrian Top 75, the Brazilian single charts, the German Top 100, the Luxembourgian single charts, the Swiss Top 100, and the Europe Official Top 100!
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21.12.2006, 09:53, Thursday, Meike
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Communication tip:
Use the word ‘but’ – but just if you really want to!
The problem
This tiny word ‘but’ causes many problems in communication – and here is the good news: You can solve them easily by using ‘and’ instead.
Example 1:
Imagine you have been at a three and a half hours session at your favourite hair stylist and after your spectacular presentation of the gorgeous result your friend says:
„Wow, that’s wonderful, but you could try it in green!“ (Umpf…)
And now try this friendlier version:
„Wow, that’s wonderful, and you could try it in green!“ (smile, thank you)
So what feels better? Usually the second one.
 Example 2:
“Your cactus has a lot of spines but mine has even more!”
“Your cactus has a lot of spines and mine has even more!”
You don’t want to sit on the cacti of both sentences – and (or in your case ‘but’?) the cacti in the second version sound more prickly.
Example 3:
“You did a great job but you could do even better!”
“You did a great job and you could do even better!”
Which version would you better like to hear? Probably the second.
The solution:
The tricky, mean thing with the inconspicuous word ‘but’ is, that it puts everything into question, what is said before it.
So just use it if you really want that effect! And if you just want to ad another information: Use ‘and’ and you will get what you wanted.
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20.12.2006, Wednesday
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11:32, Meike
Photo of the Year and different ways to spend money
The Danish photographer Jan Grarup won the annual prize awarded by Germany’s UNICEF committee for news photographs from around the world. His Photo shows a little girl, who received medical treatment after the earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan last October.
“The five year old Rahila is all smiles. She is a patient of the Red Cross Hospital in the northern Pakistani city of Muzaffarabad. An extension bandage covers her legs because she broke her lower leg and thigh during the devastating earthquake of 10/8/2005. But nevertheless she is all smiles, as if she was perfectly fine.
Three weeks after the earthquake Danish photographer Jan Grarup traveled to Pakistan. He took a flight to Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani part of Kashmir. The earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale almost completely destroyed the city. More than 70,000 inhabitants of the Kashmir region died in the earthquake, 18,000 of which were children. 3.3 million Kashmiris lost their homes and after one full year 30,000 people are said to still live in emergency camps.” UNICEF
Doctors without Borders said, with $1,000 they could provide emergency medical supplies to aid 5,000 disaster victims for an entire month.
Pakistan’s military expenditures - percent of GDP - was 3,9% (2005) and it’s GDP (purchasing power parity) $395.2 billion (2005). (Information: CIA)
Just a thought:
Isn’t making a little girl smile again a better aim to spend money? We just have to figure out a possibility to do so!
UNICEF Photo of the Year 2006
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10:05, Meike
World’s Greatest Smile Website
The World’s Greatest Smile Website is continuously growing. To make it easier to find the things you search on the World’s Greatest Smile Website I made a Sitemap now. Yes, there are more and more pages (and a lot are projected) and it was time for a little overview!
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19.12.2006, 12:09, Tuesday, Meike
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Good bye, take care and hope to see you again, Kofi Annan!
After meeting H.E. Mr. Tareq Al-Hashemi, Vice President of Iraq, Nobel Peace Prize laureate United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan will give his last press conference 10:30 a.m. local time today.
2001 he received the Nobel Peace Prize together with the United Nations for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.
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18.12.2006, Monday
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14:21, Meike
Hey - congratulation - you are Person of the Year!
And, wow, we are Person of the Year, too!
TIME magazine named Person of the Year and it is You!
“Who has that time and that energy and that passion?
The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.”
From the Dec. 25, 2006 issue of TIME magazine
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13:49, Meike
Party, Party, Party...!
This weekend we gave a nice party for some of the children working with us at the World’s Greatest Smile. Parents and grandparents were invited, too, so many many people came and everybody had a lot of fun.
Besides the ceremonial hand out of the documents we played BaM-Ball! We developed BaM-Ball as a hilarious possibility to learn communication and teamwork and much more for children and adults. Key issue at this particular game was friendliness, harmony - next to language, logic and physics. And it works, and works, and works...!
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15.12.2006, 10:56, Meike
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World’s Greatest Smile countries
New participants smile for the World’s Greatest Smile 2007! Registrations of individual smilers and groups of new countries of this week come from:
- Saudi Arabia
- Spain
- Greece
- Kenya
- Turkey
- and the United Kingdom
So we smile at the World’s Greatest Smile 2007 with participants from already 33 countries!
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14.12.2006, 14:31, Meike
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Ban Ki-moon
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Ban Ki-moon
Today South Korean Ban Ki-moon takes the oath of office as the new UN secretary-general at a ceremony in the UN General Assembly.
Ban Ki-moon sees himself as a “harmonizer, balancer, mediator” (BBC).
“My tenure will be marked by ceaseless efforts to build bridges and close divides. Leadership of harmony not division, by example not instruction has served me well so far. I intend to stay the course as Secretary-General.” Ban Ki-moon
Here you can watch a video of the press conference by Secretary-General-designate, read the transcript, or listen to a UN Radio’ report on the appointment: UN News Center.
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13.12.2006, 12:31, Meike
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World’s Greatest Smile - Start with a Smile!
Yes, a Smile is always a good Start! And with the World’s Greatest Smile we want to go beyond the start to be even more effective and get better long term results.
That’s why I started to write some communication tips for you.
(Most of them are in German so far and you could translate them with the Google Language Tool for example. (It’s an automatic translation so the results are far from being perfect but better than nothing and sometimes very entertaining...))
Click here:
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12.12.2006, 18:17, Meike
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Communication tip:
Be prepared
If you want to talk to somebody in a most comfortable way for both of you: Be as much prepared as possible!
Find out whatever you can about your conversational partner. Not necessarily his national security number or size of shoe - but try to ascertain what is really important for him.
- Which are his ethical values?
- Which are his aims now and for the future?
- What does he want from you? Which are his hopes?
- And what does he expect from you?
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Is he thin-skinned at any topic?
- Does he have any quirks which are strange but have nothing to do with you right now and should better be ignored more or less for a moment? (Tourette Syndrome or something like that)
- Does he have any quirks which should be noticed and handled adequate? (extreme curiosity, Chance of a diabetic coma as a counter-example)
- Which are the appropriate forms to handle him regarding his culture? Shake hands, rubbing nose or better not…?
- Does he like chocolate? Does he prefer to be abstinent of alcohol? Is he vegetarian? …
- Are there any religious particulars to keep in mind?
- And many questions more…!
You can use the internet to get some of this information. And of course you can bring into play your common sense and your general knowledge. Yes, always a good idea to improve that as much as possible. Keep your eyes and ears open.
Avoid using your knowledge to manipulate your new friend in a way which is of no use for him. Utilize your information to give him what he needs and make him happy! Usually that’s simpler than anything else. Make him feel good. Then you will have reached your conversational goal as well – easier and faster than you think!
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11.12.2006, 11:47, Meike
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December 10th Congratulations
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Make a wish for the Human Rights and blow out the candle - or waggle it out with your mouse!
You have as many wishes as you like! |
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Congratulation I.:
Happy Birthday, Universal Declaration of the Human Rights!
You are 58 years old now! Wow! When you were born on December 10th 1948, only 29 countries were democratic, now we have 122 (or do we have to say 121 (minus Fiji)?). So we have to congratulate your parents, the United Nations General Assembly, too!
We wish you a successful new year, a lot of open hears and minds and that you can carry out your task even better and better - maybe with a little help of your friends!
You find a link to the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights among our link tips!
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 Congratulation II.:
Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Price for their efforts to create economic and social development from below!
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