Danh-Quy Nguyen at DW GMF

You graduated from DW’s International Media Studies program last year. Now, you’ve been invited back as a guest and expert for a panel-discussion at the DW Global Media Forum. How does that make you feel?

Firstly, I feel great and honored to be invited by my teachers and colleagues. I think it’s an experience that not everyone can have. So I feel very happy. Secondly, I’m also very happy to see my old friends and many colleagues from Deutsche Welle.

What do you miss most about Germany?
What I miss most from Germany is lots of trees, lots of green and the Rhine River.

Can you apply the knowledge that you learned at DW to your work in Vietnam?
Of course! I learned a lot at DW and I use it in my work every day. The most important thing I learned from the DW Master’s program is how to communicate with people from different countries and different cultures. This is very important for my daily job. As Managing Editor, I have to communicate with different editors and people from the fashion industry all around the world.

New Professions for New Media was the topic of the panel that you participated in at this year’s DW Global Media Forum. What do social media mean for your magazine?
In my magazine, we use social media more as a marketing tool than something that produces serious content. We use Facebook, for example, just to stay in touch with our users and fans, not as a channel to send out serious messages. At EllE magazine, the best goes into the print edition and not online.

Is it true that Facebook was unofficially blocked in Vietnam until early this year? So do you have any problems at work?
No, it’s not true. I think Facebook is blocked in Vietnam for some hours before some events, but not more than a day. So I don’t have any difficulties.

Interview by Juan Ju

Of his winning shot, photojournalist GMB Akash says, “It shows eight year old Munna who works in a rickshaw factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The boy earns about 500 taka (7 U.S. dollars) a month, working 10 hours a day. When production often stops due to lack of electricity, he has time to play. It is common in Bangladesh for children of poor parents to work in various hazardous and labor-intensive

First Place Winner: “Children’s Hands” by GMB Akash

workplaces to support their families. Seventeen and a half percent of all children aged between 5-15 are engaged in economic activities. The average child worker earns between 400 to 700 taka per month, while an adult worker earns up to 5,000 taka per month.” One U.S. dollar equals about 70 taka.

The other winning photographs of the “KLICK!” competition were “Multi Kulti” (“Multiculturalism”) by Josef Hinterleitner of Austria and “Drinking Water” by Monowara Begum Moni, a journalist from Bangladesh who lives in Stuttgart, Germany.

Over the past several weeks, photographers from around the world were invited to submit their entries pertaining to the theme of this year’s Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum, human rights and globalization. The submissions can be viewed online as part of an interactive world map and in a Facebook gallery.

In an initial selection process, Internet users nominated 30 finalists. These were on

Second Place Winner: “Multiculturalism” by Josef Hinterleitner

display during the three-day conference held in Bonn, Germany, in June. Of the 30 finalist pictures, conference delegates elected their three favorites to determine the top three winners.

“Child labor can be combated if parents receive working wages that allow them to feed their families,” said Julia Naumann, spokesperson of

Third Place Winner: “Drinking Water” by Monowara Begum Moni

Amnesty International Germany, referring to the winning photograph. “Children need access to schooling and education. That is key to escaping poverty.”

As vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Mohan Munasinghe shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007. Currently he is chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND) in Colombo, a professor of sustainable development at the University of Manchester in the U.K., a distinguished guest professor at Peking University and honorary senior adviser to the government of Sri Lanka. He is widely recognized as having introduced a framework called sustainomics to make development more sustainable.

Munasinghe said that the driving forces of globalization have converged in such a way that now the world’s richest 20% consume 85% of resources. Noting some cities, communities and big businesses around the world that have already voluntarily committed to more sustainable paths, more such activity could increase “bottom-up pressure” and also encourage governments and international institutions to go forward with more sustainable policies.

Earlier this year, Munasinghe proposed to the United Nations the Millennium Consumption Goals, a complement to the Millennium Development Goals to help the world’s poor. Unlike the MDGs, the MCGs would be voluntary.

Though there are upsides to globalization for some, Munasinghe currently sees a “systematic crowding-out” of the world’s poor, not only in terms of their economic prosperity, but also their environmental welfare and social inclusion. Speaking during a plenary discussion on globally active corporations and human rights, Munasinghe said, “Sustainable development, which provides basic needs like food, water and energy and ensures survival and a decent standard of living, is a fundamental human right”.

In an interview, Munasinghe explained his view of the media’s role in sustainable development. He says the media play a critical role in communicating to the rich their responsibility to bring about change and that there is much at stake – not only for the poor but for the elite as well – if the current global system collapses. They would only need to make small changes with no great impact on their lifestyles by reducing consumption by about 10% – 15%. This would create more resources for the poor and allow for “managed change” which is much more preferable to unpredictable change.

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