From November 15 to 21, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in
Cambridge, USA, hosted the final round of the 1998 Junior Summit Forum.
For several months, teenagers from countries throughout the world had been
discussing their concerns by Internet. Ukraine, the only CIS country
participating in the forum, was represented by Sasha Haletska, a ninth-grade
student of Kyiv High School No.32.
In her electronic message to The Day, Sasha said, "There are
now almost one billion children aged 10 to 16 in the world. In a
few years, the future of our planet will be in their hands. This
is why people should hear their voices now."
The Boston area hosted those children whose ideas were recognized as
the most constructive and competitive. The conference participants
will send their proposals on improving information technologies to Nobel
Prize winners, leaders of the large developed countries, and heads of the
largest information corporations.
The Day has contacted by e-mail its regular reader George Nicholson,
Professor of Business Communication at Emerson College, Boston, with a
request to comment on Sasha's letter.
"I have been researching problems of international communications for
twenty years now," he immediately responded. "At a recent international
conference, I pointed out that participation in the Internet is a major
democratic accomplishment for the Central and East European countries.
Some of my colleagues were skeptical about the idea. Frankly speaking,
many technological breakthroughs of the twentieth century are often identified
as American (Hollywood, McDonalds, etc.)
"Yet, today I received an e-mail message from you about a Ukrainian
schoolgirl coming to my city to take part in an international conference
of school students on Internet issues. Any commentary would be redundant.
I believe that, no doubt, the young talented Ukrainian and her peers represent
the very generation of Internet democratic users that is being so much
talked about today (and on which we count so much in the future).
"In conclusion, I would like to wish my Ukrainian colleagues fruitful
work in the new democratic Internet of the twenty-first century.
"PS: Taking the opportunity, I would also like to inform The Day's
editorial office that I am pleased to visit the paper's web-site where
I can always get last news on Ukraine in English."







