Kind thoughts for Meghan Markle - Podcast 137 – Meghan Markle & Prince Harry make new grants to organizations working to improve our digital community

Podcast 137 – Meghan Markle & Prince Harry make new grants to organizations working to improve our digital community

04/13/22 • 4 min

At a time when we are constantly bombarded with hateful and polarized media and social media commentary and when it is becoming increasingly difficulty to sort out the real news from the fake, Meghan and Harry have issued a couple of new charitable grants, re-committing themselves "to convening, bridging, and accelerating leaders, ideas, and solutions for an online community rooted in equity, safety, participation, and belonging."

In the statement released on their Archewell website Meghan and Harry admit that technology has changed how we all experience everyday life: connecting us and at times making our lives more productive.

Meghan and Harry also point out the down side of increased use of social media and other technologies, including our "lack of trust in the information we read and view, the safety and health of our kids being placed at risk, civil rights and human rights being threatened, and marginalized communities being targeted by a barrage of hate and vitriol."

Meghan and Harry write that they feel that many of the underlying societal issues created by technology remain unaddressed. Hence their existing work with various organizations and academics working in the field such as the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2), Color Of Change and URL Media and now the new grants that Meghan and Harry announced this week to Cortico’s Local Voices Network https://cortico.ai/ and the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/programs/institute-rebooting-social-media

Cortico Community Local Voices Network is an initiative that is working in cooperation with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. What they do is record small-group conversations in various communities when the participants discuss their lives and experiences. Think of what they do as a lot of separate interviews and discussions, say with local government or community groups and non-profits, similar to what you might have heard in the past on a local radio or TV show. Cortico collect and store these conversations on a searchable library using artificial intelligence (AI) tools that allow search by topic or key words or even by speaker.

The second new grant announced by Meghan and Harry is to the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Meghan and Harry are helping to fund a new three-year initiative, in work that is addressing urgent concerns surrounding social media, including hate speech and harassment, misinformation and privacy.

Meghan and Harry are also supporting what is called the Rebooting Social Media Assembly Fellowship during the 2022-2023 academic year. The fellowship will bring together renowned experts and new innovators from diverse backgrounds to address the challenges and opportunities of social media.

Meghan and Harry have said before and they reiterate in this week’s statement, that they believe new innovations in technology and media "should strengthen our communities, empower families, restore trust in information, and ensure that all of us can experience a better and safer world online."

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili. Reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter

Show written and produced by Jeanette Songolo.
Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili and in the meantime watch out for other posts on all things Sussex on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili. Reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter

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Podcast 136 – Countdown to Prince Harry’s Invictus Games The Hague

The countdown is on to the start of the Invictus Games that are taking place this year at The Hague in the Netherlands. The opening ceremony and a few sporting events take place on Easter Saturday, continuing thereafter up to the closing ceremony on Friday April 22nd, 2022.

The Invictus Games, founded by Prince Harry and based on the US Warrior Games, are designed for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans. The idea is to use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and to generate a wider public understanding, acceptance and respect for those servicemen and women who are injured while serving their country.

Meghan Markle accompanied Harry to the Sydney Games in 2018. We have heard that she will be travelling with Harry to the Hague Games this year.

The Games will take place in the existing Zuiderpark or South Park in the Hague, an area established in the city in 1936, where recreational, sporting events and outdoor concerts are often held. Approximately 700 volunteers will be helping out during the week-long Games.

So, what can you expect to see at the event? There will be the more traditional athletics, powerlifting, cycling, and swimming as well as wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, and one of my favourites the indoor rowing. This year, they have added a Land Rover Driving Challenge that sees competitors drive through a series of obstacles in the right order from start to finish – a bit like a horse-jumping event but using Land Rovers.

Ticket prices to watch the competitions are modestly priced, with free access to other parts of the park and a Fanzone where the public can listen to music or take part in other side activities, all geared to accommodate people with disabilities.

Dutch Royalty are also taking part. Princess Margriet is honorary chairman of the Committee of Recommendation of the Invictus Games The Hague 2020, and she will be present at the one and a half-hour opening ceremony, which includes the flag parade similar to what takes place at the opening ceremony at the Olympics. King Willem-Alexander will attend the closing ceremony.

This will Meghan’s first official trip outside of the United States since she and Harry stepped back as senior working royals. According to media reports she and Harry will be joined by a Netflix documentary crew. This makes perfect sense as we know from Meghan and Harry’s Archewell website that their Archewell Production company is producing a documentary series called "Heart of Invictus," which will showcase stories about the Games, the competitors, and will follow some of the competitors on their journey leading up to and including taking part at The Hague 2020.
It will be great to see Meghan and Harry back in action.

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili. Reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/JeanetteSongolo

Next Episode

Podcast 138 – Meghan Markle & Prince Harry slipped into England for an Easter visit with the Queen - right under the noses of the press

On the Thursday evening before Good Friday many of us were knocking off work early so as to extend our Easter weekend as much as possible. As is my norm, I was keeping one eye on the Twitter feeds about all things Meghan and Harry when a story popped up on the My Royalty Account https://mobile.twitter.com/BurnerRoyalty a post by The UK Sun newspaper reporting that Meghan and Harry had been to visit with the Queen.

Tweeter went ballistic when shortly thereafter a spokesperson for Meghan and Harry confirmed that yes, they had indeed visited with the Queen, having stopped off in England on their way to Holland and to the Invictus Games at The Hague. Also confirming that the couple had spent Thursday morning in Windsor, England with the Queen, their first joint visit with her after more than two years apart.

So, what was all the fuss about you might say – nothing extra-ordinary about Harry visiting with his grandmother and taking his wife along?

And that might have been the case but for the way that some UK and Australian news outlets and so called Royal Experts, had been pillaring Meghan and Harry firstly for not attending Prince Phillips memorial service, and secondly the media had been widely reporting that Meghan and Harry were not planning to visit with the Queen whilst they were in Europe, reporting that Meghan and Harry would be 'snubbing' the Queen.

Even as Meghan and Harry were meeting with the Queen, the UK Daily Express newspaper was reporting on-line that Meghan and Harry were definitely not coming to visit. Oops.

What is also amusing about the report of the visit by Meghan and Harry with the Queen was the source of the news? Did it come from a royal correspondent or one of those numerous palace sources?

No it did not. News of Meghan and Harry’s visit would have gone completely unnoticed bar the fact that some sharp-eyed pensioners who happened to be at Windsor Castle that day to collect their Maundy Thursday gifts from Prince Charles and Camilla, for their contributions to the community, had spotted Meghan and Harry walking on the grounds of Windsor Castle while the pensioners were being transported away from the Maundy Thursday service by bus.

What is known, is that the UK media were covering the Maundy Thursday event and so it is even more amusing that Meghan and Harry’s visit went unnoticed.

What the story also tells us is that far from being the attention seeking couple that the UK media like to portray, Meghan and Harry are able to keep things low key and secret from the press. Afterall, they managed to book an appointment with the Queen, fly to England, travel to Windsor Castle, meet with the Queen, fly out of England and arrive in Holland before anyone had got wind of the trip. But for the eagle eyes of the pensioners none of us would have been the wiser.

Catching a glimpse of Meghan and Harry as well as meeting with Prince Charles and Camilla certainly made these seniors day out even more special. A perfect start to their Easter weekend.