Score the Goals
Encyclopedia
Score the Goals: Teaming Up to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals is an educational comic book
published by the :United Nations on 24 January 2011. The 32-page comic book features ten football players who are all UN Goodwill Ambassadors. The purpose of the comic book published in magazine format is to help the international organization in raising awareness in children – specifically those within the eight to fourteen year-old range – about the eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) and other "life values
" such as tolerance
, respect
, and team spirit
. The comic book was launched by the organization from its office in Geneva, Switzerland, namely the United Nations Office at Geneva
(UNOG).
, Roberto Baggio
, Michael Ballack
, Iker Casillas
, Didier Drogba
, Luís Figo
, Raúl González
, Ronaldo
, Patrick Vieira
, and Zinédine Zidane
.
The eight Millennium Development Goals are the following international development
goals:
, the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace. The launch of the comic book was coordinated by Antoine Tardy of the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP). According to Mr. Tardy, the ten featured football players are role models for children, and they have the “convening power” to reach out and convey important messages and key values to the world’s children. The publication was made possible through the partnership of different United Nations agencies, namely the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and the Stop TB Partnership. The project was implemented based on a “One-UN spirit”. The first ten thousand copies of Score the Goals was printed using recycled paper and vegetable ink at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The printed copies of the comic book were distributed worldwide through the offices of the collaborating agencies and other associates.
, French, and Spanish. The title of the comic book in French is Droit aux Buts: Faisons équipe pour atteindre les objectifs du millénaire pour le développement, while the Spanish title is Anota los Goles: Hagamos equipo para alcanzar los objetivos de dessarrollo del milenio. The comic book is now available also in Chinese, German and Korean. It will be published in the future in additional languages, including the two remaining official languages of the organization, namely Arabic
, and Russian,.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
published by the :United Nations on 24 January 2011. The 32-page comic book features ten football players who are all UN Goodwill Ambassadors. The purpose of the comic book published in magazine format is to help the international organization in raising awareness in children – specifically those within the eight to fourteen year-old range – about the eight Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...
(MDGs) and other "life values
Value of life
The potency of life is an economic value assigned to life in general, or to specific living organisms. In social and political sciences, it is the marginal cost of death prevention in a certain class of circumstances. As such, it is a statistical term, the cost of reducing the number of deaths by...
" such as tolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
, respect
Respect
Respect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
, and team spirit
Team Spirit
Team Spirit was a joint military training exercise of United States Forces Korea and the Military of South Korea held between 1976 and 1993. The exercise was scheduled from 1994 to 1996 but cancelled in each year as part of diplomacy to encourage the Government of North Korea to disable the North...
. The comic book was launched by the organization from its office in Geneva, Switzerland, namely the United Nations Office at Geneva
United Nations Office at Geneva
The United Nations Office at Geneva is the second-largest of the four major office sites of the United Nations...
(UNOG).
Characters
The ten football (soccer) players featured in Score the Goals include Emmanuel AdebayorEmmanuel Adebayor
Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor is a Togolese footballer who plays for Tottenham Hotspur as a striker on loan from Manchester City. He plays in the same position for the Togo national team. Adebayor previously played for Metz, Monaco and Arsenal and was voted African Footballer of the Year for 2008...
, Roberto Baggio
Roberto Baggio
Roberto Baggio is a retired Italian footballer. Widely regarded as one of the finest footballers of his generation, Baggio won both the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1993. He is the only Italian player ever to score in three World Cups. He is also one of the top 5 all-time...
, Michael Ballack
Michael Ballack
Michael Ballack is a German professional footballer, who is currently playing for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of his international team. Ballack has worn the number 13 shirt for every team he has played for except for Kaiserslautern...
, Iker Casillas
Íker Casillas
Iker Casillas Fernández is a Spanish football goalkeeper who plays for the Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and the Spanish national team, being the captain of both...
, Didier Drogba
Didier Drogba
Didier Yves Drogba Tébily is an Ivorian footballer who plays in the centre forward position. He currently plays for Chelsea in the Premier League, where he is deputy vice-captain, and is the captain and all-time top scorer of the Côte d'Ivoire national football team...
, Luís Figo
Luís Figo
Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo, OIH, is a Portuguese former international footballer. He played as a midfielder for Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Internazionale, during a career which spanned over a period of 20 years. He retired from football on 31 May 2009...
, Raúl González
Raúl González
Raúl González Blanco , known simply as Raúl, is a Spanish footballer who plays as a striker. He currently plays for German club Schalke 04....
, Ronaldo
Ronaldo
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima , commonly known as Ronaldo, is a retired Brazilian footballer who last played for Corinthians. Ronaldo is widely considered to be the greatest 'pure' striker in the history of the modern game, and by some accounts, in the history of football. Ronaldo was one of the...
, Patrick Vieira
Patrick Vieira
Patrick Vieira is a retired French footballer of Senegalese descent who is the Football Development Executive at Manchester City....
, and Zinédine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane is a retired French footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Zidane was a leading figure of a generation of French players that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship...
.
Plot
Based on the fictional narrative, the football players and other crew of a ship are shipwrecked on an island while on the way to an "all-star" charity football game. While stranded, the whole crew tackles the eight Millennium Development Goals, until rescued. The shipwrecked team copes on the deserted island through the use of team spirit and survivor skills.Millennium Development Goals
The launching of Score the Goals is related to the gathering of world leaders in 2000 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. During that event, 189 member nations adopted the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations. Through the Millennium Declaration, the endorsing nations committed to a global partnership that will reduce extreme poverty. The reduction of extreme poverty was to be implemented through a series of objectives that came to be known as the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs that will help reduce global poverty by half are expected to be completed by the year 2015.The eight Millennium Development Goals are the following international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...
goals:
- Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
- Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
- Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates
- Goal 5: Improve maternal health
- Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
- Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Launch and distribution
Score the Goals was launched, on behalf of the collaborating agencies, by Real Madrid goalkeeper from Spain and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Iker Casillas, together with Wilfried LemkeWilfried Lemke
Wilfried Lemke currently serves as United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace. He was appointed to the position by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 18 March 2008....
, the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace. The launch of the comic book was coordinated by Antoine Tardy of the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP). According to Mr. Tardy, the ten featured football players are role models for children, and they have the “convening power” to reach out and convey important messages and key values to the world’s children. The publication was made possible through the partnership of different United Nations agencies, namely the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and the Stop TB Partnership. The project was implemented based on a “One-UN spirit”. The first ten thousand copies of Score the Goals was printed using recycled paper and vegetable ink at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The printed copies of the comic book were distributed worldwide through the offices of the collaborating agencies and other associates.
Languages
Score the Goals was first launched in three official languages of the United Nations, namely EnglishBritish English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
, French, and Spanish. The title of the comic book in French is Droit aux Buts: Faisons équipe pour atteindre les objectifs du millénaire pour le développement, while the Spanish title is Anota los Goles: Hagamos equipo para alcanzar los objetivos de dessarrollo del milenio. The comic book is now available also in Chinese, German and Korean. It will be published in the future in additional languages, including the two remaining official languages of the organization, namely Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, and Russian,.
Significance
Apart from entertaining and teaching children about the Millennium Development Goals – through a fun and interactive method of familiarizing kids and reflect upon the MDGs – the comic book featured educational activities contained in the comic book. Through this educational guide, the children learn about issues and challenges such as how to end hunger, how to educate the public about HIV, and how to provide and maintain universal education, gender equity, maternal and child health, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. According to football star and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Michael Ballack, he believes that all people should have equal access to information. Ballack hopes that Score the Goals will be able to reach and educate a large number of young readers, particularly about the accurate information on HIV.See also
- United Nations in popular cultureUnited Nations in popular culturePopular culture references to the United Nations have been made in several media, including film, books, video games, and others. In many instances, the United Nations will figure in a storyline...
- U.N. ForceU.N. ForceThe U.N. Force is a fictional team of comic book superheroes created in 1993 by Brent Carpenter for Caliber Comics - under the Gauntlet Comics imprint - featuring an assembly of leading scientists selected from the United Nations...
- Stormwatch (comics)Stormwatch (comics)Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that originated in the Wildstorm Universe and has since been revived as part of the DC Universe. The original version of Stormwatch first appeared in Stormwatch Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that...
- First Lady of the WorldFirst Lady of the WorldFirst Lady of the World is an English-language novel written in 1991 by Robert Muller, a former Assistant-Secretary General of the United Nations. The 204-page novel was published in Anacortes, Washington in the United States by the World Happiness and Cooperation publishing company...
- Classics Illustrated Special The United Nations comic book
External links
- http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/sport/resourcecenter/comicbook/ Official page of the comic book, where all language versions are available in electronic format (low resolution .pdf files)
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/unosdp/sets/72157625787594651/ Photos of the launch event (© Antoine Tardy/UNOSDP)
- https://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/sport/home/newsandevents/news/template/news_item.jsp?cid=23487,Press Release of the launch event