The winning video was about ethics - not poverty. He is definitely articulate and well-spoken. But, it's clear the youtube community was not a factor in this decision. They might as well have just asked us to send our videos by email instead of bothering to do this on YouTube at all.

Thanks Steve. As upset and sad as I am about this - what gets me is that their pick completely and utterly ignores the input from the YouTube community. They might as well have done this off-site and/or by emailing our video files instead.

The transition to the new comment system broke some of Kathy's links. I'm reposting them here:

http://narijibon.blogspot.com/2008/07/some-result...
and
http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2008/07...

Thanks again Kathy for all you do! :)

- Shawn

Hey David - it's always good to hear from the folks at Save the Children. The one big contact I know at the UK branch is Nick Downie. If you see him before you head to SC India - please tell him I said hi :) And I'd love to stay in touch because I'm always looking for opportunities to team up with Save the Children whenever possible :)

Hi Ferdaus :) There definitely have been good comments. The best, by far, have been from people who are too poor to access YouTube. The Bangladeshi comments I get on YouTube are - of course - from those rich enough to own a computer and/or have access to the internet. There are positive comments from Bengalis, but I am genuinely surprised at how many negative comments come from (rich) Bengalis.

And I lived in Bangladesh for over a year on a budget not much more than $100. I, for one, thought I was accustomed to a Toronto lifestyle. But I learned to do without electricity, without hot running water (or any running water), without toilets, and in places infested with roaches. So don't think me too accustomed to Toronto living! :P

Hi Alicia! If you can vouch for this person and you think his would be a safe place to stay - than by all means! Please feel free to Facebook message me the details!

Hey Ken! I can do blood tests here and in Bangladesh to monitor my iron levels. But finding water with low iron maybe tricky. You see boiling water kills off the germs - but actually concentrates dissolved metals. So I'd be concentrating the water and making it worse! haha.

This is very important to me and - as long as there is an ounce of financial ability - I don't want to stop doing this...

Hey Stephanie :) I can use all the help I can get to grow this project. But I have to mention that I'm not a formal charity - I'm just a guy. Your school may prefer to donate to a registered charity instead.

But even more important than donations is helping to build momentum for this project. If you can get your friends to start watching my videos on YouTube, getting them to subscribe, and sharing it with others - that helps this project build momentum :)

Thank you for not labeling me a "hero" or anything superfluous like that :)

It was a bit slow for my liking. It comes out like a trickle - kind of like a Brita filter or some coffee makers. It's no different than some of those ceramic filters I saw in Bangladesh...

I guess the technology isn't advanced enough to purify the water at the same rate you pour it in :-(