Girls’ education in spotlight as Stephen Colbert and Norwegian PM ‘battle’ on Twitter
Girls' education
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It was the heavyweight bout of the year. Stephen Colbert versus Erna Solberg. The comedian and host of American TV鈥檚 The Late Show against the Prime Minister of Norway.
And the winner was 鈥 girls鈥 education!
These unlikely opponents swapped blows in a light-hearted exchange this week. Here鈥檚 how the action unfolded.
Stephen is the host of the 听in New York鈥檚 Central Park on September 26.
On August 17, Stephen makes this video for the Global Citizen website. At the one minute 30 mark, he explains why it is important to support funding for the . He says听giving girls equal access to education worldwide is 鈥渢he right thing to do鈥.
Around the world, 31 million girls don鈥檛 go to primary school and 62 million miss out on secondary school 鈥 because of factors such as child marriage, child labour and discrimination. Achieving gender equality and empowering girls and women are among to be agreed by the United Nations in September.听A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five and one additional year of schooling can increase a woman鈥檚 earnings by up to 20%.
In his video, Stephen tells people to 鈥渋nvade Norway鈥 鈥 by sending tweets to Erna. He ends the film by tucking into a plate of lutefisk while listening to Norwegian death metal.
And he backs up his call by making the same plea to his 8.7 million Twitter followers.
Ask to support girls鈥 education! I can teach drama and pre-cal, but I鈥檓 only one man.
鈥 Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome)
Why Norway? Because the Scandinavian country already is a world leader in funding global education. It hosted the Oslo Education Summit in July 鈥 at which affecting the campaign to get every child into school. Stephen reasons that where Norway goes, the rest of the world will follow.
So hundreds of thousands of tweets and emails flood in for the Norwegian PM. She says: 鈥淭hank you for your messages. You鈥檝e managed to clog my Twitter feed.鈥 And she makes this YouTube reply to Stephen.
She tells him: 鈥淏ut even the Vikings of Norway can鈥檛 do it alone, Stephen.听That鈥檚 why we encourage other countries, private companies and key partners to do more.鈥
The American TV star is delighted by her response. He tweets this message.
Norwegian PM is supporting girls鈥 education and has replaced Thor as my favorite Norwegian!
鈥 Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome)
And then Global Citizen confirms this breaking news about the New York festival.
AMAZING! You sent 100K+ tweets, emails & voice messages to 鈥 today they all paid off!
鈥 Global Citizen (@GlblCtzn)
So the cause of girls鈥 education gets a worldwide audience thanks to this bizarre exchange. You can . And if you don鈥檛 know what lutefisk is, here鈥檚 good old Wikipedia with the answer.
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