What happens to a premature baby that is born in a rural area some distance from a hospital? How to keep an at-risk baby warm without a $25,000 incubator? The answer is a $25 incubator pouch that can be heated in boiling water, made of materials that maintain warmth for a longer time. To see a presentation go to http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/21/a-25-baby-incubator.html.
30 year old Bashonti, resident of Noorgunj, a tiny village in the rural recesses of Bangladesh, probably has one of the greenest jobs in the world. She makes a living out of trapping and selling solar power. She knows little about the ongoing global debate on sustainable development and will probably stare blankly if someone tells her that governments across the planet are investing billions and billions of dollars to promote renewable energy production. But she will confidently rattle off the details of the 120 watt solar panel (including a battery!) installed at home, and how she earns more than 5000 takas every month assembling cooking stoves and mobile chargers that are powered by the sun. Once famous for its juicy jackfruits, Noorgunj, is now known in the region for its solar panel-dotted rooftops and solar entrepreneurs who are using sunlight as their core capital. – (names changed)
Some supermarkets ask “Paper or Plastic” at the check out. Better still some shoppers take their own reusable bags with them. When Clare Hopkins encountered the www.morsbags.com site she learned that all over the world 1 millions plastic bags are used per minute. Many are concerned with the environmental impact, particularly on marine animals who ingest these bags and die.
And so 18 months ago Clare formed a group of people who meet regularly to make fabric bags from fabric given to them by the local charity shop. So far they have made and given away over 1000 bags. Their aim is to make their village plastic-bag free this year and they are well on track.
Lots of other benefits have come about, as Clare writes “we’ve met women we never would have come into contact with, shared stories, taught women to sew and learned sewing and general life skills and tips from each other. We’ve raised awareness about the sad dumping of fabric into landfill and the endless misuse of resources to make ‘new’ things….water, chemicals, power to weave new fabrics etc etc”
Francie White has written with a suggestion and a question.
Some time ago she and her 17 year old saw a documentary about saw a documentary about an African refugee and recalled vividly the unbelievable boredom of the hundreds of youths with absolutely nothing to do.
Her son has been playing with a newer type of frisbee, one that is extremely easy to throw accurately, called an Aerobie. He is interested in buying a slew of them (through fundraising) to send to such a refugee camp. If that sounds acceptable, we are looking for
a camp to begin with, and refugee international did not respond to our
question, despite the donation we sent. Anyone have a thought?
Thank you,
Francie White
Henry Louis Gates Jr, a professor at Harvard University was locked out of his home and attempted to force the door, accompanied by the cab drive. It so happens that Gates is black and the driver was from Morocco. Seeing what was happening a neighbour telephoned the police.Sgt James Crowley arrived at the scene and a heated exchange took place to the point where Gates was arrested.
When asked about the incident President Obama said that the police “acted stupidly”. This in turn gave rise to a heated debate amongst the public on racial profiling.
How to resolve the conflict? Obama has invited the two men to have a beer at the White House! The professor drinks Blue Moon beer, the policeman, Red Stripe. Obama is having a Bud.
Colin Tudge, author of “Feeding People is Easy” (Pari Publishing, 2007) has a new Blog at http://campaignforrealfarming.blogspot.com/
Take a look.
Teddie Potter has sent me the following story:
A few years ago Teddie heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at the University of Minnesota. He described being a small boy growing up under apartheid in South Africa. His mother was the household manager for a wealthy family and whenever the family hosted a guest, the entire staff were told to dress in their finest uniforms and formally line the front walk into the home. However it was always the case that visiting whites simply walked right past the staff not making any eye contact and acting as if these employees did not exist.
On one occasion, however, the family hosted a well known priest. He appeared in his long black cassock and broad brimmed hat. Little Desmond stood next to his mother and observed when the priest reached his mother he looked her in the eye, took off his hat and saluted her. That simple act of human dignity sowed a seed in the heart and mind of young Desmond Tutu. He now believed it possible for things to change. And the rest is history
This story rocked Teddie’s world for while we may wonder how we can be agents of change in a desperate world, Teddie is certain a big change is possible through even the smallest acts of love and respect. “We are all capable of sowing these seeds.”
Tim Smit of the UK’s Eden Project hit upon the idea of “the Big Lunch”. He and his colleagues had noted how communities were becoming increasingly fragmented, many people no longer knew their neighbours and in turn felt isolated. And so the Eden Project proposed that on Sunday July 19 of this year people should go into the streets and eat lunch together.
Although I do not yet know the actual numbers involved it appears that in most major cities hundreds of people turned out to each lunch together and this was repeated in smaller communities.
The Eden project, and those supporting, The Big Lunch, are also encouraging people to grow their own food and flowers, to share seeds, make street art, form bands and reclaim the street as a place to tell stories.
You can see more at http://www.thebiglunch.com/big-idea/what-is
Richard Morris Rodriques Jr recently sent me some additional information on Rosa Parkes who in December 1955 was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her action acted as a powerful catalyst in the Civil Rights movement.
Earlier the same year Parkes, who was also secretary to the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, had attended a workshop on school desegration run by the Highlander Folk School.
Highlander was founded in 1932 in order to help the labor movement in the south east United States but in 1953 changed its focus towards Civil Rights. While it is certainly true that Parks felt tired after a day’s work when she refused to give up her seat she had already been sensitized to issues of civil rights.
In my book on Gentle Action it attribute the Each One Teach One to Paolo Freire. Now while Friere’s work in Brazil and Chile was enormously influential in fact he was not the person who was originally responsible for the movement.
Having heard the recent New Dimensions Radio interview on Gentle Action, Juliette Mondot wrote to me:-
“I have just enjoyed listening to your interview on NPR. I would like to correct one bit of misinformation. Each One Teach One was actually introduced as a concept before WWII by Dr. Frank Laubach the great pioneer in adult literacy whose mission to the Moro tribe in the Philipines resulted in his world wide literacy work. When the depression happened and Dr. Laubach had to stop paying his literacy teachers to the Muslim tribes, a Muslim Village elder announced that the literacy lessons would not end because of the lack of money, rather that each one who learned to read and write would teach another. Hence, the Each One Teach One concept was started. I heard this story from the lips of Dr. Bob Laubach, Dr. Frank’s wonderful son who is now in his 90s. The Laubach Literacy organization, headquartered in Syracuse New York can give you more information on this remarkable work.”
After hearing the New Dimensions interview with David Peat Jerry Elli wrote to Gentle Actions with the following story:-
“In 1985 I moved to LA to try to get produced a film about the Cherokee Trail of Tears, where in 1838 the entire Cherokee Nation of 16,000 people, living in a sovereign nation, were imprisoned in 31 concentration camps by 7,000 armed US soldiers and marched 900 miles to Oklahoma. 4,000 Indians, mostly children and the elderly, died along the way and were buried in shallow unmarked graves. This route became known as the Trail of Tears.
Those in LA didn’t think that Americans cared enough about this history and inhumanity to see a film about it. (Recall this is before the movie, DANCES WITH WOLVES.)
I was heart-broken, feeling total despair, and lost at what I could do to tell the world about the story of the Cherokee Nation. I decided to take a leap of faith and trust in my fellow man: I sold everything I owned (which was little) and took a bus to Oklahoma. There I began to walk in reverse the Trail of Tears, talking to all I met and recording their stories of modern day America and how they felt about the Trail of Tears and what it said about mankind. Many of these strangers feed me and some gave me a place to sleep for the night. Most of the time I simple slept in a small tent setup in the woods or meadows along the way.
It was a spiritual journey for me and I returned home, Fort Payne, Alabama, site of one of the 31 concentration camps, feeling grace, power and beauty from the gentle and loving people I met along the way. I was again in touch with God.
I wrote a book about my journey and the manuscript instantly aroused a bidding war among publishers in New York. First published in 1991 by Delacorte Press, the book, WALKING THE TRAIL, ONE MAN’S JOURNEY ALONG THE CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It is still in print today and is required reading in some schools across America. I have given presentations about the gentle act of walking, listening, believing and writing in Asia, Europe, Africa and throughout the USA.
I can hardly imagine where my life would be today if I had not taken that first step down the Trail. Those footsteps, however, have been heard around the world as even 18 years after the book’s release I still get letters and emails embracing the story’s gentle but life-altering action. Others, in their own ways, have gained the courage to walk their own trails.
New Dimensions features an interview with F. David Peat
On its worldwide broadcast schedule, in July
“Quantum Change” Hosted by Michael Toms. Program 3298
It will be airing the week, July 15 through 21. You can hear it streaming for free on the New Dimensions website for two weeks beginning July 15 or you can download it for a small fee.
www.newdimensions.org
You can also hear it on a radio station close to you. . Go to “Listening Options” in their website for a list of stations and carry “New Dimensions.”. This interview as well as over eight hundred others are part of their wonderful archive. New Dimensions is working in partnership with Stanford University Library to digitize their entire archive of over 8000 hours of deep dialogues with hundreds of the most innovative movers and shakers on the planet. More hours are added to the archive every week.
See a new case history- Project Hope and Fairness – on the Gentle Action website. Helping Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast and Ghana.
At Book Aid International, we know that books change lives. We are dedicated to increasing access to books to support literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa, in some of the poorest countries in the world. Every year, we send around half a million brand new and carefully selected books to our partners overseas, which are read over and over again by millions of readers. All our books are either donated by UK publishers or purchased locally, so every book we send is of the highest quality. In villages and cities, refugee camps and reading rooms, schools and universities, Book Aid International books are giving people the chance to learn and to build themselves brighter futures.
Each book we send costs us only around £2 to source, ship and deliver – so with a monthly donation of just £6, you could to provide around 36 books worth £400 every year to some of the poorest countries in the world.
Visit www.bookaid.org to donate and find out how you can help us to change lives.
We know that the world is changing, and changing quickly. But do we really realize how fast that change is occuring?
